Nigerians were completely certain that Mr President as a retired General, a war veteran and only Army officer who commanded three of the then four divisions for the Nigeria Army, GOC Commanding, 2nd Mechanised Infantry Division, GOC, 3rd Armed Division and GOC, 4th Infantry Division. Mr President attained these positions on deserved not picked from ground and the experience is enough for him to tackle the security challenges bedevilling his administration.
Based on the aforementioned record, voters in 2015 had great anticipation that Mr President was positioned to deal decisively with all forms of threats to the nation. In one of his celebrated and trending tweets during the electioneering, he said the Nigerian government’s handling of the Boko Haram terrorists made the country and its military a laughing stock and it was a big disgrace for the administration to fail to deal with insurgency.
Nigerians have been complaining for six years that the current security chiefs have reached their limit and the need for new ones, but the president has been steadfast in support of them in spite of undesirable results. We have witnessed how smaller African countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger Republic leaders acted when terrorists attacked their military base by firing the top security chiefs.
It is understandable that the Buhari administration and its security apparatus are not on top of the situation because of lack of synergy among the service chiefs and security agencies. People in the northern part of the country are now completely at the mercy of armed gangs who roam towns and villages at will, wreaking havoc.
Early this month, the Sultan of Sokoto and other well meaning Nigerians lamented the high rate of insecurity particularly in the north as the bandits are fast overrunning the region.
It is likely the perpetrators of the kidnapping of over 300 boys from Science Secondary School Kankara in Katsina state aimed at embarrassing President Buhari because the crime was committed when Mr President was in his county home of Daura just 190 km drive from Kankara, even though the kidnapped school boys regained their freedom and met Mr President.
The latest incident of abduction evoked memories of the about 275 students of Chibok Girls Secondary school in Borno state and the 110 girls at the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College Dapchi, Yobe state kidnapped by terrorists. But nearly all of the schoolgirls kidnapped by militants in Dapchi were reunited with their families.
The abduction of students of Government Boys Science Secondary School in Kankara is an indication that the government and security agencies have not learnt from the unfortunate incidents of abduction girls from the Chibok and Dapchi.
Early this month Boko Haram terrorists massacred over 45 farmers at Zabarmani in Borno state, some ABU students along Kaduna and Abuja were kidnapped by armed bandits. Bandits stormed communities in Faskari and killed more than 46 people. How come these faceless and heartless criminals perpetrate this mass kidnapping?
The rising tide of insecurity across northern Nigeria comes amid the government’s faltering strategy to combat a decade long insurgency that has metastasized into one of the country’s most challenging after the bitter experience of the three-year civil war.
I advise strongly that the government and the citizens should evolve strategies in tackling the menace. It behooves on every Nigerian to rise to the occasion in supporting security agencies towards securing Nigeria. Every Nigerian is a major stakeholder and therefore owes it a duty to support Nigeria from the quagmire of insecurity.
One of the greatest misfortunes we have in the country lack intelligentsia
sharing between security agencies and citizens. It is only in Nigeria some unpatriotic peoples are aiding crime one way or the other. Everybody is spoiling Nigeria in their own corners and in their own way and without any sense of remorse. Insecurity in the northern part of the country has escalated is exposing a great number of people to avoidably kidnapping and death in a manner never witnessed in history.
We want change but we don’t want to change and nothing is wrong with Nigeria but almost everything is wrong with Nigeria. In the North, villagers give information to Boko Haram, kidnappers and bandits. In the South, families, friends protect drug dealers and yahoo boys. In higher places, senators bail peoples with questionable character like Maina and Nnamdi Kanu.
A million questions need answers from Mr President: Are there no more competent people to step into the shoes of the service chiefs? Why expect a different result from doing the same thing every day? Why is the president still keeping the service chiefs whose tenures have expired? The current state of security in the country has already necessitated the need for fresh hands to pilot the affairs of Nigeria security for better results.
I am sure President Buhari and his security chiefs are doing the best to overcome the challenges that have been persisting across the country but the president’s inability to listen to voices of reason has not helped matters.
One finds it difficult to juxtapose the constitutional and primary responsibility of the government with the prevailing situation in the country under the watch of the president and governors given the situation in which scores of people are being killed on a daily basis, hundreds kidnapped and hundreds have abandoned their homes.
Dukawa writes via [email protected]
