From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
One cardinal item, which remained consistent in the manifesto and campaign promises of the Federal Government led by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for almost nine years now, has been the reassurances to fight and end insecurity ravaging the country.
From former president Muhammadu Buhari to the current administration of President Bola Tinubu, the promises to subdue the apparently disturbing insurmountable security menace, crippling every part of the country and every aspect of her socio-economic life, contributed marginally to their electoral victories.
In his victory speech after defeating the then incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan, Buhari had boasted: “I assure you that Boko Haram will soon know the strength of our collective will and commitment to rid this nation of terror and bring back peace. We shall spare no effort until we defeat terrorism. In tackling the insurgency, we have a tough and urgent job to do.”
But, despite the promises, efforts and resources the APC-led government channeled to win the war against insecurity in the past nine years, insurgency, banditry, militancy, kidnapping/mass abduction, ethnic, secessionist, separatist agitations, and all other manner of crimes and criminalities have continued to fester unabatedly.
Everywhere around the country, the security situation seems to have overwhelmed the APC-led government, the security apparatus, and agencies to the disappointments and discouragement of many Nigerians.
During his campaign, Buhari had assured that his administration would crush terrorists and separatist agitations on assumptions of office in 2015. However, insurgents, bandits, abductors and other criminal elements remained audacious in their assaults until he bowed out of the stage.
In fact, throughout Buhari’s two tenures, non-state actors didn’t lack the effrontery to boldly attack Nigerians, including the governor’s convoy and even military bases, countless times to make bold statements on the level of insincerity of the government’s claims that it has decimated them.
Apart from insurgents, other criminals also terrorised the peace of the country. For example, under Buhari’s watch, security agencies could not tame the killer Fulani herdsmen and bandits.
Unlike their modus operandi to kill during former president Jonathan administration, the non-state actors did not only scale up incidents of kidnapping but also graduated to negotiate with the government for ransoms after abductions and other atrocious operations that threaten the sovereignty of the country.
Buhari promised to use his military background to resolutely deal decisively with those enemies of the state, but Nigerians witnessed horrible incidents that happened under his watch.
The abduction of 110 Dapchi girls in Yobe State on February 19, 2018; 344 Kankara boys in Katsina State on December 11, 2020; 27 Kagara boys in Niger State and 300 Jangebe girls in Zamfara on February 17 and 26, 2021 respectively were perpetrated during his administration.
Other endless worrisome incidents also include the late night gunmen attack the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, in Kaduna, where 39 students were kidnapped, and the abduction of farmers by Fulani herders at Yewa in Ogun where lives were lost, farmlands destroyed, women raped and people displaced.
The massacre of 76 rice farmers in Zabarmari, Borno State and rampant kidnapping across the country were also among other callous attacks by criminal elements against the masses that the APC-led government could not tackle.
Apparently aware that his party, APC, under Buhari, did not adequately deliver on the promises to surmount insecurity, President Tinubu, during his campaigns, reassured hopeless Nigerians that the battle against insecurity would form a cardinal point of his administration.
He not only promised to be driven by a resolute commitment to confront the substantial threats and challenges that confront the country but also declared that he would crush the monster in six if he emerged as President.
In his assurance, while presenting his manifesto during a meeting with organised private sector in Lagos, he declared that his administration will deepen the fight against insecurity by evolving a different strategy in the counterinsurgency and terrorism war.
He reiterated his determination to double down on his resolve to increase the number of security personnel for the country, stressing that; “we shall enlist more people in the armed forces, security services and the police. Our forces will be given better tactical communications, and mobility as well as improved aerial and ground surveillance capacity.
“Through these and other measures, we shall better identify, monitor, track, and defeat these evil groups where they are. They shall have no respite until they surrender or are utterly defeated,” he assured.
To gavel their promise to end the war in six months, Vice President Kashim Shettima, who earlier claimed that; “I will be in charge of security while Asiwaju (Tinubu) will be in charge of the economy,” reiterated the administration’s resolve to end insurgency; “within six months and one year. My leader (Tinubu) will mobilise the leadership to end this madness,” he reinstated at the event with the organised private sector.
Curiously, the current escalating incidents of mass abductions of students, farmers and other hapless Nigerians have reawakened fresh concerns over the capacity of the APC-led government to live up to its campaign promises to end insecurity in the country.
Under the watch of the current administration, some prospective Corps Members from Akwa-Ibom travelling to Sokoto were kidnapped in Zamfara with many of them still in the custody of the abductors more than four months later.
Despite the reassurance to end insecurity within one year, activities of the bandits, kidnappers and insurgents have spiralled, culminating in the recent abductions of students and their teachers.
In the wake of this escalating insecurity, particularly in Kaduna and Borno states, insurgents and bandits had recently abducted 200 internally displaced women and 287 schoolchildren with their teachers from Kuriga Government Secondary and LEA Primary Schools in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
As if the incidents were not enough indictment on the failure of the APC-led government’s fight against insecurity, there was shocking incident of the killing of no fewer than three officers and 22 soldiers, injuring of seven others and the downing of Nigerian Air Force helicopter sent to evacuate the casualties attacked by the bandits that laid ambush on them in Niger State last year.
Only recently, Osun State governor, Ademola Adeleke raised the alarms over planned attacks on schools and rural farming communities in the state. He insisted that intelligence snippets, made available to him, revealed a deliberate mobilisation of criminal elements to attack rural areas of the state.
Giving more explanations, he claimed that those behind the plot are targeting disruption of farming activities through kidnappings and attacks on rural farm settlements.
“The Ministry of Education and all educational agencies have been ordered to review safety measures in Osun schools in line with the Safe School Initiative. In specific terms, school principals and heads are expected to clear overgrown weeds in school environments and ensure close liaison with the Parents and Teachers Association to secure their school environments.
“No stone will be left unturned to disrupt plans of the enemies of progress to plunge the state into crisis. I urge members of the public to inform security agencies of any unusual movements or activities across the state,” he appealed in a statement from his spokesperson, Malam Olawale Rasheed.
Unfortunately, instead of decimating insecurity as it promised almost 10 months after in charge, the security situation has continued to deteriorate geometrically with incidences of herdsmen slaughtering or abducting farmers from their farms, while merciless rampaging forces of kidnappers are hounding travellers into the thick forests for ransom, and many other Nigerians living in perpetual insecure situations in their homes.
Surprisingly, the present government seems to be helpless, handicapped and overwhelmed in deploying potent antidotes to tackle and arrest the escalating insecurity situations and stop the country from sliding into a failed state.
What has become a major concern to many Nigerians was the heatless demand of ransoms that now curiously ran into trillions of Naira in addition to purchase of other costly items like operational vehicles and foodstuffs for the bandits.
President Tinubu has read the riot act recently, ordering the security agencies to stop such incessant payment perhaps due to the outrageous amount of money placed as a bounty for kidnapped victims in northern Nigeria.
Convinced that the present government is apparently toeing the same path as the Buhari-led previous APC administration, some Nigerians, including Kaduna-based Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, have appealed for a cautious diplomatic approach towards solving the menace through dialoguing with the bandits.
Gumi, in a statement, argued that; “the government’s stand on no negotiation with the bandits is an unfortunate position. My advice is that the government should dialogue with the bandits not only for these Kuriga school children’s abductions but all cases.
“Also, the government should use the same approach it used in releasing passengers that were abducted on the Abuja–Kaduna train in 2022 to release the Kuriga school children and others. I am ready to lead a holistic dialogue between the government and bandits. It is my religious duty to do so for peace.
“I hope the present government of President Tinubu will listen by dialoguing with the bandits because the past administration of former president Buhari refused to do so.”
Expectedly, aligning with Gumi in such a circumstance that will not surprise many, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has equally urged President Tinubu to engage in dialogue with the bandits responsible for the abduction, stressing that Gumi’s intervention could lead to the release of the abducted victims and prevention of future abductions.
Forum’s Spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, emphasised the importance of supporting Gumi’s efforts to bring a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Kaduna, arguing that negotiating with bandits does not equate to condoning their actions or granting them impunity, but rather serves as a strategic move to de-escalate the situation and safeguard the lives of innocent victims.
On the flip side, many other Nigerians have demanded a demonstration of political will by giving marching orders to the security agencies to unleash forces and end the activities of the ragtag bandits and other enemies of the state.
However, some scholars have argued that for insecurity to fester till date, political, religious and ethnic considerations must have been responsible for fuelling the activities in the country.
One other school of thought had asked why the military could carry out different operations in southern parts of the country but appears incapacitated in the northern part of the country.
Periodically, they further argued, the military commands would feed Nigerians with reports of the countless number of eliminated bandits, insurgents’ leaders and members, yet their operations have continued to pose a serious threat to the existence of the country.
Many worry that companies are folding up and foreign ones leaving the country amid the outcry over the apparent threat of food insecurity in the country, the cost of living due to the unwholesome activities of herders stopping farmers from going to their farms, insurgents and bandits demanding taxes from the farmers before planting and harvesting their agricultural products.
In the calculation of many critical observers, the APC-led government may have recorded monumental failure in living up to their electoral campaign promises to end insecurity in the country.
Miffed by the fact that their party has failed in curtailing insecurity as it repeatedly promised Nigerians, State Chairmen of the ruling party recently urged President Tinubu, to sack any Service Chief, heads of police formations and Department of State Services (DSS) that are either lukewarm, taciturn, reticent, or pugnacious in the fight against insecurity in the land.
Enumerating the takeaway of their visit to the State House for a meeting with President Tinubu, State Chairman of APC, Cross River and Secretary, forum of APC state chairmen in Nigeria, Alphonsus Ogah, had lamented that insecurity has stagnated the efforts of the Federal Government.
He specifically argued that the nefarious activities of these bandits and vandals must have blundered whatever efforts Mr President is making, appealing to him to wield the big stick on anybody found wanted in the front line of fighting and combating crime.
“We made it very clear to Mr President that no reasonable person will expect him as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to take up arms and go round the crannies of Nigeria to fight the criminal elements, bandits, kidnappers and the armed robbers. And that is why the constitution of Nigeria has created the security agencies saddled with this responsibility.
“We commended the efforts and contributions of Mr President in terms of moral boost, financial support for equipment procurement and all others. The only added advice we brought to him is that people at the forefront should be held accountable.
“And we were very firm, but with absolute humility, in telling Mr President that district police officers, or Divisional Police Officers, Commissioners of Police, SSS, or anybody in the front line of fighting and combating crime that is lukewarm, taciturn, reticent, or pugnacious should please be shown the way out.
“It was therefore a call on Mr President to wield the big stick on those who are not ready to help him because we have concluded that some persons are out to distract Mr President and some persons are out to put this party in a bad light.
“So, whatever efforts Mr President is making would be beclouded by the nefarious activities of these bandits and vandals. And we think the time has come for Mr President to say enough is enough”, he said.
Rightly or wrongly, and regardless of the side of the coin one may look at the narrative around the insecurity in the country, what may be an unarguable fact to many is that the school of thought claiming that the activities of insecurity have become more or less a political weapon deliberately deployed by a certain section of the country to continuously exert a certain level of measurable control of the political dynamics of the country.
While certain persons are perceived fuelling insecurity as a portent tool in the hands of the political elite in certain sections of the country to allegedly protect the natural mineral resources in their region, others claimed that some sections of the country are using insecurity as an instrument to consolidate their stronghold on the political dynamics of the country.
Whatever divide you find yourself in, what is certain is that the effects of insecurity in the country are all-encompassing and capable of degenerating into the ugly scenario playing out in Haiti if it continues to escalate without deliberate efforts to urgently curtail it.