Juliana Francis
As the curtain fell on the Year 2023, headcounts were taken, and it was discovered that many Nigerians could not be accounted for.
The Year 2023 was bloody and consumed a lot of Nigerians as kidnapping for ransom, ritual killings, violent crimes and wanton killings rocked the nation.
The insecurity issues in 2023 turned different parts of the country into theatres of war, and the war rages into 2024, with Nigeria’s Security Chiefs appearing to be bereft of ideas on how to check the galloping insecurity.
While the Security Chiefs ponder and wonder at the likely solutions, body bags continue to increase, with Nigerians burying their dead almost daily.
According to Dataphyte, recent data published by SBM Intelligence revealed that 2,047 deaths occurred in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023.
The other quarters were also characterised by death, violence, blood, sorrow and tears.
The Year 2023 ended on a tragic note, with brazen attacks by bandits on villages in Plateau State, causing the death of over 200 people.
It was further reported the bandits started the protracted attack on Saturday and continued through Sunday and Monday, which was Christmas Day.
The long-drawn-out attack has caused many Nigerians to ask rhetorically if the law enforcement agencies went on holiday on those horrific days of killings.
While other Nigerians, filled with indignation demanded the sack of all the Service Chiefs in Nigeria.
The December attack has also made many Nigerians doubt and question President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s capability to emancipate the country from the strangulating hold of bandits, which was among his campaign promises.
The Year 2023 also witnessed the Nigerian Air Force Jet dropping a bomb on Tudun Biri, a community within the Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State during a Maulud celebration.
The resultant effect was the death of an inestimable number of villagers, including women and children.
NAF would later state that the bomb was mistakenly dropped on the villagers. However, that was not the first time that the NAF had dropped bombs on innocent women and children.
Daily Trust, reported that on July 6, 2022, an NAF fighter jet “mistakenly” bombed civilians in Kakuna village of Katsina State, killing at least one person and injuring others.
Many have argued that the attacks in Plateau State are among the worst in Nigeria, with deaths in essence of over 100, people missing and houses burnt.
A retired military officer and former Commander of the Special Task Force, Operation Safe Haven, Plateau State, Major General Henry Ayoola, speaking recently with Arise TV on the attacks and killings in Plateau State, said: “From what I’ve seen, not much has changed. We keep doing the same thing and expect results, it’s insanity! The people in charge do not understand the problem. I have written about five different papers on how to deal with insurgency and terrorism.
“I have been talking but nobody is listening. In other countries when this kind of problem happens, you involve all former commanders towards solving the problem.”
According to him, the issue in Plateau has to do with a clash of culture, interest and ideology. There is also the problem of herder clashes, and cattle rustling, among others.
He said: “We know where the problems started. We create problems and push the armed forces to go and quell them. There are sympathisers and these sympathisers are the creators. We need strong determination, and courage to take the necessary steps.
“The indigenes know who is killing them; that is why I said we need decisive action. The adversaries are unrelenting and they keep attacking, while we keep talking. The problems and solutions are known,” said Ayoola.
He continued: “When dealing with an unrelenting adversary, you need a sustainable solution. The adversaries have an ideology. There’s so much you can do as an individual. Powers that be should be willing to take to the solution that had been proffered.”
The Executive Director of the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Okechukwu Nwanguma, speaking on insecurity that characterized former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in comparison to President Ahmed Tinubu, said nothing has changed between the years 2022 and 2023.
His words: “This month January is the eighth month after Tinubu was inaugurated as President in May.
“One of the serious challenges he inherited was insecurity. Even the way the campaigns were run also contributed to insecurity. The sensationalism of politics and ethnic and religious tensions built up as a result of the way the campaigns were run.”
Nwanguma mentioned that aside from the obvious fact that Tinubu inherited a very insecure country, the President also identified insecurity as one of the top priorities of his government.
“He took certain measures including appointing new service chiefs, including the Inspector General of Police and made a lot of assurances during the campaigns, with a promise to tackle insecurity.”
He continued: “If you look at the budget for security, it looks like it is higher than what it was in the previous years. But then of course, if you compare that to the budget for the National Assembly you’ll notice that the National Assembly more than doubled.
“What I am saying is that even though the security budget appears to be a little bit higher, it still doesn’t seem to show sufficient political will on the part of the government to address insecurity.
“It appears what is more important is the personal benefits and welfare of politicians than the welfare of Nigerians, than equipping security agencies and improving their capacity to deal with insecurity.”
Ms. Ilo Jerry is a female security analyst, who has covered and reported issues relating to the Nigerian Security Sector for years. She said that since the change of baton in the Nigerian leadership, there has been no significant improvement in the security architecture and insecurity continues to escalate.
According to her, Nigerians have continued to live in perpetual fear and anxiety due to an insecure environment, with threats being witnessed on so many fronts. She recalled that shortly after Tinubu came on board as President of Nigeria, some Youth Corps members travelling to Sokoto were kidnapped on the highway in Zamfara and till today nothing had been heard of them.
She stated: “The parents of these children came out in September last year and cried for help. The parents raised N10m, but even at that, the insensitive insurgents demanded N10m for each of the students.
“This is supposed to be democracy, why are people suffering? What measures have the security forces taken to rescue these students?
“In November, 40 villagers were killed in a community simply because they failed to pay taxes to Boko Haram insurgents. If you saw the way they massacred these people; they took all of them out to a village square and just opened fire on them.
“The next day a few of them came to bury their dead and on their way, their vehicle ran into landmines and that was how another set was killed.
“You are also aware of the incident that happened in December, on the 24th, in a coordinated mass shooting, armed men invaded 20 communities in Plateau State and killed over 200 people. There have been similar incidents since October and November since this present administration came into power.
“To think that these invaders have the temerity to even write these so-called communities after they have killed over 200 persons, saying they will be coming to attack again. The threat in itself is a mockery of our instituted agencies and the Federal Government as a whole! A family of seven were attacked and kidnapped on Ogoja highway, a border town in Cross River.
“Bad roads are also part of the causes of these terrors because vehicles need to slow down and that serves as an advantage to the bandits.”
According to Jerry, Boko Haram terrorists recently attacked a community, killed 11 persons and abducted a lady, but nothing has been heard of the victims.
She also complained that cultists are running amok, holding sway in the Southern part of the country with killings everywhere and it seems nobody is in charge.
She stressed: “My pain is that these people killed are poor masses and politicians are the ones paying these people. Gunmen stormed a certain supermarket in Nasarawa, where people were just shopping and killed them.
“It means there has been no change from the previous administration. What Nigeria wants is to look up to the Federal Government for a solution. It is indeed one of our constitutional rights as citizens for our lives and property to be protected.”
Jerry, while opining that Tinubu’s administration should check insecurity, emphasised that allowing all citizens to be armed as suggested by a Nigerian senator was not the solution.
Her words: “It’s not just about everyone carrying arms, but who releases the first bullet. The solution should be for the government at all levels to take a decisive stand and have a political will to address insecurity.
“You cannot tell me that these Boko Haram or bandits or whatever they call themselves do not have sponsors. Until the government have the political will to arrest anyone sponsoring them irrespective of their placement in society, we will not be rid of this insecurity problem.”
She further stated that since it had been discovered that part of the problem in the northeast was for control of mineral resources, it was vital to find out those sponsoring the operations.
She added: “They are not common people like you and I, they are people in power, they are politicians. This is why I said that the government should have a holistic review of this insecurity and fight it to the last. The idea is to intimidate the dwellers out of their state, so they can take over.
“If the government intends to address security, security agents should be given a free hand to carry out investigations and persecute everyone arrested because some people carry themselves as untouchable.
“Our security agents should be given all it takes to fight these criminals to a standstill. Our security agents have been performing magic with the little resources at their disposal, and now wonder what they can achieve if given training and technology.
“I have been opportune to meet with Naval personnel from other countries when there were joined operations between them and Nigerian Naval personnel, and what I saw made a mockery of our system here, everybody had gadgets!
“They had gadgets that were even reading in a computer and someone would sit somewhere, and their shoes could even detect explosives miles away from where they were but what do we have here? We have boots that cannot detect anything, no device, and government and top security offices just send these men out there without gadgets to die.
“Even our local police do not have armour for their chest, no bulletproof, they are just vulnerable to any attack. Yes, there may be some corrupt ones but until we start championing the cause of our security agents, whether the military or the police, we will all be doomed! It is the masses that will feel the pinches most. Our men need training and technology; battles are no longer fought the way they used to be.
“Checking insecurity should start with those in government and politicians because many are saboteurs! The bandits live in communities, but because of fear, even when they tell security agents how secure is their lives. So these are things that must be fought holistically.
“President Tinubu recently budgeted a N100 billion allocation, which was a max for school feeding. Well, that can only be achieved when you have a secure environment. Is it not in a secure environment that children will be able to go to school?
“If security is not checkmate, we will be experiencing food insecurity because farmers are being chased from their farms by bandits. Before you know it, there will be famine everywhere. Today, women are predominately the breadwinners of their homes and so, if there is food insecurity, what do we women rely on?
“Even though it has started, some women in the Northern part go to their farmland, some of them have no choice but to allow Boko Haram members to rape them and their female children, just so they allow them to go to their farms! Many farmers in the northern parts pay levies to Boko Haram insurgents before they can on their farms.
“When these bandits come, they slaughter the men and leave the women and girls. If insecurity comes, who do we fall back on? Even our female children are going into prostitution. It is high time the government did the needful!”
Mr Frank Oshanugor, a seasoned security analyst and author of Terrorism: The Nigerian (1994 – 1998), said that the Plateau State killings in December showed that the present administration, like the previous, does not still have a solution to the problem of insecurity in Nigeria.
He recalled that Tinubu made promises and many Nigerians keyed into the hope mantra, but to date, the desired and expected results were yet to be.
Oshanugor said: “Tinubu as a president has not brought any changes to tackle the insecurity challenges! I read in the dailies that security agencies were aware of the Christmas Day attack in Plateau State because it lasted for more than three hours.
“Are you telling me that we don’t have soldiers, police, and DSS operatives in this country anymore? Among all the security agencies, none came out to confront these people. The saddest aspect of it all is that days after the attack, nobody had been arrested! Nobody is being held accountable for what happened and such cannot be in a civilised clime.
“That is a sign of a failed state and leadership. Nigeria is the only country I have seen where life doesn’t matter. Nigerians will go to bed and wake up to hear that over 100 people have been murdered.
“The next thing is condolence visits, threats, deployment of policemen through the Inspector General of Police, and afterwards nothing happens! It has become a recurring decimal.”
According to Oshanugor, it would not be wrong for him to assume the complicities of security agencies in the escalating insecurity in Nigeria.
He added: “If they are not, why can’t they be proactive and counter-attacks in the nick of time? Why can’t they reinforce and confront these killers? Are you telling me we don’t have intelligence in the military, Police, or DSS anymore? What exactly is the function of the DSS?
“The worst is that days after these attacks when the President was making his address, he didn’t make any serious comment about the lives that were lost.
“I took time to read the President’s statement, did he emphasise it, or say anything about the incident? No! In the next week, the hue and cry will be over. Then we will be waiting for the next round of people that will be killed, it has become a ritual.”
Oshanugor opined that the solution was for President Tinubu’s administration to stop seeing anyone as a sacred cow. He also expressed displeasure over the Nigerian government politicizing insecurity, stressing that amnesty should not be given to insurgents or kidnappers.
He stated: “Many people were arrested during the Buhari administration. There was a time government told us that it had arrested 800 people in connection with the Boko Haram killings. Did you hear anything about it again? Where is the man who was interfacing with terrorists and negotiating ransom?
“Let there be prosecution from beginning to end, and the prosecution must be seen to be transparent! Our leaders, both at the National Assembly level are not serious. What I expect from the leadership is to think of what will be in the best interest of Nigerians.”
He said that what should be in the best interest of Nigerians is for the government to provide employment, adding that, “all the money being used to build a house for the vice president, which is about N15 billion, is enough for job creation. How can you use such an amount to build a house for a single person?
“Students are in schools and our leaders are making a budget of N5 billion for student loans only, whereas N15 billion is for the house of a man.
“Go and check the budget of the National Assembly, where we have about 400 members; the budget is about N125 billion, but what is the education budget and other budgets?
“Creation of employment will check crimes and criminalities. If you don’t provide jobs, idle hands will go and rob. These days, students will graduate, but because there are no jobs, they will dive into cybercrime. Now, cybercrime has come to stay. If employments are not created for school leavers, crime will continue to increase.
“If they like, let them buy armoured tanks (APC) for each street, it will not solve the problem. What’s going to solve the problem is to use the money they are wasting, including the trillions they are borrowing to finance the budget, to create employment.
“How can they be spending so much on one person, when people are dying and you think there will be peace? There will not be peace! those of them who are deprived of employment, and those of them who are deprived of good means of livelihood, will resort to violence, and that violence is what you are seeing today.”
