The signs are ominous, terrifying and horrifying as well. One is talking about the current dire insecurity situation in Nigeria, of course. Life has become so worthless to the blood-sucking vampires and their heartless sponsors that hardly a day passes by without one torrid tale or the other of the wanton wasting of the unprotected lives of the innocent citizens. In fact, how did we descend so low to the Hobbesian state of nature of “war of all against all,” with some Nigerians constantly seeking to destroy one another in an incessant pursuit for power?
“Only desperate and corrupt politicians can use rigging, thuggery, vote buying, violence, trouble, assault, propaganda and lies to win an election and take over power by force.”
― Bamigboye Olurotimi
So dastardly the acts of mindless killings of priceless human lives by Boko Haram terrorists, fully armed Fulani herdsmen and bandits have become that the Aare OnaKakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, has called for the possession of firearms for Amotekun security outfit. And Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, is asking the Federal Government to grant licences to responsible citizens to “carry sophisticated weapons such as AK-47 to deter criminals from attacking innocent and helpless Nigerians”.
Add these to the recent alarm raised by Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno South Senatorial District at the National Assembly, revealing that attacks by Boko Haram insurgents was on the increase.The senator narrated how Boko Haram terrorists killed 75 members of his community in Gwoza Local Government Area in one night!
Ndume said: “There was a time in my home town that about 75 elders, most of whom I know personally, were dragged by Boko Haram to the town’s abattoir and slaughtered like animals. Only two persons survived because their bodies were covered with other people’s’ blood and the assailants thought they were dead.” This, to say the least is a horrendous spectacle that should belong to the realm of mind-bending nightmares or a midnight horror-film. But it is all real, here in Nigeria!”
What about the recent ping-pong blame-game between Governor Godwin Obaseki of the PDP and the APC stalwarts in Edo State over the importation of arms and ammunition, as well as political thugs from the neighbouring states, with the aim to cause mayhem during the forthcoming governorship election in the state?
Over the years, we have been regaled with nerve-tingling tales about several armed robbery attacks, hideous ritual murders, inter-community crises, terrorists, bandits and of course, the killings by paid political thugs. But the question remains-who have been arming the killers in Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Zamfara, Enugu, Oyo and Southern Kaduna? How come, that the insecurity challenge has degenerated to this deplorable level that some leaders are suggesting self-help?
One would recall that sometime in 2010 a top-notched Texas-based armoured vehicle manufacturing company asked a thought-provoking and pertinent question: “Are Nigerians preparing for general elections, or are they getting set for war?” He was worried about the high level of demand for armoured cars by many few Nigerian politicians. That was prelude to the 2011 general election and unfortunately a similar issue re-echoed in 2014/2015. Now, it is getting even more scary.
For instance, on May 24, 2017 there were newspaper reports of the seizure of 440 guns of various sizes and designs shipped from Turkey to Lagos, Nigeria. Disclosing this to newsmen in Lagos, Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs, Monday Abueh, said that “On opening the container, we discovered that they used POP powder to conceal the importation but based on intelligence report, we were able to know that the container was laden with arms.”
Subsequently, the Tin Can Island Command of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) uncovered a container with another cache of arms imported from Turkey. This discovery came barely a week after the command intercepted a 20-foot container laden with 1,100 pump action rifles. The container with number, CMAU189817/8 had about 475 sets of pump-action riffles reportedly belonging to the same importer of the previous one.
The recurring escalation of illegal arms importation each time we are supposed to be preparing for general election is not only worrisome but demeans our definition of democracy and the quest for political power here in Nigeria. If the motive of politics is to serve the interest and meet the needs, and aspirations of the citizenry; in the pursuit of the common good why must we acquire it by brute force?
One is concerned because the situation has been on for years and there seems to be no permanent solution to it. Caches of yet unidentified arms are still in the hands of restive, mostly unemployed but misguided youths used by vested interests to cause chaos and terror. The government is still battling with the Boko Haram insurgency, the armed Fulani herdsmen are still on rampage while the recent killing of some IPOB members by some policemen in Enugu may become another trigger on a gun powder waiting to explode, anytime! Surely, we cannot go on this way.
It would be recalled that on November 20, 2012, JTF raided Kwanar Shahada, JushinCiki, Zaria, Kaduna, where a bomb-making factory was uncovered. The joint security team also arrested a sixty-year-old man, Umaru Mohammed within the raided premises and recovered Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs at stage one state of readiness to be used for bomb attack.
And on May 28, 2013 a combined team of the JTF involving the NA of the 3rd Brigade in Kano and the Kano State DSS conducted a thorough search of a house located at No 3 Gaya Road off Bompai Road Kano. It belonged to one Abdul Hassan Taher Fadlalla, a Lebanese national. The search team uncovered an underground bunker in the master’s bedroom where large quantities of assorted weapons of different types were buried. Thereafter, on May 26, 2013, one Talal Roda, also a Lebanese with Nigerian Passport was arrested in this same house.
If both the Police and Customs Services have been able to impound so much illegal arms and ammunition, how many out there have found their way into private homes and hideous hideouts? They should not rest on their oars. Thorough Investigations into the activities of the mindless arms importers should get to their logical conclusion, to fish out those behind these activities and bring them to speedy justice. Only this would serve as a deterrent to those who may be nursing similar blood-letting politicking.
So, where do we go from here? From all indications, governments at both the federal and state levels have continued to fail in the fulfillment of their mandate as enshrined in Section 14, Sub-section 2(b) to guaranteed security for the defenceless citizens. If the politicians value the irreplaceable lives of fellow Nigerians why would they resort to arming misguided youths in the bid to get into office, instead of providing jobs for those same malleable minds?
The President Muhammadu Buhari administration should in the national interest, allow for a holistic restructuring of this country, as promised by the APC before the 2015 general election. Community policing is the way to go. The situation that has Aare Onokakanfo and Governor Ortom calling for self-help in the face of swirling waves of crimes and criminality portends grave danger for the peace and unity of this country. Nigerians do not want guns and bullets but dividends of democracy.
