Chatham-House declaration, forked tongues and our security catastrophe

One of the things we should be VERY careful about is making promises, declaring what would be in future, threatening actions, and all that. Most often, these words and declarations stand in judgement against us when things do not turn out as we had said, especially, when this happens due to our faults. In this circumstance, we wish we could ‘go back yesterday’ to unsay what we had said. Some will just maintain boldfaces and carry on as if nothing is wrong. Others would deny what they had said, claim they were quoted out of context or deliberately misinterpreted by mischief-makers or make efforts to alter the narratives.

In 2015, the then-presidential aspirant, GMB spoke to the whole world from the mountain-top of Chatham House and said inter alia: ‘Boko Haram has sadly put Nigeria on the terrorism map, killing more than 13,000 of our nationals, displacing millions internally and externally, and at a time holding on to portions of our territory the size of Belgium.

What has been consistently lacking is the required leadership in our battle against insurgency… our soldiers have received neither the necessary support nor the required incentives to tackle this problem… Let me assure you that if I am elected president… no inch of Nigerian territory will ever be lost to the enemy because… we will give them (soldiers) adequate and modern arms and ammunition to work with, improve intelligence gathering and border controls to choke Boko Haram’s financial and equipment channels, we will be tough on terrorism and tough on its root causes…and I, Muhammadu Buhari, will always lead from the front and return Nigeria to its leadership role in regional and international efforts to combat terrorism. These were EMPHATIC statements by one who had sought power for years and appeared to know where he was headed to. Thanks to the unforgiving and unforgetting internet.

The most worrisome is not what these vicious bands of terrorists do to us; it is the ‘forked-tongue’ tendencies by the government in these matters

Before then, GMB, the politician had asked GEJ to vacate office for competent hands since he had failed in the security front while Prof Osinbajo had professorially and ‘SANically’ declared that failure to secure the citizenry was an impeachable offence.

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Now, that PMB has been the ‘oga at the top’ for 7years, the overall security situation has degenerated and become catastrophic and there are excuses and blame-trading all over the place; victims are being blamed and we are being told by body language that our security does not matter or does not matter as much of that of cows and their herders.

As I write this, soldiers are being ordered to recover the territory taken over by Boko Haram in the Borno axis and the issue of adequate arms, and low morale of our soldiers still resonates (despite humongous sums expended without budgetary approval). In the recent past, Borno-based soldiers still lamented poor feeding, accusing their superiors of embezzlement.

The Government has not followed the lead provided by Dubai when it convicted some Nigerians for financing BH nor learnt from Kenya, which froze the accounts of 9, publicly named, terrorist financiers. But the CBN speedily identified EndSARS financiers! Check our mainstream and online media daily and see how Nigerians are being decimated, dehumanized and pauperized (through the ransom-economy), with embarrassing impunity by BH, bandits, herdsmen and kidnappers (are they not all the same?). The most worrisome is not what these vicious bands of terrorists do to us; it is the ‘forked-tongue’ tendencies by the government in these matters, and the vigour with which our security forces deal with protesters, IPOBinas and other ‘trouble makers’.

The records are uncountable and as such, I will just mention the major recent cases. November 2020 was a very bad one for the nation in terms of security. The blood-thirsty BH terrorists, who some of us defended when they were ‘on the other side’, boldly sauntered into our territory and beheaded 43, 78 or 110 hardworking farmers( no one is sure of the figures), who were driven by the urge to fend for themselves and contribute to national food security.

The renegades were celebrating, contesting the figures given by the government, which as always, was shocked. Before long, they were at Kankara, where they kidnapped and motorcycled our students away. From Kankara, they moved on to Kagara where they seized our students and tied them (their human luggage) on their motorcycles, in pairs, and drove away unhindered and from there to Shiroro. One can imagine the number of motorcycles deployed in these operations and yet they came they saw and they conquered and now, Gumi and helpless governors are genuflecting and begging them! I am not a security person but I know that appeasement, as a strategy, is NOT sustainable.

Of course, they have taken over Kastina, Zamfara, Niger and Southern Kaduna (where the women had to take the extreme step of nude-protesting) where they slaughter, maim, burn and kidnap at their pleasure. They have attacked bullion vans, monarchs, footballers, reverends, IDPs, wedding guests, mourners and even corpses. Just the other day, Buratai’s LGA was attacked, where many were abducted in addition to their usual scorched-earth practice. The Global Rights has just reported that 4552 of our compatriots were murdered in ‘mass atrocities’ in 2020. We are not talking of the amount amassed as individual and government ransoms, houses burnt and farms laid desolate, those maimed and those who have joined the clubs of refugees, widows and orphans and economic destitute.

The pain and shame meted out on Nigerians and Nigeria is embarrassing enough but the most worrisome and ominous has been the ‘communication house of commotion’ that the presidency or the federal government has become. It is a forked tongue scenario! After the Borno Massacre, the great Lai said that Nigeria was at the mercy of terrorists because ‘they’ refused to sell arm to us while his principal, the President said that they had given the military all they needed to fight BH. Femi Adesina said the military was well equipped while Garba Shehu said that the farmers did not obtain clearance to go to the farm; the military took time to investigate and later accused the villagers and international community of complicity.