MUST OUR LEADERS HAVE CONVOYS?

By Nnamdi Nwigwe

nwigwennamdi@yahoo.co.uk

G.S.M: 08037024609

Is it necessary that our leaders should always be accompanied by convoys?

The answer is “Yes!” They need convoys, especially when they are on official assignments.

But let it be quickly explained that what we have in our country today, a long caravan of vehicles carrying security people, media corps, medical team, officials and officers following a leader, does not actually translate to a convoy.

It is not any more a convoy when all this wastage is paraded on the streets as a Governor, for instance, travels out or returns and government is shut down because officials have gone to see him off at the airport or to welcome him on his return. We shall come to that later.

Let’s discuss “Convoys” that seem to be causing us a lot of headaches lately.

The most recent convoy Wahala is that involving the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero.

Mindless criminals attacked the Emir’s convoy inKanoon Saturday, January 19, 2013 and killed his driver and two other aides while the traditional ruler and a son of his escaped with injuries.

The Emir is reported to have since travelled out of the country for a “better medical attention.”

Until the Kano incident, a recent convoy story was the one in which the accompanying personnel of the Governor of Imo State Owelle Rochas Okorocha, and the Imo East Senator, Mrs. Chris Anyanwu, nearly resorted to a shootout at Azaraegbelu, on Owerri-Umuahia Highway.

In the past Governors and Commissioners had been involved in auto crashes as they rode in so-called convoys.

Very little is hard of numerous other fatalities of convoys of high ranking officials when little fries die or get maimed on their way to either collect their “Oga” or carry out some other message.

Their families are usually visited and given cheques and are soon forgotten.

But the recurring question is: “Should we continue with these convoy calamities?”

This time, our answer is “No!”

A convoy, to which a government leader is entitled, ought not to cause problems to anybody. It is a purely security matter that doesn’t call for all the dramatization and razzmatazz that we see in our country.

To convoy, according to the dictionary, is “to accompany for protection.” And in the days of prevalent piracy on the high seas, a convoy of war ships often guarded a fleet of merchant vessels.

For our politicians and even traditional rulers requiring security convoys, the ordinary passer-by may not even know of the presence of such protective accompaniment.

A Governor, who needs to address his people at a given venue, should be accompanied by his security details and can then be formally received by the relevant officials and political party leaders, where necessary, at the venue.

Road users and other citizens going about their businesses need not be harassed and chased around because a Governor is using the road.

Even when a Governor or President or any high civilian official requires moving around, they need only security convoys, of say, a pilot vehicle and a follow up team of not more than two or three accompanying vans with security and medical functionaries.

Our civilian, democratically elected political leaders don’t need speeding caravans to announce their presence.

Maybe, at rallies for campaigns or some social events, they may flater themselves with a cavalcade or a caravan of retinues who should drive slowly through the streets to receive the greetings and occasional handshakes of those that elected them into office.

But if there are security worries, then they should limit themselves to security convoys which should quietly and surreptitiously lead them to the venue of an event.

The conscription of most Commissioners, Special Advisers, Personal Assistants, all travelling in their individual official vehicles, to see off a Governor or President or welcome them is an unpardonable waste of public resources and precious man-hours.

A Governor does not require more Commissioners than say, that of Information and Special Duties, using one vehicle, to see him off or to welcome him.

The chief press secretary should go ahead with the other members of the Press and not wait to join a convoy travelling at breakneck speeds and irritating sirens.

The Commissioner of Police and the Army Commander know what a security convoy means. Never mind that they have joined the politicians in blaring unnecessary sirens as they are escorted to their offices or residences.

There are scores of scowling security men and women in and around the government houses, both trained and untrained.

They ought to let their big “ogas” know that a large caravan of vehicles speeding through the streets with howling sirens is anything but security.