In late July and barely few hours after terrorists threatened to abduct Nigeria’s President and Commander-in-Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari and Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el’Rufai, in a viral video, troops of the elite Presidential Guards Brigade were ambushed and attacked by terrorists along the Bwari-Kubwa road where a Captain, Lieutenant and six soldiers reportedly lost their lives in the capital city of Abuja.
An aspect of the narratives indicated that one of the terrorists’ targets, in that major onslaught against the Nigeria government, was the campus of Nigerian Law School in Bwari.
For fear of further attacks, management closed down schools in Abuja and communicated parents on the urgent need to take their children home.
Veritas University, a Roman Catholic owned Institution, located in Bwari Local Government Council of Abuja, also shut down academic activities following security reports indicating that terrorists could attack and abduct students of the school after foiled attempt at the Nigerian Law School, sited some few kilometres apart.
In like manner, the Federal Ministry of Education, for fear of possible bandits and terrorists’ attacks, ordered the immediate closure of all unity schools domiciled in Abuja and evacuation of students.
Before then, Islamic State West Africa Province militants, a breakaway faction of Boko Haram, had attacked the Presidential Advance Team to Katsina State just before the last Sallah Holidays.
Within the same period under review, specifically in the first week of July, ISWAP terrorists used explosives and sophisticated guns to attack Kuje Prison and set free a number of detained terrorists in the facility in Abuja.
About six cars and buses were damaged during the attack. Four prisoners and a security official were also killed.
Over 800 prison inmates escaped during the attack with about half of them still at large. Those still at large include over 60 Boko Haram suspects.
Without doubt, the fall of Abuja to terrorists is the peak of humiliation as a country.
The tactless and amoebic defense and security arrangement, implemented by Nigerian security chiefs have advertised the nation as the most retrogressive in the comity of countries in the world.
Shutting down of schools because of insecurity is very worrisome and the lowest a country can descend.
Banditry appears to have become a viable emerging sector in the nation’s economy. Within the last few months, the sector would have realized over a billion dollar from ransom taking.
So bad has the situation been that Governor Mohammed Matawalle of Zamfara State directed citizens in the state to obtain guns to defend themselves against bandits, a move many see as a sign of final collapse of security in Nigeria.
Zamfara government equally gave orders for immediate closure of markets in three senatorial districts as a result of the escalating activities of terrorists in various parts of the State.
To demonstrate its seriousness, governor Matawalle has concluded arrangement to distribute 500 forms to each of the 19 Emirates in the state for those willing to obtain guns to defend themselves.
Reacting to the development, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, described it as “A free-for-all affair,” adding that “These are all signs of imminent collapse of the Nigeria state.”
In the face of all this, the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP and Boko Haram seem to be in firm control of the entire affairs of Nigeria in the absence of any serious counter action from the government of the day.
A pertinent question to ask is: Where are the Service Chiefs made up of the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Navy Staff and the Inspector General of Police?
In the 2022 budget, passed and assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Ministry of Defence is to spend the sum of N1.52billion on security operations as well as various sums for capital expenditure and welfare packages for officers.
Despite this humongous sum at the disposal of service chiefs, soldiers are deployed into terrorists’ enclaves blind with double-barrel guns even when modern technology is a sine-qua-non in modern warfare.
So far, no particular intelligence approach appears to have been deployed by the Nigerian authorities in counter operations to tackle the menace.
What sends jitters into the spines of innocent citizens is in the manner the terrorists kill and capture Nigeria’s elite soldiers like chickens.
If elite soldiers from the presidential guard are on a mission to rescue people in distress, aren’t they supposed to be ready for trouble? How come they just get captured and killed by a so called rag-tag army of vandals?
If elite soldiers can be routed so easily, who would the helpless and hapless civilians turn to? Over time, the National Association of Online Security Reporters, NAOSRE, has lived up to its billing by encouraging citizens, through numerous editorial persuasions, to cooperate with military personnel in the fight against insurgency.
But it does seem that service the chiefs who are at the commanding heights to coordinate all supporting channels for result driven operations are square pegs in round holes.
The failure of the security chiefs partly informed the reasons the once cohesive administrative posture of the legislative and executive arms of government at the federal level has been punctuated with Senators baying for the head of President Buhari with impeachment threats.
The Senators are of the conviction that the ambush and killing of a platoon of the elite Brigade of Guards in Abuja are enough warnings that the terrorists are possibly planning to overrun the federal capital, indicating that the Commander in Chief has failed.
Indeed, insecurity is spreading fast. Those very close to the seat of power and perceived safe heavens in Abuja couldn’t be more afraid than now. Some are already relocating to other places and countries. The situation at hand is that bad.
Available information on insecurity indicates that terrorists on the rampage across the country have attacked about 16 military bases since mid-2022, leading to the killing of over 800 soldiers in different parts of the country.
Despite huge funding and never-ending presidential directives to the military and other security agencies to deal decisively with terrorists, the Nigerian Army, Navy and Air force under the command of service chiefs, appears to have become lame ducks.
This ugly development may have informed the House of Representatives’ Committee on Defence decision to ask the Federal Government to engage mercenaries in tackling the escalating state of insecurity in the country.
Chairman of the committee, Honourable Babajimi Benson, who is in the vanguard of this option, got an up vote from a retired Brigadier General, John Sura, who described the way soldiers are being killed by terrorists as unacceptable, pointing at lack of cohesion and synergy among the security agencies.
Looking at it differently, a security consultant, Jackson Lekan-Ojo, noted that the bandits have become brazen, in his wors: “The bandits or terrorists are fighting offensively and the military are fighting defensively.
“These terrorists have brought the battle to our doorsteps. They are no longer waiting for us to cross to meet them. Imagine being confronted on one’s doorstep and being defeated. Our security system and apparatus are very weak and that is what gives them the audacity to come and fight offensively in our military bases.”
Corroborating Lekan-Ojo’s position, Yemi Adeyemi, another security consultant, decried the situation saying: “How can some miscreants say they want to kidnap the President? For you to know that they were not joking about it, they attacked the presidential guards brigade which is supposed to be the most fortified brigade of the Nigerian Army and killed some officers and men.
“They went again to Zuba and killed a man there. All the blame should go to the service chiefs who should implement presidential directives to the letter in line with national interests.”
Notably, the spate of insecurity in Nigeria has reached a frightening stage, from the north to the south; from the east to the west, from one geo-political zone to the other, there’s always a scary story to tell. And the story is that insecurity is spreading like wild fire.
The situation is such that one is safe and the problem is escalating and totally getting out of control. Travel in Nigeria, whether by road, rail, air or sea has become a nightmare.
Homes and places of business and worship are no longer safe, not even to be in prison is safe as the bandits and terrorists are on the prowl, invading prisons and releasing prisoners across states in the federation.
The consequence of this action is that criminals released from prisons increase the numerical strength of the terrorists already in their den in forests across the country. Having a retinue of guards does not guarantee safety.
In the south-west, there’s a surge in armed robbery, kidnapping, herder-farmer conflicts and banditry. The Ondo State attack in a Church happened not too long ago.
The agitation for Biafra with its now accompanying killings, commercial crime, kidnapping, attacks by unknown gunmen, and banditry is now holding sway in the southeast. In the south-south, kidnapping is not completely over.
Boko Haram insurgency and the Islamic State of West Africa Province have been holding sway for years in the northeast. Ethno-religious killings and banditry are known to have taken a center-stage in the north-west.
Available data shows that the worsening state of insecurity has cost Nigeria well over 11% of its GDP worth N119 billion while projects worth N12 trillion have been abandoned across the nation.
The global peace index for 2021 compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace ranked Nigeria 146th out of 163 countries with a score of 2.712, while among sub-Saharan African countries the country was ranked 39th out of 44 countries examined in the region.
According to experts, insecurity affects economic growth by drying out investments, increasing unemployment, and dwindling government revenue, among others.
To a very large extent, nothing is new. But what is required is new strategy to keep the county safe.
For instance, after the amnesty by late President Yar’ Adua, a militant leader backed out. His name was John Togo.
He went back to the creek and started a massive campaign of violence against oil installations and the Military.
John Togo was highly trained and intelligent. But Yaradua will have none of it. He gave the Military clear directives to get John Togo. The military went after John Togo. There was no hiding place for him.
He was first smoked out of his hideout and shot but escaped. His men took him to a hospital, the Military went after him but again he escaped narrowly before they arrived.
Togo ran to the creeks but the order from the President was clear. Get John Togo! It was a clear order. There was no in-between. The Military never relented.
Thinking he was safe in his fortress, his new location was found and fighter jets dropped bombs on his camp. He and his men perished. That was the end of John Togo.
No terrorist or bandit is bigger than the might of the Nigerian military or federal government. The service chiefs at that time got the job done, same feat can be achieved now.
NAOSRE lays the blame, for the escalating and uncontrollable state of insecurity in the country, principally on the service chiefs who are tactless and ineffective.
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