Of intelligence (mis)handling, abductions, ‘shepherds and hirelings’ in PDP, et al.

The singsong is that the federal government has not been decisive enough in its efforts at reining in terrorists whose activities are not only inflicting mortal pains on families but also bringing the country into opprobrium. It is time for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to go beyond verbal threats.

The macabre dance at the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) national headquarters at Wadata Plaza, Abuja, on Tuesday must have been instigated by forces after the soul of the party. Sadly, it is a fight to the finish between hirelings and real shepherds.

Did you hear the President’s charge to the judiciary last Monday? Many of those who did are clapping with one hand!

Is intelligence gathering still useful in Nigeria?

It has been a cocktail of sadness in Nigeria in the last few days.

First, a convoy, led by Brigadier-General Uba of the 25 Task Force Brigade, was ambushed as it was returning from a patrol near Wajiroko Village in Borno State, Northeast Nigeria. Four military personnel were murdered. The brigadier-general was also killed.

A band of bandits swooped on a school in the sleepy village of Maga, Kebbi State, and abducted 25 girls from their dormitory. Their vice principal was killed.

A church in Kwara State, North Central, was attacked last Sunday. Three members were allegedly killed and several others kidnapped.

The simple question many observers are asking now is, is intelligence failing Nigeria?

The lingering problem of insecurity in the country has been blamed on the inability or failure of relevant government agencies to make use of the intelligence at their disposal.

What has become a practice is that security agencies only trail terrorists several hours after they have wreaked havoc on victims, rather than nip the attacks in the bud, which is supposed to be the essence of intelligence gathering.

The abduction of 276 Chibok girls in 2014 was said to have happened because of the alleged refusal of the then government of Borno State under Kashim Shettima as governor to heed the intelligence that was gathered on the impending attacks. Shettima is Nigeria’s Vice President today, ‘interestingly’.

Before the incident, the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok had been closed for four weeks due to worsening security situations, but against all intelligence, the girls were brought back to school to take a final examination in physics.

The Chibok episode was unfortunately politicised thereafter and weaponised against the then-sitting government under President Goodluck Jonathan.

The abduction of 25 girls in a school in Maga, Kebbi State, on Sunday night was also said to have happened despite prior intelligence warnings of a possible strike by bandits.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in his condolence message to those affected by the abduction and their families, deplored the failure of relevant agencies to deploy the intelligence gathered to prevent the sad occurrence.

By the same token, a security and intelligence expert, Yahuza Getso, who spoke on Channels Television Wednesday, lamented how his efforts to communicate the intelligence he gathered on the impending attack on Maga ended in futility, as the highest security echelon neither picked his call nor acknowledged the message until several hours later, “when the Rubicon had been crossed”, as it were.

Getso said that he received a “Thank You” reply 12 hours after the abduction of the 25 schoolgirls.

The President, in his condolence message, had also urged communities in terrorist-infested territories to share information and intelligence, but how would this happen when whistleblowers are known to pay the ultimate price for volunteering information?

There are strong allegations of sabotage, wilful negligence, lack of internal coordination, compromise, and unwillingness to end the terrorism “bazaar” on the part of entrenched interests in the country.

Nigerians had expected that, by now, heads would have rolled over the orgy of terrorists’ attacks in Borno, Kebbi and Kwara in a matter of hours.

At the point where the country is at the moment, verbal warnings will no longer do. Enough of this slap on the wrist!

Shepherds and hirelings in PDP

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), a legacy political association in Nigeria, seems to be on its way to extinction.

The party is now being dragged by two forces made up of those, on one hand, who want it to continue to be alive and others who want it dead and buried.

The attrition war at the Wadata Plaza, headquarters of the party, on Tuesday, was a sign that the party may not be on the ballot in the 2027 general election, unless something drastic happens.

It would seem that the forces against the party are not internal. If the crisis were internally motivated, a solution would be easy to arrive at.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, claims to be a member of the PDP but works for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

For him, the only name he sees on the ballot in 2027 is that of the incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is not likely that he is fighting to take over the PDP to contest any elective position on its platform in 2027.

He probably wants to keep restless those who want to use the PDP to advance to the next level of their political ambition and ensure that the party is destroyed ultimately.

The likes of Samiu Turaki and Seyi Makinde are fighting as new shepherds in the party to rebuild it for their future ambitions.

Turaki, who was elected chairman of the party at the controversial Ibadan convention, wants to enhance his curriculum vitae (CV) as a former chairman of a big party. Makinde, on his part, is being touted to nurse a presidential ambition; hence, his efforts to steady the ship of the association.

The likes of Samuel Anyanwu and members of the G-5 are walking in the shadows of the FCT Minister. They have no mind of their own, as it were. Although they are not yet card-carrying members of the APC, they come easily as hirelings with the sole task of finishing off the umbrella association.

The Turaki-led National Working Committee (NWC) will continue to be kept busy – dangling – with court cases, like a bird on a hanging rope.

Tinubu’s charge to the judiciary

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last Monday cautioned judicial officers across the country that justice must remain sacred and insulated from corruption, declaring that “justice must never be for sale.”

He spoke at the opening of the 2025 All Nigerian Judges’ Conference of the Superior Courts in Abuja, emphasising that judicial officers remained the true custodians of justice and assuring continued investment in welfare, training, and the National Judicial Institute.

“Justice must never be for sale, and the Bench must never become a sanctuary for compromise. Corruption in any arm of government weakens the nation, but corruption in the judiciary destroys it at its core,” he said.

While many Nigerians applauded the great speech, many also branded the speech “deodorised”.

Going by experience, many Nigerians decided to clap with one hand until they see the implementation of the new order. Talk, they say, is cheap, and “the taste of the pudding is in the eating.”

It is no longer news that the judiciary has become a cog in the wheel of progress in Nigeria. It has constituted itself as a menace to the nation’s democracy. It is not a hidden matter. But one thing that has confounded many is that, despite the open acknowledgement of this truth, corruption in that space has continued to receive oxygen to fester.