‘Bandits should be declared terrorists’

The greatest lesson we refused to learn with regards to banditry and kidnapping in Nigeria is our inability to comprehend that the mass kidnapping of more than 300 Kankara school boys is a declaration of war against the sovereignty of Nigeria by bandits.

The failure to handle the previous Kankara kidnapping with an iron hand is largely responsible for the continuous rampage of banditry and the recent Niger school boys incident, no person has been convicted or declared wanted for the Kankara case. All that the public knows is that the boys are safely released.

The usual story of kidnappers releasing victims without ransom is no longer believable. It is not enough to think bandits risk their lives to make it to the headlines of newspapers or international media. Bandits are doing this as business and it does not make sense to think that they would stop when amnesty is granted to them.

At the moment, they feel they are above the law and they cannot bend, therefore the law should not be bent for them. Amnesty is frankly not the right strategy here, as it might entails giving them more money which they would use to get more weapons and continue their inhuman onslaught.

Amnesty comes into play when people have regretted their actions and are remorseful. Banditry has grown stronger to the extent of imposing tax to villagers in some areas.

Bandits have killed and abducted several people within a month in Nigeria in addition to more those who lost their lives over the years.

Amnesty worked in Niger Delta region because they were fighting for a cause and their issues have been relatively addressed, the idea is when someone is agitating for a reason there are chances that things can be talked out and acceptable solution found by all parties but the big question is what are these bandits fighting for?

Bandits should be declared terrorists. Kidnapping more than 300 citizens in school is terrorism and Nigeria never had any issues declaring other sects such as Biafra agitators and the IMN movement as a terrorist, we expect the same courtesy for these criminals.

They should be crushed with all might until they call for amnesty. They seem to only understand the language of guns and bullets or ransom money.

The utterance of the Minister of Defence on the issue of banditry for villagers to defend themselves

When news broke of the kidnapping of schoolchildren and others in Kagara, Niger State, I felt my chest tighten. I later thought it strange, as one would think after Chibok, Buni Yadi, Dapchi and Kankara, a sort of jadedness would have set in. But that’s the thing about heartbreaking, avoidable tragedy: You never get used to it. Not after five times. Not after ten, twenty or even a hundred times. Not after you read about things that have been done – or haven’t been done – by the authorities that should have, and certainly not after hearing individual stories of affected people.

Like, for instance, the story of Sa’eed Isa, a parent whose six children were kidnapped by the armed bandits who stormed Government Science College in Kagara. Or that of the student who managed to escape, after witnessing a close friend being gunned down by the murderous criminals. I could go on, but there’s enough tragedy on our national menu right now as it is, and I don’t want to be the one to offer desserts.

Even the crisis management – assuming we can call it that – has degenerated to Tower of Babel-levels, where it is clear that few to none are working in tandem. Kind of like a chicken without a head. The barrage of news that followed had the Niger State government taking a bold stance of not negotiating with criminals. It held, but only for a bit. Then public outcry and some other reactions from the government later, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi – more on him in a bit – swung into action, and it does appear that negotiations are indeed ongoing. With bandits, gunmen, criminals, or whatever you want to call them. Just don’t call them terrorists, because no-one will know what the heck you’re talking about. It’s not lack of concern or empathy, or even stupidity, no. It’s just another form of that classic head-in-thesand stance ostriches – and Nigerians – are known for. Apologies to ostriches.

Back to Sheikh Gumi: Now, I’ve commended his efforts in the past, and will still continue to do so, as I am quite sure his intentions are pure. His credentials as a cleric, as well as his impeccable background and sterling name are responsible for the respect given him by the kidnappers. But I’m also a staunch believer in negotiations not being entered into with criminals, especially those of the murderous variety.

While I understand the good sheikh’s involvement, and why it works on the bandits, I cannot simply pretend that they haven’t kidnapped, raped, and even killed many innocents. They have worn military uniforms, and have carried some crazy-looking arms, firing same at our soldiers – and killing many of them – for doing their own constitutional job of protecting us. Can you see how problematic any calls for any kind of ‘amnesty’ for these characters can be?

I know the Niger Delta will come to mind, as some people on social media have been quick to point out. But in my opinion, even that amnesty wasn’t kosher, to be honest. All it gave rise to was more militancy for more ‘dividends’, corruption, and calls for amnesty even for monsters as heinous and devious as Boko Haram insurgents, and now the almost cool-sounding ‘bandits’.

How did we get here? I mean, a society that is willing to ignore injustice, one wherein a Minister of Defence would actually address Nigerians after a failure of security, and tell ordinary citizens to stop being cowards and face armed criminals. There are even more questions, but unfortunately I don’t have answers. And can you blame me? Those who should are busy engaging in buck-passing of epic levels, or showcasing apathy quotient which even a heartless Pharaoh would wince at.

Niger State, like a number of states in the North, has been dogged by armed groups for some years now, engaging in small to large-scale acts of terrorism, mostly dished out on poor, rural dwellers not in close proximity to good or even passable security. While some experts say the ‘bandits’ or armed groups have no religious ideology, others are of the opinion that they may have more connections to ISWAP or Boko Haram than many would imagine. Can you see more reasons there, why ‘amnesty’ might prove to be very problematic?

I’ve mentioned the existence of an endless list of casualties before, yes. However, one that seems to escape consideration a lot of the time, is the damage that such black-hearted shenanigans of criminals is doing to our already staggering – some would even say ‘dead’ – education system, especially in the North. Not to be petty at a time like this, but you need not go further than all the poverty-porn photos of the school itself in Kagara to show you just how serious we are about our children and their education in this nation. What a tragedy, and what a shame.

How did we get here? I mean, a society that is willing to ignore injustice, one wherein a Minister of Defence would actually address Nigerians after a failure of security, and tell ordinary citizens to stop being cowards and face armed criminals. There are even more questions, but unfortunately I don’t have answers. And can you blame me

Congratulations to Mr. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Madam Vice President, Sen. Kamala Harris, on their well-earned victory in about the toughest presidential race in the United States history.

Good policy begins with the ability to recognize reality. And the reality of USANigeria relations, like all diplomatic relations, is driven by mutual needs and interests. Beyond the global issue of resolving the Coronavirus Pandemic, the United States problems are basically three in nature – terrorism and insecurity especially in the Islamic World; threat to its corporate economic and technological preeminence and global dominance; and apparent failure to fashion out how best to handle and resolve these challenges.

And for Nigeria, her problems are also mainly three in nature – insecurity, corruption and severe economic depression. If your administration keys in on these issues and sees them as mutually reinforcing and their resolution as commonly beneficial, and resolves to work towards it, then USA-Nigeria relations would succeed in the best interests of both countries.

Making a comprehensive analysis of these issues will show that Nigeria needs the United States in solving her problems in as much as the United States needs Nigeria’s problems resolved as a critical element in the resolution of her own problems. As you very well know, Mr. President, with the fall of communism on the global scene, the Western World under the leadership of the United States came into direct conflict with the Islamic World in what seems to be a clash of civilizations. The seemingly irreconcilable ideological positions of the two former allies have since put the world’s security on the edge. Also, under the effect of globalization, the United States strategic economic and technological preeminence as a dominant superpower came under severe threat globally. The war for wealth, a nasty fight for a share of prosperity, and the related struggle over political and cultural dominance of the world have become the major challenges the US is facing across the globe today. The era of America’s supremacy, in which it overshadowed the rest of the world with its economic and technological might, is fast coming to an end. A new topography of the global power equation is taking shape as globalization is shifting world economic emphasis from the United States.

America needs to look beyond Asia and Europe for its economic expansion and preeminence. With the emerging crisis of confidence in relations between America and the Muslim World, especially in the aftermath of 9/11 terror attack, and the accompanying tension between them following the declared war on terrorism, the US has only one large region to look up to – Africa.

In Nigeria, there are probably more commonalities among ethnoreligious groups than differences. With the right economic and social environments, Nigeria can reclaim this African heritage without being overwhelmed by the forces of global religious extremism. The current Boko Haram terrorism, herdsmen banditry and ethnic militias in Nigeria are in fact exceptions rather than the norm. They are the result of constitutional freedom, poverty and economic hardship, lack of any form of dialogue with the affected communities, and poor and misplaced policy options by successive governments in the country that sparked off the conflicts.

While the ‘democratic constitution’ of the county brought in liberty, rights, and freedom to individuals and groups in the country, the promised and expected ‘high standard of living’ woefully failed to materialize. On the contrary, there resulted in a large scale and widespread poverty and hardship across the land, chiefly brought about by poor or failed public policies, high level of corruption and dishonesty by elected public officers, among many other vices in public service.

Furthermore, in so short a time, there emerged in the country a glaring disparity in the earnings and living standards amongst the citizens never seen before in the history of economic and social mobility of a people anywhere in the world; such that today in Nigeria less than 5% of Nigerians own and control over 95% of the national wealth, while more than 95% of the citizens struggle daily to survive on less than 5 per cent of the country’s resources.

For all the facts have shown that terrorism, banditry, and militancy are basically the result of failed expectations of ‘dividends of democracy’ under the civil rule. Contrasting the personal and collective freedom and liberty of citizens ushered in through constitutional democracy with the failed promises and expectations of an improved standard of living of citizens, one then sees clearly the seeds of crises being sown in the society. Add the polarization and great disparity of wealth amongst citizens, the overt and insensitive corruption by public servants, the increasing widespread of poverty and deprivation within the vast majority of the people, the extreme forms of election frauds by incumbent leaders, the compromised judiciary, etc., relations between the government and the governed invariably came under severe stress. Because the local civic cultures could not withstand the stresses and strains of these economic and political pressures, it naturally bred disappointment, despair and instability. It then takes very little for civil resistance to go virulent. This is the apt explanation of the various insurgencies, including the BH insurgency and banditry, ravaging the country today. Hence it makes no sense to debate whether these insurgencies are political, socioeconomic or religious. The answer is they are all of the above.

In formulating your policy relations with Nigeria, it is critical to take these dynamics of the Nigerian situation into account. And for President Muhammadu Buhari to enlist the support of your administration to help resolve these problems, he must understand their fundamental underpinnings; in both economic and political terms. At the economic level, Nigeria would need the support of the United States to come forcefully in terms of funding, investments, transfer of technology, conquering hunger, and other initiatives; at the same time decentralizing economic opportunities and national resources in such a way as to bridge the wide gap between the rich and the poor amongst Nigerians. On the political side, Nigeria would need the United States’ support in strengthening her institutions, tackling corruption, building infrastructure, freely opening the political space, entrenching constitutionalism and rule of law, bolstering credible electoral processes and in creating level playing fields in politics to avoid causing system break down.

In return, on her part, Nigeria, being the most dominant in the African Continent, with the largest human and material resources, and the largest number of Black Muslims in the world, should play a central role in the fight against terrorism, in global stability and the advancement of the US economic and strategic interests. Already a strong international player in peacekeeping operations, Oil and Liquefied Natural Gas deposits, Oil pricing within OPEC, leadership role in the OIC, AU, ECOWAS, etc. Nigeria is well-positioned to partner with the US in fighting terrorism and stabilizing the global environment. As a country with the largest non-Arab Muslim population in Africa, Nigeria can play a key role in evolving constructive specific relations regarding America with non-Arab Muslim countries that can serve as a counter-balance to the broad international relations between the West and the Islamic World.