Insecurity remains the biggest challenge and one of the major reasons we are where we are today. Insecurity is the major reason we are experiencing food scarcity and the very high cost of living. Insecurity is a major factor militating against our march to industrialisation and development. Insecurity is retarding our planned development of tourism as a major money-spinning sector to boost our dwindling foreign exchange earnings.
Insecurity is the reason lots of intending investors are looking elsewhere to invest. Insecurity is second only to corruption as two of the biggest challenges facing Nigeria today.
Sadly, the approach of the federal government in fighting insecurity has not been encouraging. Rather than treat the fight against insecurity dispassionately and decisively we have allowed cronyism, religious sentiment and corruption to prevent us from winning the fight.
The fight against insecurity has become another conduit pipe for siphoning public funds by politicians and the military who have made criminal enterprise of the fight against insecurity. For them, it is an opportunity to get their own share of the national cake. Who then will bell the cat?
A few years ago, a worried government official in Borno was lamenting why the fight against insecurity has not only remained but was not likely to end any time soon.
He said in spite of the billions of naira being spent, little success was being recorded because of the selfishness of some politicians and military officers. For them, it is an avenue to make a killing while they are in charge.
Sambo Dasuki, former national security adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, during his trial under President Buhari, had revealed how money meant for the fight against Boko Haram insurgency were diverted to other use.
While denying embezzling £1.4bn intended to purchase arms to fight the terror group Boko Haram, he said some of the money was diverted on the then president’s order to try to get himself re-elected.
Dasuki said $47m (£31m) was withdrawn from the Central Bank on Jonathan’s orders to pay delegates to nominate him to run for re-election as his party’s candidate.
Dasuki’s allegation was submitted in a written statement before he was charged at the federal high court with 19 counts of money laundering and criminal breach of trust connected to the disappearance of state funds.
Under Muhammadu Buhari, there was a complete breakdown of law and order. It was a period when corruption, tribalism, religious bigotry, cronyism got into the mix and insecurity became not just monstrous but also enjoyed national spread.
No part of this nation was spared. From top north to down south, it was a reign of terror for these felons.
While the Boko Haram insurgents held sway in the northeast, bandits were in charge in the northwest, killer herders roamed unrestrained from the length and breadth of the nation. In the south east, ‘unknown’ gunmen reigned. In the north-central is milieu where killings in hundreds no longer attract national opprobrium, Before long, the southwest and south south that were relatively peaceful started experiencing killings and kidnappings by suspected killer herders who have a sanctuary in our forests and were sacking people from their ancestral homes.
Everything said here has been said over and over again. There is nothing new, but the threat still remains. For as long as the effect of the government seems not to be making as much impact as should be expected, we cannot but keep saying this repeatedly.
On August 16, gunmen abducted 20 medical and dental students of the University of Maiduguri and University of Jos in the Otukpo area of Benue state.
The students were on their way to the annual convention of the Federation of Catholic Medical and Dental Students in Enugu.
Exactly one week after, last Friday, the students and some other victims were all rescued by the police. The police said no ransom was paid. That should not matter much to us for now so long as the victims have been rescued. This is one of those rare cases of a happy ending for the victims of kidnappers.
For Alhaji Isa Bawa, the emir of Gobir in Sokoto state, he was not as fortunate. He was brutally murdered last Wednesday by his abductors following delays to pay a ransom, despite ongoing negotiations. Bawa, 73, and his son were abducted in July while traveling from Sokoto to Sabon Birni near the Niger border. The abductors were said to have demanded a large amount for their release.
The monarch had appeared in a video days earlier, appealing for his release after his captors threatened to kill him should a ransom not be paid by Tuesday. By Wednesday, the next day, the abductors made good their threat. Sad!
President Bola Tinubu condemned the killing, assuring Nigerians that his administration is “aggressively removing threats to ensure the security of the nation and that these desperate acts of terror will be effectively countered.” In March this year, the village head of Riruwai in Lame District of Bauchi Emirate in Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Garba Badamasi was murdered after he was kidnapped from his palace three days earlier.
Badamasi was found dead near the village.
According to data from Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited by April, 2,583 Nigerians had been killed, 2,164 abducted in three months in the first quarter of this year. Between then and now the list would have further risen.
As was typical of President Muhammadu Buhari, President Tinubu has promised to secure the nation, but how far he is prepared to go would be seen in the days to come. One thing for sure, the rate of terrorism and killings is not abating yet.
One thing for sure, the present approach of not going after the kingpins of these terror groups would only be scratching the surface. The real issue is; who are those behind these groups? Who are their real sponsors? When will we begin to go after them? When will we begin to name and shame them? When will they have their day in court?
As we argued recently, the optics do not look pretty for the federal government if some members of the cabinet, having been fingered as having dealings with suspected terrorists, are still retaining their seats. We can not be repeating the same thing and expect different outcomes. Jonathan had lamented that the federal government had been infiltrated by members of terrorist groups. Buhari came and had enough clues to the presence of such persons, but chose to look the other way, and the extant government seems to be also following that same trajectory. Until you hunt the kingpins fighting terrorism as we do now would remain a mirage.
Occasionally killing and parading malnourished and unkempt miscreants as terrorists, is as ineffectual as using baskets to fetch water from the sea. How far can Tinubu go to do things differently from Buhari? It is not enough to make threats not backed by deliberate, conscious and dispassionate approach in the fight against terror.
