This writer had barely authored the treatise on the recent abhorrent killings in Uromi, Edo State, when the country erupted in another orgy of violence.
In Plateau State, devil-may-care terrorists, in broad daylight, carried out co-ordinated attacks in a number of villages. They left not less than sixty dead people in their trail. In Katsina State, at least six persons were killed and another fifty-nine people were abducted in separate attacks across a number of communities. In Kebbi State, members of the Lakurawa terrorist group ambushed and killed sixteen vigilantes.
These wicked acts speak clearly to two salient issues. First, that we are witnessing yet another resurgence of heightened insecurity. This has reduced nearly the entire country into a vast killing field. Second, that the proclamation of victory, over the terrorists by the authorities, is, at best, Phyrric and preposterous.
As often happens when these wanton attacks or killings occur, the government goes through the motions. It also observes the optics. It condemns them. It then gives vain orders to the security agencies that the perpetrators be apprehended and be brought to book.Most of the time, these orders, given with presidential flourish, are hollow. They are at best observed in the breach. Sometimes, they are pointedly ignored.
Worse, in the aftermath of these dastardly attacks, especially the ones that have taken place on the Plateau, with egregious and frequent abandon, it follows a pattern that conjures and arouses an unfortunate sense of deja vu.A presidential order is given with gusto to “scour” the crime scene, to apprehend the perpetrators and to deal with them to the full extent of the law. Senior security officials then descend on the State with their martial retinue and paraphernalia. Rather than to apologize for their inability to secure the people as demanded by the Constitution and their solemn oath of office, they haughtily provoke and vex their hurting hosts to further anger.
They speak condescendingly to them. At other times they preach to them to forbear each other. They then depart from where they came from. After a while, the perpetrators, emboldened by the complacency of the security agencies, re-enact their killing spree. The vicious cycle continues.
The latest is the attempt by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Olufemi Olatubosun Oluyede, to frame the Bokkos killings as ethno-religious and to proceed to canvass for peaceful co-existence. He had remarked to stakeholders at Bokkos:”Security agencies may deploy battalions of troops to Bokkos, but without love, tolerance and mutual forgiveness, we won’t achieve the desired peace. We must learn to live together”.
It is valid that the first major crisis in Jos, in 2001, which occasioned the declaration of a state of emergency by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, may have had an ethno-religious coloration. But even then, its root can be traced to the capricious and the ham handed manner states and local governments were created on the watch of former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida.
To cast each attack on the communities of the Plateau in the mould of the ethno-religious is to be, thus, intellectually indolent, to conflate issues and to go against the very grain of history.Not less than eleven local governments areas, namely, Jos South, Jos East, Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Bassa, Mangu, Bokkos, Langtang, Wase, Shendam and Kanam, had come under unprovoked attacks by terrorists. Anyone who has avidly followed these attacks would note that they were informed by some elements whose agenda is to deliberately displace the indigenous populations and to take over their lands.
It is both a grotesque assault on history, and an insolence, to present the peace-loving people of Plateau State as being bereft of forbearance. It is their forbearance and long-suffering that have led to the beautiful mosaic and diversity that have existed since antiquity.
It is a measure of the tolerance and peaceful disposition of the people that even when the colonialists granted mining licenses(tin and columbite) to about thirty companies owned by foreigners and Nigerians, the late Chief D.B. Zang, was the only person from the Plateau who was granted one. Yet the people took it in their stride. They did so, not out of docility or cowardice, but out of their famed forbearance.
As this writer has noted, the insurgency we are witnessing has been going on for one a half decades. How come we are still unable to read the modus operandi of these terrorists? How come we are unable to fathom or anticipate the wicked trick(s) or tactic(s) they would pull next? How come, we have been unable to infiltrate their ranks, and thus be put in a vantage position, to divine their thoughts and methodology? How come, we are unable to decipher their motivations in spite of the sundry videos they circulate, espousing their weird doctrines or clips on TikTok, showing them gleefully sharing money in the aftermath of their attacks?
If anything, the recent attacks of military formations in Borno, the ambush of vigilantes in Kebbi, and the recent broad daylight attacks in Bokkos and Katsina, demonstrate a change of strategy by the terrorists. Before now, they attacked in their numbers. Now they have upgraded and they are reported to deploy drones to carry out their attacks. Before now, they attacked and mowed down their unsuspecting victims in the night. Now they do so in broad daylight. The only elements that remain, and are consistent, in their strategy are stealth and surprise.
The ability of the terrorists to change strategy clearly betrays their capacity to adapt and to be nimble-footed. For our security agencies to carry the day and to be invincible, they must be more nimble and more savvy. They should be able to conjure scenarios, which the terrorists could exploit, and to come out with strategies to outwit them.
Also, rather than to always speak down at the victims of these terrorists, who are licking their wounds or to speak sanctimoniously to them, they should empathize with them instead. They should cajole and court them assiduously with a view to getting as much information as possible about the attackers. Even in the fight against terror, as in conventional warfare, there must be concerted and deliberate efforts to win hearts and minds of the victims.
A cursory study of the abductions carried out by the insurgents in Katsina and Zamfara States suggests that they take place after the terrorists had received prior information about their victims. It is such information that determines if is worth their while and energy to abduct their victim(s).Our security agencies should surpass them, especially given the resources and professionalism at their disposal. Before taking the war to the terrorists, they should have prior information as to their disposition and locations.
Additionally, the authorities should refrain from premature chiming or chest thumping about their feats in defeating terror, less they suffer serious loss of face as we have seen recently. Let their accomplishments speak for themselves.Let Nigerians experience a more savory security atmosphere and this writer can assure you that they would remark favorably on it. Nigerians, thankfully, are a grateful people. They appreciate even the most minute or infinitesimal act of mercy. Witness when our football teams perform superlatively…Witness whenever INEC delivers a stellar election….Nigerians would always applaud. The security agencies do not have to administer their own kudos. Let Nigerians shower them with encomiums when they deserve them.