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The nomination of ex-chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa (Rtd.) as the new Defence Minister was confirmed by Nigeria’s Senate last week. Unlike most appointments, his enjoyed a massive outpour of goodwill from a wide spectrum of Nigerians. We were told that he acquitted himself in previous assignments before the retirement a few weeks ago. Thus, he reportedly had a sterling military career built on integrity, professionalism, and robust inclination for interoperability. Referred to as ‘a soldier’s soldier’, Ibrahim Danfulani, a social commentator, attributed this to Musa’s “constant presence in the theatres of war, sharing the harsh conditions with his troops, boosting their morale, and personally assessing the realities on ground.” It was also noted that his “strategic genius lay in his understanding that modern asymmetric warfare demanded not just cooperation, but seamless integration.”
Beyond these accolades, Musa must note that the job is cut out for him and that the period of honeymoon is over. He is expected to be on the prowl for the bandits immediately. He has to mobilize the defence community to smoke out the evil marauders. That is his key performance indicator! The merchants of terror have tested the resolve of Nigerian government enough and it should be an all-out war. A fight to finish. The battle should be taken to the high-risk and poorly policed areas, including forests and bushes. As such, the idea of withdrawing soldiers handling police duties and redeploying them for the full fight against banditry is a welcome development.
It is quite interesting that after eleven solid years, the ghost of Chibok is still haunting Nigeria. Why not? The kidnapping of hundreds of school-age children was exploited as a tool to wrestle power from the incumbent. Jaundiced analyses of power seekers pushed the blame squarely on former president Goodluck Jonathan. There was little or no national consensus on how to deal with the menace from the roots. Local power mongers blew it out of proportion and international media caught the frenzy. A security issue was politicized and politics became securitized. And for the then opposition, the solution lied on the ouster of Jonathan. They brainwashed Nigerians with Buhari’s messianic disposition. His empty-headedness and antecedents as Islamic jingoist were barely scrutinized as propaganda had drown all voices of reason. Under Buhair’s 8-year tenure, the Fulani militias received the highest form of pampering. They killed, maimed, sacked, set on fire, and dispossessed communities of their property and ancestral lands. No arrests. No tough stance against the terrorists. No prosecution of prima facie suspects.
Even when the same ugly incident happened in Dapchi, Yobe State, four years after Chibok, but under Buhari presidency, the momentum of condemnation had died down. Lea Sharibu, the little girl, who refused to renounce her Christian faith to Islam, is still in Boko Haram captivity till date. Does it matter? The Miyetti Allah group brazenly defended the killing spree of Fulani pastoralists. Sheik Abubakar Gumi walk the streets free in his advocacy of ‘settlement’ for bandits who are collecting huge ransoms after kidnapping operations. A former governor of Benue State was openly threatened and tongue-lashed by a serving police chief when he attempted to enforce the ban on open grazing to forestall further killings by Fulani criminal herders. Some political leaders from a section of the country also declared that the forests belonged to nobody and that herders should have unhindered access.
Today, the monster has grown hydra-headed. The nation is on her knees. Those who murdered sleep in pursuit of power with behind-the-scene criminal enablers have discovered that there may not be a country to politick again. The ghosts of Chibok and Dapchi are baring for more blood, not only in the Northeast and Northwest, but everywhere. Recently, they were in schools in Kebbi, Kwara, and Niger States. Overnight, there is an intensification of banditry across the country. They want to play the same card of 2015. Unfortunately, it has backfired. You cannot outwit a co-criminal with the same strategy of last raid. Thumbs up to President Trump for his troubling tweet.
The Secretary to the Government of Federation, George Akume, alluded the resurgence of violent attacks across the country to the recent comments by President Donald Trump on insecurity in Nigeria. According to him, “Recent pronouncements from the United States have inadvertently emboldened opportunistic violent groups seeking to exploit international narratives and make bold statements by attacking soft targets.” On its part, the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) pushed the blames to the doorsteps of federal government, noting that “We find it quite appalling that the APC-led Federal Government claims its security failures are caused by a tweet by the president of another country. This is a shameful abdication of responsibility…” Another familiar terrain of blame game. Whatever might be the case, the quick succession with which the terrorists renewed attacks on Christian formations have drowned the voices of those striving to present a balancer to the Christian genocide narrative. In another hand, the escalation of banditry across the country can be alluded to the entrenched politicization of insecurity: make the incumbent more unpopular, exploit it for political gains. Nonetheless, wittingly or unwittingly, Nigerians are elated that Trump’s threat has made the federal government to sit up.
The most potent way for the new minister to show that there is a difference is to ensure that those implicated in the complicity of security breach in Maga, Kebbi State, are made to face the music. It should not be swept under the carpet like a similar case that happened in 2016 in Ukpabi Nimo, Uzo-Uwani LGA of Enugu State. Nigerians expect a total enforcement of the ban on open grazing. Terrorism financiers should lose their oxygen, just as the criminal cartel fueling violence to sustain illegal mining in Zamfara corridor must be cracked down. The country needs a change of security strategy with impactful results. If our highways are safe in this end of year season, then Musa’s touted capability would have passed the first litmus test.
