Presidential monologue ( 3)
TODAY, the ever- current issue is the insecurity in the country. Everyone is scared about the safety of lives and property, being the reason for the state. The Christmas killings in Plateau State leaving over 200 dead and thousands hounded into refugee camps speak to the low premium placed on life in our country.
Armed Conflict Location and Event Data ( ACLED) data put the number of those kidnapped at 3600 in 2023 alone.
Indeed, a glimpse into the killings that happened in the last eight years of the Buhari Administration will send goose pimples all over you. Mr. President is being pressured to deal a decisive blow to the agents of destabilisation in the country. Mr President, the buck stops at your table, and God will help you. In what follows, I will offer some insight into the security dilemma and simultaneously suggest a way out of the dilemma. Over the years, we have had security problems, especially armed robbery, intra and inter- communal crises, and ritual killings. Armed robbery is endemic and originates from the dynamics of social relations of production and can be addressed by social policies that focus on human security. Others are sporadic and can be managed. However, the most dreadful part of the problem is kidnapping for ransom and orchestrated ethnic cleansing by occupation forces in the Middle Belt and Northwest of Nigeria as well as the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast.
This matter has different properties that include political turf control, land grabbing, illegal mining of minerals, and imperial meddlesomeness.
It would be recalled that the control of Borno’s political turf in Nigeria’s fourth republic saw the ouster of Ali Modu Sheriff and the emergence of Alhaji Kashim Shettima, the candidate of All Nigerian Peoples Party ( ANNP) in the political leadership of the state. It dovetailed into the extra- judicial execution of Sheik Mohammed Yusuf with its consequent drive for justice and vengeance. Boko Haram was born and became one of the weapons for the struggle for the soul of the country.
It is to be noted that the influx of the bandits into the country is not just a function of the bandwagon effect of the civil war in Libya, the straw man of previous administrations but the deliberate recruitment of bandits who incidentally belonged to the Fulani nationality in pursuit of political goals in Nigeria.
The turn of events in the 2015 general election prevented their intended use for mayhem, and a mission creep crept into the effect that the so- called bandits were left to roam the forests across the country. The search for a legal cover in terms of RUGA was frustrated by an incredulous population, and the bandits today continue to live by the economy of kidnapping and ransom returns.
The manner of killings and occupation of villages, especially in Plateau reinforces the claims of land grabbing and genocidal route. Even the British Parliament during the Queen’s speech debate on January 7, 2020, had to admit that “Such atrocities cannot be attributed just to desertification, climate change or competition for resources, as our Government has claimed. The situation fulfils the criteria of genocide as recognised by the Nigerian National Assembly and must be so recognised, with the international community’s duty to respond accordingly” ( British ‘ House of Lords’ deliberates on Nigeria’s persecution killings - PSJ UK.
Nevertheless, the fact that most of the marauders are aliens and the autonomy of the operation points to the complicity of elements in the security forces. The alleged renaming of town and streets seals further the claim of land grab. A furious Retired General Theophilus Danjuma, not given to flippancy, employed the occasion of the investiture of Aku Uka His Majesty Manu Ishaku Adda Ali Matakhitswen 1 of Wukari kingdom to speak to the country’s security palaver.
He noted point blank: “Our country is under siege by armed bandits. When a few years ago I warned that the armed forces are either not capable or unwilling to protect us and that we must defend ourselves, the first denial came from the defence ministry which set up a kangaroo panel and invited me to come and testify. I did not go. They wrote the report which said that I was only speculating and there was no evidence.
Now there is evidence, that the whole country is overrun and these foreign invaders are not even Muslims. A lot of the casualties are Muslims. They were allowed to come into the country by our government… This beautiful land called Nigeria is being brought to ruin by absolutely useless criminals… My prayer is that God almighty who has given us this land will give us the courage to face this enemy and chase them out. This we must do, otherwise, Nigeria is finished,” ( https:// sunnewsonline. com/ nigeria- is- under- siege- rise- upand- defend- yourselves- t- y- danjuma/). Danjuma’s position is supported by the evidence offered by Abubakar Kawu Baraje, a former chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, ( APC) who traced the origin of the current insecurity in the country to the influx of Fulani from neighbouring countries such as Sierra Leone, Mali, Senegal, Niger, and Chad brought into the country for election purposes in 2015. He noted that “After the election, the Fulani have refused to leave. I and other like minds wrote and warned those we started APC together with that this was going to happen but nobody listened” he explained.”( https:// businessday. ng/ news/ article/ how- we- brought- in- fulani- militias- frommali- sierra- leone- senegal- others- to- win- 2015- el ection- kawu- baraje/).
The lucrative extractive industry largely under the control of powerful illegal miners feeds the country’s insecurity. In Zamfara, illegal mining of gold is no longer news. The communities with gold deposits are at the receiving end of banditry. The Mangu area of
Jos, the site of current killings, is covered in tin dust. The minders of this illegality are allegedly powerful Nigerians. Little wonder that even the Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Dele Alake, raised alarm about the threat to his life. As he puts in a recent statement made in Ibadan, “I said it during my Ministry’s budget defence at the National Assembly that powerful Nigerians are behind the banditry associated with illegal mining in the country. I said it openly… However, since I made the disclosure, I have been receiving threats, but we are undaunted because it has to be said.” ( I was threatened for linking powerful Nigerians to illegal mining - Alake ( punchng. com).
I have observed elsewhere that a major mistake of analysts of the African condition is to ignore the overarching external influences on it. The interest of the U. S. and Britain in Nigeria is to keep the country within the globalised matrix. Democracy promotion and securitisation of key areas of the interface.
One is the so- called transnational security threat. The enduring nature of the Boko Haram insurgency bears traces of external meddlesomeness as the Balkanisation of the continent enhances its control. The minders of the Nigerians beholden to imperial control invited the U. S. and British servicemen to train Nigerian forces against insurgents based on European war doctrine accounting for the stalemate in the war against Boko- Haram. The only breakthrough came when the Blackwaters, a private military company with substantial ex- ANC guerrillas in the fold, operated in the Northeast through some complex subcontracting.
It re- organised the fighting force and made possible the conduct of the 2015 elections in the insurgent enclaves. The PMC was disengaged as soon as Buhari assumed office. I suggest that part of the solution lies in the overhaul of the military, government control of mining sites, and legal curtailment of desperate politicians, and adequate security for local communities.
To be continued