And Four Other Things…
On Thursday, the Nigeria police force announced that they had carried out an audacious air raid on the Kuduru forest, Birnin Gwari, Kaduna state, where Ansaru militants have their camp. About 250 militants were killed, the police said, although we most unfortunately lost an officer in the operation. Ansaru had appeared dormant for years. I just hope they have not gone into partnership with Boko Haram. That could be deadly and protracted. I am really encouraged by the police operation and I hope they will receive all the necessary support to uproot the militants, who are responsible for a lot of the banditry, kidnappings and killings in the north-west. Progress.
I was highly impressed by the “prayer walk” against insecurity led by Pastor EA Adeboye, the general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), last week. Quite unlike the pervasive framing of issues to portray a section of the country as the sole victims of insecurity, Adeboye was emphatic that every soul is important to God — Muslim or Christian. Until we confront our prejudices and accept that these terrorists, kidnappers, robbers and ritual killers are a danger to everybody in the society no matter their ethnic group or religion, we will not be able to build a coalition of critical voices to confront these evils. We are all victims. Fact.
The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) on Wednesday announced the establishment of a regional security outfit, Operation Shege-Ka-Fasa, in a countermove against the establishment of Operation Amotekun by the south-west states. Curiously, Mallam Abubakar Malami, the attorney-general of the federation, is yet to issue a statement. At least we know that south-west states bought the vehicles and recruited the personnel for Amotekun. Who is funding Operation Shege-Ka-Fasa? For the record, it is this same northern coalition that gave the Igbo the obnoxious October 1, 2017 deadline to leave northern Nigeria. Who is financing these guys? Obvious?
It was truly exciting that Nigeria has decided to spend the about-to-be-repatriated $308 million Abacha loot on something that we can all see: infrastructure. The loot, which was recovered by the Jonathan administration but had been stuck in the Island of Jersey because of a legal action by the Abacha family, will go into part-financing “the triplets”: second Niger bridge, LagosIbadan road and Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road. At least, nobody can loot these roads and bridge. In the past, we recovered looted funds but could not point to anything tangible we did with them. There is still more Abacha loot hanging out there which we must pursue and bring back home and spend well. Windfall.