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By Omoniyi Salaudeen, Christy Anyanwu and Olakunle Olafioye
For a long time now, most Nigerians had dreaded travelling by road. Reason: kidnappers and bandits have taken over the highways, and increasingly, killing and maiming innocent citizens while taking some of them away for ransom. Thus, for those who have the means, it’s better to travel by air if you don’t have the phobia for flying. For those who don’t like flying and others whose resources are lean, the train becomes their alternative to achieving safety in their journey. But last week, this new hope and feeling were shattered as terrorists attacked the Kaduna Airport and a Kaduna-Abuja bound train, killing scores, injuring many while taking others hostage.
Indeed, Nigeria is rapidly sliding into the abyss. And this is due largely to the inability of the Federal Government to pull back the nation from the brink of disaster. And this has become a major source of concern to the citizens who are losing hope that the menace of mindless killings of innocent people by bandits and terrorists who have seized the state by the scruff of the neck is going to end anytime soon.
Even though the hues and cries about safety remain a talking point in the polity, the Muhhamadu Buhari administration, which promised security as its main agenda during the electioneering, appears to be at a loss in its search for a solution that nowhere is safe anymore.
The two recent successive audacious attacks of bandits on Kaduna-bound train barely 24 hours after their invasion of the airport in the metropolis have, therefore, opened fresh discourse on the vulnerability of the nation’s security architecture and the way forward.
With the present siege on all means of transportation – land, air, and rail – the general consensus is that the government has unimpressively failed in its responsibility to safeguard the lives and property of the Nigerian people.
And the emotion is understandable high because just as Security Chiefs continue to assure of the safety of all so also are the bandits notching ahead with new strategies on how to capture as many victims as the situation permits them to lay their hands upon. In the circumstance, all citizens could do is to rail and react in helpless fury as bandits continue to have a field day.
Sunday Sun had a feel of people’s emotions and anger in its conversation with some eminent Nigerians who spoke their minds on the fresh waves of attacks by the bandits in the Northern part of the country.
Gen. Ishola Williams (rtd) speaking on the matter in a telephone interview with Sunday Sun, blamed the deteriorating security situation in the country on the failure of the government, insisting that only organised regional safety outfits could solve the problem.
His words: “Public safety is what we are suffering from in Nigeria, not insecurity. And that has been demonstrated very clearly with the case of Kaduna because whether it is bandits’ attack on the train or invasion of the airport, it is all about Kaduna.
“And Governor Nasir el-Rufai has kept on shouting that he is helpless, but nothing seems to be working because the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces himself is tired. He has no answer. His National Security Adviser (NSA) too has no solution either. That is why the situation has been getting worse in the last seven years.
“The police are trying their best, but there is little the police can do except everybody adopts the system that has been adopted in Southwest Nigeria and to a certain extent the Southeast. With Amotekun Corps in the Southwest, the governors are in charge of security to a large extent. As long as they (Northern governors) refuse to do the same in the North, people will continue to die. In a normal country, most of these Northern governors would have been impeached by now because nobody is in charge of security.
“If the North had adopted what the Southwest is doing with Amotekun, the situation would have improved. But because the Commander-in-Chief has said that he does not want state police, they don’t want to adopt the Southwest system. The interesting thing is that in Kano State, where there is Hisbah, things are a bit quiet. That shows that if they have an organized safety outfit, the security situation will improve.
“As I said earlier, Nigeria is secure because nobody is attacking us from outside. The problems of Boko Haram insurgents, ISWAP, terrorists, and bandits are within Nigeria. So, we need a serious leader who can address the problems.”
Looking further into the months ahead of the next general elections, he added a bleak prognosis, saying: “The situation will get worse in the Northern part of the country as we approach the 2023 general elections.”
In the same vein, a former Commander, Special Task Force, Operation Safe Haven, Jos, the Plateau State capital, Major Gen Henry Ayoola (Rtd), lamented the poor response of the Federal Government to terrorists’ attacks on innocent citizens.
“If you don’t do what is supposed to be done, the situation will continue the way it is. You must put necessary things in place and ensure they are effective.
“This is a situation that should not have been allowed to happen. But now that it has happened, we have to do some serious thinking and take emergency action,” he told Sunday Sun.
Ayoola, who is also the national coordinator of Initiative for Peoples Rebirth (IPR) and national chairman, Restructure Actualization Movement (RAM), further argued that “you cannot continue to do something that is not working the same way and expect a magic or a turn-around for the better.
“It is very obvious to everybody, concerned citizens and spectators alike, that we are at the edge of the precipice as a nation. We have been in a stage of war for some time now, but it is getting worse each passing day.
“The vicious cycle of security challenges and blood-letting in the country has never been this bad. As a people, we are becoming increasingly incapacitated.
“How can one explain the situation in which insecurity has been let loose in the land? It is strange that there is no visible matching response from the government and it explains why the perpetrator is having a field day.
“It even emboldens them and they have become more creative in the ways they launch their attacks because there is no deterrence.
“It is only when evildoers know that they will meet stiff resistance that they will be deterred.
“If the body language of the top authority is clear, it will dovetail down the line. But where there is a fog, there will be no clarity or lack of purpose as it adds additional problem on decision-making for effective action”.
For Colonel Francis Okosun, a renowned security expert, the major problem is information gathering and how it is being processed by the security operatives.
Okosun noted that the nation’s intelligence agencies were not doing enough in intelligence gathering and its proper use.
“These things just don’t drop, there are indicators that can be identified and interpreted.
“In each instance, this thing happens in time and space and someone is paid to monitor this space. So, what are they really doing? They must be accountable. What are they doing in their defined space,” he fumed.
He also heaped the blame on the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) for lack of operational power to effectively perform its functions, warning that “until you punish those who have not done well, this mess will continue.”
Also, Reverend Ladi Thompson, the senior pastor of the Rivers of Living Water and special adviser, Conflict Resolution and Matters related to terrorism with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), said that the successive attacks on the Kaduna-bound trains could not have come as a surprise to discerning observers of the nation’s security lapses, pointing an accuse-finger at the moles in government.
He argued succinctly: “A wise man said recently that we must quit trying to solve global problems with local solutions. The successive terror attacks on the Kaduna-Abuja-bound train should not be a surprise development to any keen observer because the handwriting is already on the wall.
“The default mood of the nation is that of ‘tragic optimism’ and the terror intelligentsia must be rejoicing greatly. The degree of defiance and confidence that can be observed in their operations is a pointer that the terrorists could well be operating with the assistance of moles in high places.
“The no-nonsense rhetoric of President Muhammadu Buhari and the spirited efforts of our security forces have been very robust. Yet, it seems that the terrorists just keep waxing bolder.
“We don’t need to look far to understand why. We are dealing with a very intelligent war form whose main financier was traced to Kaduna State. But months after the fact, the report on that individual has been deafeningly silent. Certain public officers need to be vigorously investigated for terrorist ties.
“All in all, the past utterances and rhetoric of the Kaduna State governor has been extremely uninspiring in this regard for a man of his stature. But his saving grace has been the trust in which the public holds our national president.”
Thompson noted with dismay how el-Rufai has been flaunting his closeness to President Buhari for undeserved attention, calling for a direct investigation into his proclivities.
“Terror war machinery must be exploiting the religious cleavages that were built into the foundation of the Nigerian state,” he declared.
To get the nation out of the current quagmire, he said: “A purge of our defense and security structures would not be out of place if Nigeria truly desires to survive this war.
“Two inexplicable policies that cannot be glossed over are the absorption of so-called repented terrorists into our military and the protracted battle that it took to recognize the clear difference between banditry and terrorist activities.
“There are some more equally pungent anomalies in our strategic response to the hydra-headed terrorist war that is being waged on Nigerian soil. But prioritization of these two alone would surely lead to the exposure of some of the enemies within that are disabling our defence.”
Another security expert, Rotimi Aromolaran, while also adding his voice to the raging anger, described the recent attacks by the bandits as a clear failure of the government.
“The unprecedented level of insecurity in Nigeria signposts a huge failure on the part of the Nigerian government. Nigerians have had enough of unproductive tactics and enough of unyielding and empty explanations. Our utmost concern now should be how to get the drummers, the dancers, and the sponsors of this endless bloodletting. We need to do the needful as a matter of urgency.
“Enough of ‘we will do this, we will do that’; enough of further assurances with unproductive results. The government must be extremely proactive not reactive. It must be effectively active in carrying out necessary devices and procurement needed to amputate the menace.
“We need a huge investment in human intelligence gathering. It is high time we started punishing criminals in Nigeria. Unfortunately, we never put a premium on human beings in Nigeria.
“Community policing is a must if we are really serious about tackling insecurity in this country. Let us make use of the villagers for daily intelligence gathering.
“As it stands now, we are just too far from winning the battle against bandits and banditry. The government should penetrate necessary communities,” he advised.
However, Prof Taoheed Adedoja, in his own subtle response to the matter, enjoined Nigerians to cooperate with the government to tackle the current security challenge, noting that the “government is trying its best to either curb it in some places or prevent it in other places.
“I believe one of the concerns of the Buhari administration is the security of lives and property. And he is trying his best. We as a people should also try our best to assist the government.
“There are some security tips that we citizens of the country need to provide to assist the government in its effort to secure the nation. It is not a problem that can be solved in one day.”
