DESPITE the promise made by President Muhammadu Buhari that the administration would continue focusing on delivering key strategic priorities under the “SEA” – Security, Economy, and Anti-Corruption Agenda, the year 2021 will for a long time remain etched in the hearts of many Nigerians, especially for the insecurity that has spread across the country....CONTINUE READING
For many Nigerians, 2021 will most certainly be remembered for the government’s failure to protect the lives it had sworn to protect and for its failure to once again fight the insecurity it had promised to fight. The year will also be remembered as a year that Nigerians could no longer travel by road for fear of being kidnapped, a year in which insecurity in the country rose to a crescendo that it had never reached before; lack of trust, the accusations, and counter-accusations, the normalization of kidnapping for ransom, the Fulani herdsmen contention and the sporadic strikes by unknown gunmen among others.
It will be recalled that before 2015, insecurity and banditry were restricted to the North West due to the activities of Boko Haram, but no state is now spared from insecurity, banditry and kidnapping for ransom. According to the BBC Hausa, “Nigeria is faced with an unprecedented wave of different, but overlapping security crises – from kidnapping to extremist insurgencies – almost every corner of the country has been hit by violence and crime.”
Nigeria’s biggest security threats has been listed to include Judaism, banditry and kidnapping, herders and farmers clashes, separatist insurgency and oil militants.
The Nigeria Security Tracker, NST, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations Africa programme, documents and maps violence in Nigeria that is motivated by political, economic, or social grievances, adds that the different groups in Nigeria resort to violence.
“The militant Islamist movement, Boko Haram, is active in northern Nigeria. Violence among ethnic groups, farmers and herdsmen sometimes acquires religious overtones. A new generation of Niger Delta militants threatens war against the state. Government soldiers kill civilians indiscriminately. Police are notorious for extrajudicial murder,” it said.
In March 2021, the Vanguard reported that about 1, 525 lives had been wasted across the country in the first six weeks of 2021.
“The 1,525-death figure, which is conservative, covers only reported cases arising from the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, herdsmen crisis, kidnapping, communal and cult clashes, armed robbery and brutality of security agents among others,” the report said.
The number of IDP camps in the country is also a testament to the growth in insecurity caused by banditry and the spread of Boko haram activities in the country.
In March this year, Abubakar Bello, governor of Niger State, cried out that Boko Haram terrorists had infiltrated the state and taken over Kaure, Shiroro Local Government Area, and hoisted their flag.
“I just heard that they’ve already hoist their flag in Kaure, which means they’ve taken over the territory and this is what I have been engaging the federal government with and unfortunately, it has now gotten to this stage that if care is not taken not even Abuja is safe.
“They’ve taken over the territory, they’ve installed their flag. I am confirming that now. They’ve taken over the wives of people by force.
“Boko Haram elements are trying to use these areas as their home just like they did in Sambisa,” he said.
The governor had also paid a visit to over 3000 Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, from Shiroro and Munya local government areas, who are taking refuge at IBB Primary School Minna.
Although Many Nigerians, CSOs and even international organizations have continued to call on the federal government to find an enduring solution to the insecurity problems, the government has continued to deny the rise in insecurity, claiming that Boko Haram has been technically defeated.
Samuel Ortom, Governor of Benue State, has continued to call on the federal government to rejig its policies to ensure equity, justice and fairness to all segments of the country for continued peace, unity and development. He warned the government against handling security matters with “double standards”, lamenting that lopsidedness in federal appointments, sectionalism, nepotism, intimidation and the harassment of those, who hold contrary views have divided the country more than at any other time in its history. According to Ortom, the country is currently “on life support and running out of energy”. For him, President Muhammadu Buhari-led government must be open to criticisms and embrace the people as one for progress in the country.
He noted that the current administration does not lack the capacity to tackle insecurity, but has “chosen to play double standards in its handling of the security situation as it affects some regions, especially the South East, North Central, South-South and South West, while at the same time treating with kid gloves the menace of killer Fulani herdsmen, bandits and other terrorists in the North East and North West.”
“Dialogue remains the best option in any dispute. We must, however, admit that the ongoing agitations by youths of the South East are as a result of years of neglect, injustice, unfairness and lack of equity by those who have held this country to ransom,” he added.
The publication by The Economist, a London-based news magazine, titled, ‘Insurgency, Secessionism and Banditry Threaten Nigeria,’ also accused the government of President Muhammadu Buhari of ineptitude, while lambasting the Nigerian military, alleging that it often sold weapons to the insurgents.
The magazine had insisted that the Jihadists threat against Nigeria had risen to the highest level in years despite the effort of the military to check it.
However, Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and culture, who had always been in the light for his continuous defense of the government, had debunked that allegation, claiming that Nigeria is safer today than 2015 when terrorists held court in many North East Local Governments. He added that The Economist was wrong about
Nigeria, and accused the Group, of always making wrong predictions about the country and would continue to be fallible.
Reacting to Mohammed’s claim about Nigeria being safer now than it was in 2015, Bitrus Pogu, National President of MBF, argued that “In 2015, all those incidents were happening just around the North East and North West, but today, it is all over the country. Even train is being bombed, aircraft is being shot down and all sorts of things.
For Ken Robinson, National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, things have changed for worst since the All Progressives Congress, APC, took over in 2015.
“People no longer go about their businesses freely. Both social and economic activities are affected, particularly in the North-West, North Central and parts of South West and South-South where marauders parading as bandits have made life unbearable for citizens of Nigeria and it is unfortunate that officials of government continue to play this ridiculous narrative that life is safer now,” Robinson said.
Also, Bishop Stephen Adegbite, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN’s Director of National Issues and Social Welfare said: “We do not agree with the minister’s assertions, but they are his personal opinions. “We know that Nigeria today is not better than it was in 2015, going by the rate of abductions, banditry, wanton killings of innocent people, attacks on security personnel, destruction of government establishments, and even lopsidedness in federal appointments, among other injustices and pain in the land.
Meanwhile, the National Security Adviser, NSA, Rtd Major-General Babagana Monguno, has named some groups supporting terrorist organisations in the Sahel region. Speaking at the 14th Workshop of the League of Ulamas, Preachers and Imams of Sahel countries in Abuja, Monguno said: “Terrorism and the rapid escalation of violent activities by militant Islamist groups in the Sahel since 2016 have been primarily driven by the Islamic State in Greater Sahara (ISGS), which mainly operates in Mali and extends to the Niger Republic and Burkina Faso.”
“It is bolstered by activities of groups such as Jama’at Nasr al-Islam Wal Muslimin (JNIM), the Islamic and Muslim Support Group (GSIM), and ISGS, which have continued to pose an imminent threat to the stability of the region.
“In Nigeria, Boko-Haram and Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) dominate terrorist activities, especially in the North-Eastern part of the country,” the report by Channels TV on December 14, 2021, quoted Gen. Monguno as saying.
According to him, the situation in the Sahel has never been grimmer as extremist violence continues to spread with the number of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPS, rising and increasing rate of food insecurity. For him, there is a need to reassess and reset foreign and regional government strategies towards the Sahel and set aside faulty assumptions. Monguno urged the international community and its Sahelian partners to prioritise governance, cautiously pursue an expanded peace process through dialogue, and push for the adoption of more non-kinetic measures through affected communities.
Perhaps, the federal government needs to demonstrate more commitment in the fight against insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other crimes in order the restore the trust of the citizenry, while efforts should be made to tackle the issues of lack of equity, justice and fairness to all segments of the country, since these issues assist in fueling insecurity and killings in the country.
