By John Araka
One of the main reasons was revealed by, perhaps, the most embattled governor in the country, Malam Nasri El Rufai of Kaduna State.
Most Nigerians have been wondering why our nation, with all its fabled military prowess, has been virtually brought to its knees by some ragtag terrorists since 2009, without any hope of ending their nefarious actions soon.
He said that as the chief security officer in the state, he is given its security situation daily by the intelligence agencies. Revealing that the reports have consistently shown that the military knows all the locations of the terrorists in the state.
He went further to say that the undercover personnel have the telephone numbers of their leaders and listen to their invidious conversations all the time. The Governor is, therefore, seriously pained that in spite of these empirical facts, the military authorities bluntly refused to bomb or seriously attack the terrorist camps.
He has severally expressed his disappointment with this inexplicable behaviour of the armed forces, before shouting out to the public recently.
He finds it difficult to understand why the military , whose responsibility it is to end the terrorism, is refusing to take decisive action with all the intelligence information at its disposal. According to him, the excuse of the military is that “ bombing the terrorist groups will lead to collateral damages”.
El Rufai was certainly right when he insisted that “we are in a state of war and there is no way we can totally avoid collateral damages “.
Kaduna , is undoubtedly, one of the states , suffering the worst mayhem , particularly in the southern part where ethno-religious clashes have claimed many innocent lives, rendered thousands homeless and destroyed several property. In recent times, the situation has been further complicated by the heightened attacks on the Abuja/ Kaduna highway, which has now been extended to its airport and railway lines.
Even the army barracks, which are supposed to be fortresses, are not spared. Kaduna State is about the most dangerous place to visit or live in the country today.
No where is safe. What is playing out there , is a clear evidence of why terrorism, of whatever guise, is flourishing in the country. In fact, it has become a lucrative business as the terrorists smile to the banks all the time with bag- loads of money they earn from kidnap victims and other nefarious activities.
Over the years, many Nigerian elite have accused the top military hierarchy of complicity in the war against terror. The firebrand former national law maker, Senator Shehu Sani from Kaduna State, gave a graphic picture of the unwillingness of the Armed Forces to tackle terrorism head on.
In a press conference, he courageously named those he classified as the four topmost northern terrorist leaders:” Bello Turji, Dogo Gide, Manjagara and Balleri.
He was disillusioned that , though they are well known to the security agencies, “they are moving freely , planning and executing terrorist attacks successfully”.
According to him, “the terrorist leaders even go about granting interviews to radio stations and newspapers in Hausa language, yet remained illusive for the authorities to arrest “.
Inexplicable. The question really is whether the federal government, which is solely in control of all the security agencies , is genuinely committed to ending the spate of rising terrorism in the country? It is common knowledge that the top hierarchy of the military has literally commercialized the war.
They are feeding fat on it. We cannot forget in a hurry how a huge sum of money , budgeted for military equipment, was maliciously loaded into a private plane and flown to a neighbouring country.
That was during the Jonathan administration. The situation seems to be getting worse as money provided for the procurement of arms and ammunition is still being brazengly embezzled. They devise several fraudulent ways to rip off the country to the detriment of our overall security and wellbeing.
How can one explain the fact that the higher the defence budget the more deadly and frequently the attacks from the hoodlums all over the country? In 2015 when the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration came to power, the national budget for defense was only N969 billion.
This year, it has ballooned to a whopping N2.41 trillion. This is about 15 percent of our entire annual budget. Unfortunately, there is no corresponding dividends in the nation’s safety architecture.
It is just like a precious national treasure flushed down the drain. Ordinarily, I could have given some credit to the armed forces for the noticeable de-escalation of Boko Haram’s activities in the North-eastern zone.
But that has been, unfortunately, wiped out by the unprecedented escapes of bandits in the Northwest, where life has degenerated to the Hobbesian state of nature, of being short and brutish.
Everyday, the sensibilities of Nigerians are brutally bruised by the horrible news of killings and kidnappings emanating from that region. Consequently, everyone is losing confidence in the capability of the Buhari’s administration to fulfill its constitutional responsibility of protecting lives and property of all our citizens.
That was evident in the threat by Governor El Rufai , last week after visiting President Buhari, that the governors of the zone may be forced to recruiting foreign mercenaries, to defend them, if the Federal Government continues to fail in delivering on its constitutional obligation to safeguard the citizenry.
Legal luminaries have roundly condemned the move as unconstitutional. But when pushed to the wall, when human lives are involved, it is natural for people to use whatever means, legal or illegal, to remain alive.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke the minds of most Nigerians, a few days ago, when he said that the present administration has been thoroughly overwhelmed by the insecurity challenges, and that we should not allow them to overwhelm Nigeria as a nation. I cannot agree less.
It is a clarion call to the Buhari’s administration to buckle up and save Nigerians from the unending nightmarish experience .
