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As the first four-year term of President Muhammadu Buhari grinds to an end on May 29, there may no letup in the insecurity as blame game and payment of ransom to kidnappers and terrorists continue
By Olu Ojewale
GRADUALLY, the first four years of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is winding down. On Wednesday, May 29, President Buhari and his deputy will be sworn-in for another four-year term in office.
But ahead of the swearing-in, there is no running away from some of the old problems working against the administration of the country. Indeed, Buhari had been elected in 2015 based on the promise that his administration would tackle issues of security, corruption and restore the economy.
Incidentally, the hydra-headed monster called insecurity has been roaring in many parts of the country in recent times to the chagrin of everyone. The situation promises to live with the country into the new four year of governance.
In the past few days, weeks and months Nigerians have been contending with serious security threats in different parts of the country.
For instance, on Wednesday, May 1, Musa Umar, the district head of Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s hometown, was been kidnapped by four unidentified gunmen.
The kidnappers stormed Umar’s residence in Daura, capital of Katsina State, at 7:00pm and sporadically shot into the air, scaring away bystanders, who scampered for safety.
The district head had just returned from the mosque where he took part in the evening prayer when the incident happened. Umar, who is said to be the father-in-law of the ADC to the president, was sitting in front of his house with some people when the gunmen arrived.
The kidnappers eventually took away Umar in a Peugeot 406 saloon car, according to witnesses.
Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant to the president on Media and Publicity, said the abduction of Musa Umar, the district head of Daura, who is also the husband to Bilki, President Buhari’s niece, showed that security agencies were not giving any town preferential treatment.
The abducted district head is also the father-in-law to Mohammed Abubakar, a colonel and Buhari’s Aide-de-camp.
Nevertheless, Shehu, who spoke during an interview on Kakaaki, a breakfast television programme on the Africa Independent Television, on Monday, May 6, argued that the number of people killed under Buhari’s watch was lower when compared with Nigerians that lost their lives under the past governments.
Shehu, who scored the Buhari administration 98 percent in the fight against insurgency, said: “If you ask me about the biggest security (challenge) we met on the ground, it is Boko Haram terrorism and I will score this administration 98 percent coming this far because Boko Haram is now confined to the fringes of the Lake Chad. As a matter of fact, they jump in and out and mainly occupy communities that have not been re-occupied by their owners.”
Besides, he said: “Yes, there has been a recent rise (in attacks) but this is not to suggest that this has never happened in the country and they are beginning just now because President Buhari is out of the country.
“You mentioned the numbers but I want to say from our own point of view in the Presidency, we have avoided comparing numbers because it will lead to the same criticisms that some people have made of being insensitive because even if it is one life of a Nigerian that is lost, it is important, it cannot be justified, it cannot be defended.
“But anybody who takes the trouble to check the Presidential website; at some point Femi (Adesina) had done the numbers and the staggering numbers put on display coming from the past are nothing comparable to these numbers but we will not take it lightly.”
Kidnappers had similarly struck on Monday, April 29, when Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, the chairman of Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, and Yasmin, his daughter, were abducted on the notorious Abuja-Kaduna highway. Abubakar’s driver was killed by the gunmen.
Mercifully, the UBEC chairman and his daughter were released the following day after some ransom was paid to the kidnappers.
Similarly on the night of Wednesday, May 1 gunmen invaded the Government Girls Secondary School Moriki in Zurmi local government area, Zamfara State, Northern Nigeria, and abducted four female cooks and seven others. The gunmen abducted two teachers of the school and four women who are nursing students.
Realnews reports that the gunmen could not get to the hostels where the girls were housed because security agencies were mobilised on time to repel the attackers.
Confirming the attack, Ibrahim Dosara, the special adviser on Media and Information to Governor Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari of Zamfara State, said on Kakaki programme of the African Independent Television this morning that 11 people were abducted from the school but that six people were rescued.
The security concern in Plateau State was a different sort as two persons were killed and two other persons were declared missing in a fresh attack in Bassa local government of the state. More than 300 cows were also killed in the brutal assault. According to the police, the incident occurred at about 8pm on Monday, April 29, evening when unknown gunmen launched an attack on Maiyanga village in Miango district of Bassa LGA Plateau State.
Terna Tyopev, a deputy superintendent of police and the police public relations officer, who confirmed the incident in a statement on Wednesday, May 1, said that a seven-month-old girl survived the attack with a neck injury and was receiving treatment at Enos Hospital at Miango.
“Two cattle rearers; one Mubarak Yakubu and one Shehu Saidu both male of different addresses were missing,” the police spokesman said.
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, and the Jonde Jam Fulani Youth Association had earlier raised the alarm over the attack, claiming that more than 300 cows allegedly killed by the gunmen belonged to it members.
Muhammad Nuru Abdullahi, the state MACBAN chairman, said 29 carcasses had been found in Kuru on Tuesday morning while 314 were counted in Maiyanga, near the School of Accountancy in Kwal district of Bassa local government area.
Abdullahi said the attack had also claimed the life of Shehu Saedu while Mubarak Adamu was still missing.
The police said investigations were still ongoing on the matter.
Incidentally, the kind of attack which occurred in Plateau State is not an isolated one. Kaduna, Benue, Adamawa, Taraba among other states have similarly recorded such attacks by gunmen and herdsmen.
Indeed, in the past two to three weeks, there had hardly been a period without a security crisis besieging a placed commonly called Southern Kaduna, Kaduna State.
Indeed, in one of the attacks, Faye Mooney, a 29-year-old British aid worker, was killed by kidnappers along with a Nigerian on Friday, April 19. Some gunmen had that evening attacked Kajuru Castle in which three other people were abducted, Kaduna police and the British high commission said.
Mercy Corps, the non-governmental aid agency Mooney worked for almost two years, paid tribute to her. “Faye was a dedicated, passionate communication and learning specialist,” Neal Keny-Guyer, the chief executive, said in a statement posted on social media, adding that colleagues were “utterly heartbroken.”
Recently and some times in the past, the state government was forced to impose a 24-hour-curfew on Kasuwan Magani, Kajuru Local Government Area, following the hostility that started in the area on Thursday, April 25, evening.
The incident claimed three lives and a house razed in the troubled community.
Kajuru, a few hours drive to Kaduna metropolis and gateway to the southern part of the state and other states such as Plateau, Nasarawa and Benue, had been engulfed in crisis for some time now.
The tension heightened in the area on Thursday, April 25, forcing the state to slam the curfew.
Trouble started when the body of a Hausa boy was found in a well. In reprisal, some Hausa boys allegedly attacked Adara boys in the area.
The two Adara boys, according to the report, were coming from the market when they were attacked and beaten up by some suspected Hausa boys. One of the Adara boys was rushed to the St. Gerard Catholic Hospital where he died on Friday morning.
The incident sparked apprehension, forcing the deployment of security operatives in the troubled community.
Confirming the incident, Cafra Caino, chairman of Kajuru Local Government, said the situation had been brought under control, following the curfew imposed on the area by the state government to avert further violence. “Yesterday there was tension and security personnel were deployed and the whole area was cordoned,” Caino said. Announcing the 24-hour- curfew on Kajuru, Samuel Aruwan, senior special assistant on Media and Publicity to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, said the curfew took immediate effect.
He disclosed that Barnabas Yusuf Bala, the state deputy governor, had directed for strict enforcement of the curfew and also urged citizens to comply and support restoration of peace in the community.
But the violence is not restricted to the North, several other similar incidents have also been reported in the South.
For instance, in gunmen killed a Clement Ugwu, a reverend father and Catholic priest, who was said to have been kidnapped from his Parish, St Mark Catholic Church, Obinofia Ndiuno in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State.
The body of the late Ugwu was found in a bush decomposing on Wednesday morning, March 20, a week after he was allegedly kidnapped.
Also in Enugu State, on July 4, 2018, Paulinus Udewangu, a reverend father of the St. Marks Catholic Church, Nsude in Udi Local Government Area was kidnapped while he was jogging.
Be that as it may, the outburst of violence in the North in recent times seems to have caught Nigerian security operatives unawares.
On Tuesday, April 30 Mohammed Adamu, the acting inspector-general of Police, rolled out a disheartening statistics of the past four
months, saying 1,071 persons lost their lives in crime-related cases across the country in the first quarter of 2019.At the quarterly Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council meeting held in Kaduna, Adamu said the crime statistics showed that between January and April, at least 685 persons were kidnapped across the country.
He said 767 of the persons killed were from the North. Giving a further breakdown of those killed, Adamu said the North-West topped the death list with 436; North-Central came second with 250; while the South-South geopolitical zone recorded 130 deaths during the period under review.
He added that Zamfara State with 203 murder cases topped the national prevalence rate, Kaduna State followed closely with 112 reported cases while 90 people were killed in Benue State.
According to the police boss, most of the murder cases recorded in the North are linked to banditry and communal violence.
In relation to banditry, he said, a total of 175 deaths were reported between January and April this year with Zamfara State topping the list with 104 reported cases, followed by Katsina State with 21 killed by bandits and Sokoto State with 19 cases.
On kidnappings, the IGP said 546 or 79.8 percent of the national total were recorded in the three northern geopolitical zones.
The highest zonal prevalence rate occurred in the North-West where 365 persons were reportedly kidnapped within the period under review. This is followed by the North-Central geopolitical zone where 145 persons were kidnapped.
“It is pertinent to mention that Zamfara State has the highest national kidnap rate with 281 victims in what has been directly linked to the activities of bandits in the state. This is followed by Kogi and Niger states where 65 and 51 persons, respectively, were kidnapped within the period,” the IG added.
On armed robbery, Adamu revealed that a total of 212 major armed robbery cases were reported across the country within the period under review.
He further said the North with 130 major robbery cases representing 59.43 percent of the national total incident rate topped the list of armed robbery profile.
“The North-Central geopolitical zone with a total of 81 armed robbery cases represents the zone with the highest rate while Niger State, the FCT and Zamfara State with 32, 23 and 18 cases, respectively, occupy the three topmost states in the national armed robbery profile,” he said.
To combat the growing security threats across Nigeria, Adamu disclosed that Buhari had approved the adoption of a community police system. He said further: “It is a citizen-centred and community policing approach which will lead to more sustainable successes in the management of internal safety and security threats.”
The IGP said the community policing model envisaged for the country will involve the establishment and utilisation of the special constables, the kind mirrored after the Police Community Support Officers Standard in the United Kingdom policing architecture.
However, it will be tailored to align with the existing traditional security structure in Northern Nigeria. “The Special Constables will be drawn from members of the community to serve as voluntary community police officers under the coordination of the Nigeria Police Force.
“This new drive is in line with the expressed desire and directives of the President, His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR,” he said.
Supporting the plan, Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, and other top government functionaries, said traditional rulers are strategic actors within the community policing architecture.
The traditional institutional structure present a unique framework which if properly engaged could enhance the attainment of community policing practices.
Indeed, nevertheless, the Boko Haram insurgence has remained a big factor in dealing with security concern in Nigeria. Boko Haram militants launched their insurgency in 2009.
Before he took the reign of government in 2015, Buhari had promised to uproot the jihadists from the country. Less than two years in office, Buhari has repeatedly claimed that the Boko Haram Islamic group has been defeated or decimated, but analysts have disagreed with the president assertion. The group has remained alive, using suicide bombers and sporadic attacks against the Nigeria in the North East.
In fact, the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, reported that the group killed more than 900 people in 2017, marginally more than it did in 2016. The conflict between the Nigeria military and the Boko Haram sect is mostly focused in North-Eastern part of the country, resulting in about 20,000 deaths and displaced at least two million people.
According to the BBC, “Boko Haram reportedly mounted a total of 150 attacks in 2017, an increase on the 127 attacks it is said to have mounted the previous year.
“In both years the group launched its highest number of attacks in January, with both of these spikes followed by President Buhari’s claims that Boko Haram had met its demise.”
Besides, the report indicated that Nigeria suffered the majority of attacks in both 2016 and 2017, with Borno State – the birthplace of the insurgency – being the most common target.
Only last Tuesday, April 30, no fewer than 26 persons were killed and several others critically injured following a Boko Haram attack on a village in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State.
The insurgents, riding motorcycles, stormed the Kudakaya village in large numbers around 7:00pm on Monday, April 29.
“Many victims fell to the attack. I saw corpses of 26 people and there are several others that were critically injured and taken to hospital,” a local vigilante member said.
Abawu Ularamu, a former chairman of the Madagali LGA, supported the anonymous vigilante member’s account, saying: “They (Boko Haram) burnt several shops and many homes. They also stole food items. As I am talking to you now, we are living in an atmosphere of despair and agony after this attack. Over 20 people were killed while many were injured and rushed to hospital.”
He reasoned that the insurgents must have arrived the community from Sambisa, a forest in neighbouring Borno State, dreaded for being a hideout for Boko Haram despite its supposedly having been cleared of the insurgents by soldiers.
“There is no doubt the attackers came from Sambisa. We experience such periodic attacks from Boko Haram, who usually look for food. They are not far from us. Any slight opportunity, they may strike again,” he said.
Othman Abubakar, Adamawa State Police public relations officer, confirmed the attack. “Yes, I was briefed that members of the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents have attacked the village.”
Othman, however, could not confirm the casualty figure. He merely said, “I am yet to get the casualty figure but security operatives were deployed and are on the top of the situation.’’
Madagali has frequently since just before the March/April elections been frequently attacked by Boko Haram. It shares the bad luck of being haunted by the insurgents with nearby Michika LGA. Together, they are the two LGAs in Adamawa State that have been attacked by Boko Haram a number of times in the last couple of months.
Nevertheless, it was somewhat a victory for the Buhari administration on May 6, 2017 as 82 Chibok schoolgirls were released after negotiations between Boko Haram and the Nigerian government.
But on February 19, 2018, a faction of Boko Haram raided the Government Girls Science and Technical College in the North East Nigerian town of Dapchi, kidnapping 110 students of the college.
On March 21, 2018, Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture, announced that 104 of the girls abducted from their boarding school on February 19, had been released and returned to their hometown of Dapchi. Five of the girls were dead in captivity, while the remaining one, Leah Sahibu, who refused to convert to Islam remains in captivity.
While the Nigerian military is fighting the insurgents on one hand, it is also working towards rehabilitating former members of the Boko Haram sect.
About two week ago, the Nigerian Army released a total of 152 former Boko Haram militants for reintegration back into the society after undergoing 12 months of de-radicalisation training in Gombe State.
The graduation ceremony of the ex-militants took place in Malam Sidi, Gombe on Wednesday, April 3, as they were reunited with their families.
The de-radicalisation programme is part of the military’s Operation Safe Corridor which was launched in 2016 to encourage terrorists to surrender amid untold atrocity wreaked by the terror group in 10 years of insurgency in the northeast region.
On Wednesday, Beyidi Martins, a colonel and the Gombe Camp commandant, said the repentant militants were assessed by psychologists, social workers, and other psycho-social support experts who passed them fit to return to society.
During their de-radicalisation, the repentant militants were trained and equipped with vocational skills to make them more useful and self-reliant and keep them from falling back to their old ways.
He said Operation Safe Corridor is an effective non-combat approach to fighting Boko Haram as it frustrates its recruitment efforts.
“The federal government is using this programme to cut the abilities of the sect to recruit more members and also ensure defection into the programme by other insurgents.
“By the time this is achieved, the government will be able to reduce the number of free hands the sect recruits to fight it,” he told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.
Lamidi Adeosun, a major general and chief of Training and Operations of the Nigerian Army, revealed in November 2018,
“Over 2000 fighters have so far surrendered on this programme and out of which about 300 have undergone a comprehensive and complete rehabilitation” and integrated into the society in more than two years.
None of the officers said anything about recruiting any of the former Boko Haram insurgents into the military as being speculated.
Nevertheless, Sidi Ali Mohammed, a member of the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative, PCNI, recently caused some disquiet in the military recently when he charged that Boko Haram provides better welfare package for its members than the Nigerian military.
Mohammed allegedly claimed that the “terrorist group members earn as much as $3,000 daily as against the Nigerian soldier who is paid N1, 000 only.’’
But this was disputed by Sagir Musa, a colonel and the spokesman of the army, in a statement on Wednesday, May 1.
Musa, while urging Nigerians to discountenance the statement credited to Mohammed, said “steps are being taken to formally report him to the appropriate authorities to further substantiate these unfounded allegations.’’
Musa said Mohammed’s claim was a pure and highly irresponsible comment coming from a supposedly knowledgeable person of his calibre.
“Indeed there is no such basis at all between the outlawed criminal terrorist who commits crime against humanity and our highly patriotic, courageous and brave soldiers whose sacrifice cannot be quantified,’’ the Army spokesman said.
In any case, Balarabe Musa, a former governor of Kaduna State, warned that given the harsh situation, Nigeria may still witness a coup.
In an interview, on Sunday Vanguard, April 28, Musa feared that things had so deteriorated in the country that anything could happen at any moment. “This government will not do anything until it faces a balance of terror against it (and) by which time it might be too late. Balance of terror is either a military coup or civil rebellion like it happened in Sudan and Venezuela…” the radical politician said.
On his part, Abubakar Tsav, a retired police commissioner, said in an interview that the current insecurity in the country can be effectively tackled if the country can deal with corruption and injustice permeating the whole fabric of Nigeria as a nation.
“When somebody is looking for justice and you deny him, he can help himself with whatever means. That is how Boko Haram started. The president is at the national level fighting corruption but not all the people are with him. In the state, the governors are using corruption fight for themselves and enriching themselves with security vote and nobody is asking any question,” Tsav said.
On herdsmen and farmers frequent conflicts, he said government should devise a way of bringing about peaceful coexistence between them, especially through ranching. “Ranching must be built where there is land. This has been the reason for enacting a law in Benue State, the anti-open grazing law. But they have not been able to give herdsmen land to build their ranches,” he argued.
Similarly, the former police boss said that Nigeria should recruit more policemen and women and harp more on intelligence gathering to deal with banditry. “The government is not doing enough to help the police. There are lots of school leavers roaming the streets who should be recruited into the police. There are many police training institutions in the country lying idle that require government’s attention. They should be able to train them. All the stolen money being recovered could be used to train the police, pay their salaries and other allowances,” he argued.
Tsav said the kind of violence and killings in the country showed lack of intelligence gathering. He said: “During our time, what we used to do was that if there was any threat of violence or criminality in any particular place, just attach a policeman to a particular organisation, you could go there and pretend to be a civilian. They would employ you like a civilian; you would not wear uniform but you would hide your identity card. You would work there and know exactly what happened and report to the headquarters. But that is no longer done. Everybody that goes there wants to identify himself as a policeman.”
Besides, he said Nigeria police need more training and retraining, equipment as well as commensurate remuneration and allowances to do their job.
Well said, let us hope that Nigerian policy makers are listening and acting on those suggestions before it is too late.
– May 7, 2019 @ 13:59 GMT |
Tags: Insecurity: Why Killings Persist in Nigeria
