The recent 21st meeting of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum held to discuss insecurity among other issues bore some semblance to serious governance, but largely lacked substance like other similar ones before it. For instance, their resolve to engage religious and traditional leaders, as well as civil society organisations to boost security in the country and their reliance on the federal police and the army amounts to banking on a failed strategy. The entire security system requires a total overhaul with the states assuming greater role in securing the lives and property of citizens.
The subsisting centralised security system has failed. Incontestably, criminal gangs are growing bolder, staining the cities and countryside with blood. In the past few weeks, a string of serious incidents has highlighted the broader trend of organised crime-related violence across the country. On November 14, gunmen kidnapped a lecturer and two children of another member of staff of the Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Zaria, from their homes located within the institution. The following day, eight students of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, among others, were kidnapped on the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway. Some bandits had earlier attacked Albasi village in Sabon Birnin in the Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, killing 11 persons.
A day after bandits invaded another village, Maraban Kajuru. They killed one person and abducted two others. Bandits, terrorists, armed robbers and kidnappers strike randomly across the country. The Sultan of Sokoto, Abubakar Sa’ad III, lamented that Nigerians had been abandoned by their leaders to the mercy of terrorists and bandits who prey on them at will. Depressingly, this is the stark reality of life for millions of Nigerians and their leaders have failed to show enough commitment, creativity, and political will to deal with the problem.
As civil society groups noted, 396 persons were kidnapped and 695 killed in violent crimes in January this year alone. The Coalition of Northern Groups said massacres by bandits in Sokoto, Kaduna and Katsina states claimed more lives in the country than COVID-19 within three months. In 2019, 3,188 persons were killed in mass atrocities, an average of almost nine persons per day. Estimates of the persons killed by terrorists in the North-East range from 30,000 to 100,000 with over two million displaced.
The country is falling apart. Section 14 (2b) of the 1999 Constitution says, “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” In this regard, the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and the governors have failed Nigerians woefully.
To worsen the situation in the light of the horrible atrocities committed by these terrorists and bandits, the Federal Government and some governors have been offering them amnesty. The war on terror is however nothing like conventional warfare and must be fought on all fronts.
There must be something fundamentally wrong with the psyche, focus and integrity of any leader that will readily grant amnesty to terrorists and jail peaceful protesters, as it happens in Nigeria. Inadvertently, the message that passes across to people is that it is more beneficial to be violent than to toe the path of peace. There must be punishment for crimes committed to serve as a deterrent to others. The entire concept of granting amnesty to criminals is befuddling and distressing, suggesting that Nigeria is isolated on this suicidal journey. Terror attacks are taken seriously all over the world.
On November 16, Iraq executed 21 men convicted of terrorism under a Counter-Terrorism Law, which carries the death penalty. This came shortly after an Abu Dhabi Appeal Court in UAE upheld the conviction of six Nigerians for supplying almost N300 million to fund Boko Haram in 17 separate transfers from Dubai to Nigeria between 2015 and 2016. Nigerians suspect that those convicts would have benefited from the dubious amnesty of the Buhari regime despite their atrocities. As expected, Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina, home state of Buhari, some months after signing a futile peace accord with bandits, lamented its failure. He subsequently vowed that his administration would no longer engage in any further negotiation with the bandits.
How can the country break the cycle of violence? Instead of calling for better engagement with religious and traditional leaders, who themselves are not safe from being killed or kidnapped, what stops the governors’ forum from invoking the doctrine of necessity to push for regional and state security outfits that will bear arms, under strict supervision. The 36 governors must not be blinded by ethnic and political affiliations at the expense of the safety of lives and property of their people. Governors have no excuse to claim they are helpless with the huge amounts of money they get as security votes.
The governors need better solutions to criminal violence in their states. In several editorials, we have stressed that the strategy of relying on federal police and soldiers is not working. For the sake of clarity and at the risk of being repetitive; the strategy is not working, cannot and will not work. These security personnel do not even know the terrain in most states, hence the frequent ambush of soldiers by bandits. Sadly, many governors will rather pander to sectional or party interest than deal squarely with the issues and call a spade a spade.
There is the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Operation Amotekun, established by the six South-West states, but it has only proved to be operational in Ondo and its personnel are not granted permission to bear arms. The South-West governors must get serious and ensure the outfit gets all the support it needs to fill in where the federal police have clearly failed.
