The recent massacre of over 200 citizens of Benue State by murderous killer herdsmen, whether imported from Cameroon or wherever, is highly condemnable. The fact that the marauders operated for hours without any challenge shows lapses in our general security architecture. In recent months, Benue State has been turned into a huge cemetery, where victims of such bloodbath are buried.
In the latest Yelewata incident, the state governor, Hyacinth Alia, said armed herders who entered the state without cattle were responsible for the recent wave of violent attacks in the state. The other time, he blamed some unnamed politicians in Abuja and some federal legislators for the bloodbath in his state. The military had blamed the crisis on foreign herders, saboteurs and fifth columnists. The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa recently linked the Benue attacks to alleged presence of saboteurs within the military.
Earlier, Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State had made similar allegations on renewed insurgency in Borno State. The situation was too bad that the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen. Olufemi Olukayode, visited the state with some military officers to appraise the deteriorating situation. The killings intensified shortly after the visit. The recurring killings in Benue State may not be remarkably different from those in Plateau State and other parts of the Middle Belt, regarded as the food basket of the nation. The bloodletting in Benue State has elicited national and global outrage.
The federal government has been jolted by the enormity of the genocidal massacre in the state. The governor is apparently helpless on how to handle the situation. The politicians in the state are as worried as the governor. The security agencies are doing their part to stem the rising orgy of violence in the state but the situation is daily escalating. The situation was so bad that the Catholic Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, described the weekend attacks as a “terrible massacre” where over 200 people were killed with “extreme cruelty.” The Pope prayed that “security, justice and peace will prevail in Nigeria, a beloved country so affected by various forms of violence.”
The Benue massacre was horrendous and cruel and even barbaric. Scores of people were killed and some burnt inside their house. Food items were not spared. One victim lamented on a national television the loss of 20 people from his family. He said that his escape from the killer herdsmen was a miracle.
Arising from the deteriorating security situation in Benue State, President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday visited the state, commiserated with the government and people of the state. He visited those in hospitals and had a town hall meeting concerning the situation and the way forward. He ordered the security agents to go after those responsible for the massacre of innocent citizens and bring them to justice.
The government must intensify the war against terrorism, banditry and other forms of lawlessness in the country. It does not really matter where the perpetrators of such heinous criminality come from. They must be hunted down and be made to face the full wrath of the law. The absence of prosecution of the perpetrators of this criminality has emboldened others to toe the evil path. The perpetrators of these crimes and others should no longer be treated with kid gloves.
Government should intentionally apply more kinetic measures this time around. It is apparent that the deployment of non-kinetic measures is no longer effective and probably not working in our favour. It has become imperative to change tactics. Desperate situation demands desperate measures. The government should bare its fangs and decimate the terrorists and weaken their capacity to strike with precision. Our troops must be well armed and well equipped for the terror war.
The ongoing war against terrorism, banditry and other criminals cannot be won without planned rejigging of our security architecture. Although our military is rated so high in Africa and globally, we must make it compete with the best on the continent and others in the world. Let the government increase the numerical strength of our military and the police in line with our growing population.
Our current centralized police force is hardly adequate to ensure the internal security of over 200 million Nigerians. The government should either merge the police with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and even Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) because they perform similar functions or recruit more people for the police force.
The present 370,000 police personnel are hardly adequate to police over 200 million people. In addition, Nigeria is ripe enough for having clearly marked layers of policing as obtains in the United States (US), where we borrowed our presidential system of government. All federal systems of government have several layers of policing for adequate security of the federating units.
In keeping with this federal model of policing a modern state, Nigeria ought to have at least four layers of policing namely: federal police, state police, local government police and community police. No doubt, these four layers of policing if put in place will ensure that all parts of the country are adequately policed and protected. Just like politics, security is also local. This police arrangement will ensure that people from the area are recruited to police it considering that they know the terrains and the people very well.
The federal lawmakers and the government should stop the procrastination over the establishment of state police or several layers of policing. The dillydallying over the issue is invariably worsening the general insecurity in the country. Creating several layers of policing will in addition to ensuring security create more jobs. Apart from establishing state police, the federal government should devolve some of the 68 items in the exclusive legislative list to the federating units.
The over-concentration of powers at the centre is why the country is not working. It is why our economy is not improving. It is even why our politics is acrimonious cantankerous. The present unitary structure of Nigeria is suffocating and excludes many Nigerians from participating as they should in the polity, economy and even its politics. Nigeria cannot develop as expected without some measure of autonomy to the federating units.
Our system breeds inequalities in virtually every sector hence the loud cries over one form of marginalization of the other across the country. Let every federating unit or region be allowed to develop at its own pace. The unitary development model we have been experimenting with since 1999 is not suitable for a country with diverse people, cultures and religions as Nigeria. It is time we return to a truly federal system of government.