• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Deconstructing Abuja’s tough talk against kidnappers, bandits’ ‘sponsors’

insurgency in Nigeria

Last Tuesday, the Federal Government held a meeting inside the Aso Rock Villa with security apparatchiks for the umpteenth time.

The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has since 2015 held uncountable security meetings aimed at tackling the rising wave of banditry, insurgency and now the incessant abduction of pupils across the country.

At the National Security Council meeting, the President once again gave a marching order to the newly appointed security chiefs to recapture all the areas said to have been taken over by Boko Haram, bandits and kidnappers across the country.

Contrary to the earlier claim that Boko Haram had been “technically defeated” and that the terrorists no longer occupy any territory as they had been put on the run, the Presidential order to the military to recover seized territories shows there are more to the battle against the insurgents than Nigerians are told.

While addressing the media after the meeting, Babagana Monguno, national security adviser, said government was going to go tough on those on its watch list.

He said intelligence available to them had revealed those bent on destabilising the country through sponsorship of criminal activities, including the rampant abductions in the north.

Although Monguno’s apparent threat should be understood and seen as a desperate measure, analysts say that such open threat shows the helplessness of the Federal Government.

The analysts also believe that Abuja is not saying the truth about the insecurity, noting that those who hold the country to ransom are well known to everybody including the Presidency, but government has not got the political will to go against them.

“If Monguno claims to have on his watch list those sponsoring violence, I hope the names of leaders of Miyetti Allah are on top of that list? There are no individuals or groups as dangerous as the leadership of the Miyetti Allah that has come out to claim responsibility of murders in some states.

“By the way, this country has laws against killing of other persons, but government does not apply this law whenever it concerns the Miyetti Allah. Are we looking for those who destroyed this country? Government should stop playing pranks,” a security expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

“Unless the Federal Government moves against the herdsmen and their sponsors, such threat as the one issued by Monguno will continue to be ineffective,” he further said.

Monguno had said: “I need to stress also that there are individuals in this country who have assumed the status that is beyond what they should be.” According to him, “Intelligence from our own sources; intelligence at my disposal, and at the disposal of other intelligence heads reveals that we have certain entities, certain individuals who are making capital out of insecurity, especially kidnapping. This is a situation that has to be brought to an end.”

The NSA further said: “And I am sending a warning to anybody who is hiding beneath the venire of some status, whether in terms of official capacity or traditional or religious to stoke flames of disorder, will have himself to blame.

“The government is very, very serious about this anarchy. But I want to stress once more that any individual or group that thinks it can take it upon itself to cause disunity, disharmony and to render this country, push the country to the brink should have a rethink. Any individual who thinks he has any support and who thinks he can undermine this government; anybody; any human being as long as he is a citizen of this country; any one person who thinks he is a cat whiskers or he can be rocky on the pouch and lead us into a situation of unhappiness will have himself to blame at the end of the day.

“Already, the President has given directives to the military and intelligence organisation to trail and flush out all the people that have been on our watch list.”

It is exciting to know that Abuja has an idea of those sponsoring the insecurity, yet has allowed this orgy of killings and abductions to continue indefinitely.

Nigerians would want to hear from the Federal Government on those whose names made the infamous watch list.

But contrary to the belief in the corridors of power in Abuja that there were certain elements bent on embarrassing the government of the day, some Nigerians, including political actors believe that government should look inwards.

They also believe that the body language of the powers that be in Abuja may have boosted insecurity in the country.

“You do not negotiate, grant amnesty to terrorists, pamper them without arrest and give huge ransom to criminals and turn around and be asking, ‘who is sponsoring terrorists?’ Government should search its conscience. You see, whenever they talk about watch list, they are looking at members of the opposition, but people must tell themselves the simple truth,” a concerned Nigerian said, craving anonymity.

Bello Matawalle, Zamfara State governor, the other day, while addressing the released abducted Jangebe school girls at the Government House in Gusau, said the abductions were politically-motivated.

He also claimed that some individuals went as far as offering money to the bandits to reject government negotiations.

“While the state was in negotiation with (the) abductors for the release of the school girls, other persons offered money to the armed bandits to keep the girls in captivity,” the governor said.

Darius Ishaku, governor of Taraba State, accused the FG of bias in the handling of security challenge in the country.

“If we cannot be able to provide security for our citizens, then allow all the citizens to buy AK-47, because if everybody is licensed with AK-47, I swear, nobody will come to your house, or peradventure he does, then it depends on who is faster.

“In a situation where we are all gagged with one security system that has been unable to work and we are told to sit down and be counting the day our turn will come, I do not agree with it,” Ishaku emphatically said.

Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue State, also toed the same path, when he bluntly accused Buhari of bias towards his Fulani tribesmen, reminding him that “he is the President of Nigeria not the President of the Fulani tribe where he hails from”.

The governor wondered aloud, “Why is the Federal Government being silent about these Fulani herdsmen? When will Federal Government come out and criticise and arrest herdsmen carrying AK-47? When are they going to do that? Are we second (-class) citizens in this country? Why, (is) the Fulani man superior to a Tiv man? I am not their slave; a Benue man is not slave to any Fulani man in this country.”

He went on: “We stand for justice, equity and fairness. Whatever is happening to a Fulani man should also happen to a Tiv man. That was why I called the Federal Government to license me and many others to have guns, to have AK-47 too. Because, if I have my AK-47 and a Fulani man is coming there, he knows that I have and he has, then we can fight each other.

“But you can’t disarm me and arm a Fulani man. This is not right, the Federal Government is biased, it is unfair. The failure in security is caused by Federal Government.”

Ortom reminded President Buhari that: “You are the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, you are not the President of Fulani. You are the President of everybody and I owe you a duty as a stakeholder in this nation to let you know that what is going on is wrong and this has the potential of dividing this country, which will not be in the interest of anyone – some of us believe in the unity of this country.”

The governor wondered why Abuja would ban some groups that are not violent in nature, while leaving out some others that had been rated globally as number four most dangerous group in the world. He also wondered why no arrest has been made of the herdsmen that carry out some of the heinous activities across the country, including giving people slow deaths.