“Intelligence is our first line of defence against terrorism, and we must improve the collection capabilities and analysis of intelligence.”
—Saxby Chambliss
By Omoniyi Salaudeen
These are not the best of times for Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
As the current National Security Adviser (NSA) to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he must have been having sleepless nights ruminating on how to nip the new emerging terror group, Lakurawa, in the bud before it becomes another huge monster like Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast.
In Nigeria’s current situation, the offer of an appointment as NSA can never be an envy of anyone. The job requires more than an ordinary political call of duty. Statutorily, the appointee acts on behalf of the president, coordinating the management of all national security matters. In so doing, his major role is to analyse security issues, assess expected trends, and prioritise activities.
To the extent of the enormity of the duties of the office, his eyes must be everywhere. So also he must have his ears close to the ground at all times for the ease of intelligence gathering. Because he is the first person the president will always tap for instant actions whenever there is any security breach or threat, he functions more or less like the Global Positioning System (GPS) device monitoring the geographic position of subversive elements, offering routing directions.
With the latest worrisome trend in the Northwest, all eyes are now on Ribadu to unravel the circumstances of Lakurawa’s emergence. Urgent action is needed to forestall further escalation of the security crisis the country is currently facing. Characteristic of his bold and intrepid response to duty, he brought energy and vigour into the office. But the challenge of insecurity in the country is too overwhelming. It has defied all known strategies, including kinetics and amnesty which they do not deserve anyway.
With Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast, Lakurawa in the Northwest, marauding Fulani herdsmen in the North-central and Middle Belt, killing and maiming of innocent citizens in Benue and Plateau states, plus banditry, kidnapping and ransom-taking that are ongoing all over the country, Nigeria’s vicious circle of security crisis has run its full circle.
As of today, there is no part of the country that is free of criminal elements that have continued to wreak havoc on innocent citizens. However, the sudden emergence of Lakurawa reveals the vulnerability of the North. And it calls for genuine introspection of the stakeholders in the region.
For correct analysis of the latest security threat, there are so many myths around the emergence of Lakurawa. Most of these border on the lackluster attitude of the Northern political elite towards finding a lasting solution to the socio-economic abnormalities providing a fertile ground for the recruitment of young men and women into terrorist gangs.
To be sure, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Zamfara states are currently the epicentre of the new terrorist organization.
In no time, it will spill over to the rest part of the North and possibly the whole of the country. Security experts have different accounts of the menace. Some believe that the presence of the terrorist group dates back to 2018 and that the people in the affected areas have been aware of its existence for more than six years.
This implies that former President Muhammadu Buhari was well aware of the presence of Lakurawa at the tail end of his first term all through his second term in office.
According to reports, a police investigation at that time concluded that they were merely herders.
Though admitted that they were heavily armed, the then Police Commissioner, Murtala Mani, who led the investigation, described them as seasonal visitors from the neighbouring Niger Republic. They told Buhari what they knew he would like to hear because of his Fulani ethnocentricism. Now, the same Police have come up again to claim that the terrorist group entered the border communities from countries like Niger, Chad, and Mali. They are now using arms to intimidate and harass the locals under the pretext of enforcing Sharia in the affected areas. It has now become clear that their presence in the affected communities along the Nigeria-Niger border in Gudu and Tangaza areas of Sokoto goes beyond the search for food and water for their cattle.
This fear has been confirmed by the Nigerian Defence Headquarters in its latest release. According to the report, the so-called herders have affiliation with jihadists in the Sahel, a region that accounts for sizable chunks of global terrorism deaths.
It is not by accident that the Northern region has been a hotbed of criminal gangs for so many years in Nigeria.
Certain conditions provide a fertile ground for the breeding of criminals and terror groups. One of these is the increasing army of Almajiris and out-of-school children who serve as a pool for recruits into the terror gangs.
Another reason is the porous borders the region shares with neighbouring countries like the Republic of Niger and Mali where Al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremists hold sway.
There is nowhere else other than the Northern region where the authorities provide free zones for foreigners to come in and mingle with local communities and move across the country unencumbered. The vast forests and the large expanse of ungoverned space on the fringes of these borders also provide a good buffer for terrorists.
All of these underscore a yawning gap in Nigeria’s security governance.
It is the primary reason the security challenge facing the country has continued to fester despite the enormous human and material resources expended on fighting terrorism and other associated criminalities.
Today, poverty remains an outrage in the North because of the vulnerability of the region to all manners of criminal tendencies and religious extremism.
Yet, critical stakeholders like the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) prefer to play a blame game, accusing the government at the centre of being responsible for the pitiable condition of the vast majority of the underprivileged in the region.
The poor are poor not only because of bad economic policies of the present administration, but largely due to the prevailing security situation that has prevented the people from doing what they know to do best, which is farming.
As the primary producer of agricultural commodities in the country, the North has no business being poor.
According to research findings, 52.5 per cent of land in the region is arable. However, only 18 per cent of the vast land is cultivated because of the security crisis the people have had to grapple with.
It, therefore, goes without saying that Ribadu alone cannot handle the dire situation in which the country has found itself. President Tinubu may find his advice to be useful in certain areas, but it won’t solve the escalating national threat the country has at hand. It’s a complex whole; there can be no hands-on solution to the problems. The only enduring solution is for the North to look inwards and form a consensus on how to address the socio-religious and cultural practices that deny young people access to basic education and skill training.
Unless the region is rid of millions of out-of-school children, Nigeria may never know peace. It’s a time bomb. The situation the country is currently facing may be child’s play compared to Boko Haram if the emerging threat of Lakurawa is allowed to fester. For a change of narrative, the starting point is for the NSA to go back home and have a sincere dialogue with stakeholders to evolve a workable solution to the present security challenge.
Charity, they say, begins at home.