There is a popular maxim that could be paraphrased as “if you’re doing the same thing and expect a different result, that’s a form of madness.”
We can safely apply this nugget to the ongoing terror war and how President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is prosecuting it. There’s a perpetual cycle of attacks by criminals, condemnation and threats to deal with the culprits, and then another round of attacks.
First, let’s look at the picture of the crime wave in Nigeria today. We have armed robbers, Boko Haram terrorists, kidnappers, bandits in the North and violence arising from the activities of vigilantes, ethnic agitators like IPOB and the Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho. Of all these groups, the Boko Haram insurgents are the only known elements who have openly taken up arms against the state in their bid to carve out a caliphate out of the northeastern part of the country.
For more than 12 years, they have engaged the Nigerian armed forces in a direct war, using hit-and-run tactics normally adopted by terror groups. Boko Haram insurgents are terrorists and are so recognized by all credible global organizations and governments. This group has an alliance with ISIS and other Islamic jihadist groups whose avowed mission is to Islamize any space they target.
The bandits of the North began as kidnappers who traded their victims for ransom. Now, they have graduated into violent, well-armed criminal gangs who attack military installations. Bandits have since become full-blown terrorists who deploy hit-and-run tactics, like Boko Haram, against the Nigerian security forces. Only recently, bandits shot down an air force jet.
Certainly, for shooting down a jet, the bandits have left no one in doubt that they have evolved into a terrorist organization. Sadly, the Buhari administration does not think so. The Presidency still considers them to be bandits! The argument is that the appellation does not matter, so long as government forces are fighting the bandits.
However, in reality, nomenclatures do matter. An armed robber is an armed thief, not a terrorist, because he/she has no ambition beyond forcefully taking possession of victims’ property. No armed robber occupies a territory, or kidnaps victims for ransom, and kills them when payment is not made.
It is a clear policy failure on the part of Buhari and his aides to reject the call to declare the bandits as terrorists. A sitting governor even calls them “Businessmen”. The religion or tribe of a criminal should never absolve them of their culpability for crimes committed. Bandits are terrorists, even if they are Hausa-Fulani Muslims who live and operate mainly in the North. This is not ethnic profiling, as some Hausa/Fulani leaders are insinuating.
The introduction of ethnic/religious sentiments into the war against crime has sabotaged efforts to end this nightmare. Fulani herdsmen were pastoralists who went about with their herds, carrying the shepherd’s staff (sticks). They now carry AK-47 and other assault weapons, to fight alleged cattle rustlers. Who gave these herdsmen the permission to carry weapons when such an act contravenes the law on private possession of firearms? Yet, we hear some northern governors like Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State defend his Fulani kinsmen’s right to carry weapons as a means of self-defense against attackers!
Some of the Fulani herdsmen have now graduated into bandits/kidnappers, who terrorize local communities where they operate. As their criminal activities have encompassed the whole of Nigeria, it’s no longer possible to differentiate the armed Fulani herders from their bandit kinsmen. Both groups use terror tactics to sustain their nefarious activities.
Unfortunately, because these criminal elements have not been classified as terrorists like the Boko Haram insurgents, they’re being treated like common criminals by the security forces.
Buhari’s blanket approval of open grazing by invoking archaic legal provisions of a colonial era gazette has not only set the stage for a conflict with southern governors who have banned opening grazing, his action has further emboldened the herdsmen to continue to misbehave.
One can understand the President’s sentiments toward the Fulani herders, being a product of a Fulani father and Kanuri mother. Moreover, his avowed commitment to Islamic causes is not hidden. I appreciate that; but a President ought to rise above all that. He was elected as the President of the whole of Nigeria, not a section of it. He is to govern a secular state, not a Muslim one. Therefore, he is forbidden to be influenced in any way by the tenets of his Muslim faith while discharging his duties as President of a multi-religious state.
Having said all that, the President must declare the bandits and violent Fulani herders as terrorists like their Boko Haram colleagues, and deal with them as such. Everyone knows that the rule of engagement is different when fighting terrorists. We fight to destroy terrorists; we do not aim to destroy common criminals, but go to subdue them, get them jailed and reformed. That’s one of the reasons prisons were renamed Correctional Centres.
The ethnic groups like IPOB became violent only recently, like the Igboho group, because of their foolish, ill-advised move to return fire-for-fire when engaging security agents. If these groups begin to use terror tactics to prosecute their agendas, the state has the right to declare them as terrorist groups. Until then, it is preposterous to label them as terrorists like Boko Haram and the Fulani herders/bandits.
President Buhari and his advisers need to realize this and recalibrate their strategies by being holistic in their approach to the violent atmosphere in Nigeria.
Weekend spice: A nice compliment could open the door to a woman’s heart.
Ok folks, let’s do it again next time, take care. COVID-19 is real, stay motivated.
•Ayodeji, author, speaker and pastor, can be reached on 09059243004 (WhatsApp, email, SMS only)