The tension in the land and palpable fears or apprehension are so thick that one can literally slice it with a knife. I can’t recall any time when fear over the activities of criminals or non-state actors has instilled so much fear in the people as we are currently experiencing.
Imagine children not going to school or sent home for fear of kidnappers or people afraid of going out because bandits and terrorists are said to be lurking.
The nearest to this situation I can recall was perhaps during the reign of terror by Lawrence Anini and Monday Osunbor; an armed robbery gang that was ascribed with so much mysterious powers that the mere mention of Anini visiting any state was enough to shut down such state. Everyone will be scrambling home, and commercial activities will immediately be shut down.
I recall a particular day when there was the rumoured coming of Anini to Oyo State. When the story went wild on the streets of Ibadan, everyone left whatever they were doing or closed their shops and began heading back home.
At last, what it all came down to was a case of common criminals who, with the connivance or collusion of state security operatives, were getting privileged information from the same police, who were supposed to be protecting the people, to evade arrests.
As it turned out later, Anini was an ordinary coward who had guns and police informants. His supposed invincibility was a hoax after all, as he cried like a baby and begged for his life after his arrest. He was eventually publicly executed.
The Anini experience will pale into insignificance when compared with the growing ugly trend of insecurity that pervades the country currently.
Today, there is tension, and everyone is apprehensive. Until only a few years ago, when this mindless bloodletting started, we lived together as neighbours, and we travelled freely across the country. We had as friends people from across different religions and tribes. Politics and insecurity have now succeeded in putting a wedge in between us.
Politicians play up our religious and ethnic differences to gain office, and when there, they also manipulate these same fault lines to remain in office.
However, the growing tendency to treat every northerner, especially those of the Fulani stock, when they move in a group, as bandits and terrorists, is worrisome.
The recent heightened fear in the South West as a result of the activities of murderers and kidnappers has ensured that everywhere they are seen, the first reaction is that they may be terrorists. This must be stopped, and this can only be stopped when the fight against kidnappings, banditry, and terrorism is won.
At present, the optics are not right, and the people are not convinced of the genuineness of the intention of the Federal Government, including the legislature, to fight these lawbreakers.
The seemingly intractable war against terrorism is because they have infiltrated all levels of the government and the military. The attractive alternative, as a result, is the tendency of the people to seek self-help, and this can be dangerous.
Last week, the Senate refused to back the call of Senator Adams Oshiomhole to audit the expenditures of the military. Why the Senate did not see it as expedient to do so should baffle any Nigerian with good intentions. If this exercise cannot be done at the plenary, at least, they should have considered it in a closed door session or committee level.
How can we be fighting a seemingly endless fight against terrorism and we cannot say for certain if the men and women we are pushing to confront these bloodthirsty criminals as soldiers are getting the required support of both finance and logistics needed to enable them win the fight?
What is the Senate, as led by Senator Godswill Akpabio, afraid of? Certainly, this must be the will of some people who have something to hide and not God’s will.
President Bola Tinubu must take full responsibility for this. Political correctness has no place whatsoever in this.
For too long, we have asked to know who the real men behind these masks are? Who are those sponsoring them, and who are those benefiting from our misfortunes? Is it possible that there may be some form of collusion and complicity between some politicians and the military top brass to shortchange and undermine the system? Why should an ordinary audit not enjoy the overwhelming support of the National Assembly? Are there some terrorism and banditry sympathisers and financiers or enablers among them?
Or is the claim by some people that the president is more preoccupied with his second term pursuit to want to ruffle any feathers for now be true? Are we going to continue in this atmosphere of fear and mutual suspicions and wanton killings and kidnappings until next year after the elections?
Last week, some of the terrorists who invaded and killed worshippers in a Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, were sentenced to death by hanging. Thank God.
The mere thought of how those innocent people were blown into pieces with some of their body parts hanging in the ceiling of the church building still gives one goosebumps till this day.
The Ondo State government led by Lucky Aiyedatiwa should summarily ensure their immediate public execution. These are not the best of times to want to begin to placate any group of people or power brokers.
This is the time to send the right signals to all and sundry that the law is not a respecter of anyone. This is the time to tell those who are involved in all of these, both lowly and highly placed, that this is the fate that awaits such offenders.
The immediate execution of the judgement will also send a strong notice to those terrorising the rest of us, their enablers in and out of government, that it is no longer business as usual. It will reassure the masses that the federal and state governments are now more determined to fight terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and all forms of criminality.
And like the case of Anini, it will demystify and expose these criminals as cowards that have only benefited from the support of the corruption that pervades our land. Only an outright public execution of condemned terrorists can achieve this. Leaving them on death row would see them being pardoned by their sympathisers before long or being freed by their colleagues in jailbreaks.
Are we ready to take that big decision? Sadly, it does not appear so. Not with the Minister of Defence and the President’s Security Adviser addressing these scoundrels and mass murderers as our brothers and prodigal sons.
