Under the immediate past government of President Goodluck Jonathan, the Boko Haram insurgents had a field day, killing and maiming innocent citizens at will; the situation got so bad that, even soldiers that were supposed to fight the insurgents ran away from battlefront, claiming the terrorist had far more superior fire power than they did. But now with the Dasukigate scandal, we all know that the funds meant to procure arms and ammunition were diverted into private pockets while the terrorists kept on killing helpless citizens, and the government turned a blind eye to everything that was happening.
It is appalling to observe that Boko Haram under Jonathan’s administration killed innocent people indiscriminately, from innocuous bystanders to impeccant school children. In total, there have been numerous terrorist attacks with heavy causality figures across Northern Nigeria, since December 2010. As a matter of fact, there have been several bomb attacks across the North since May 2011. A series of bomb attacks occurred in many states, including Borno, Bauchi, Katsina, Adamawa, Kaduna, Yobe, Kano and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Yet, it was practically impossible for the State Security Service to unravel the sponsors of the group, where their lethal weapons came from, and their modus operandi. The analyses of the Boko Haram insurgents were predicated on conjecture and second-guessing; these could not have helped the country out of the precarious situation.
Since the Boko Haram insurgents started their condemnable and objectionable activities, nobody of note has been apprehended and brought to book, except to score cheap political points; and even the small fries that were caught were not given any serious reprimand, in terms of state sanction – they were treated with kid-gloves and this has, more than anything else, emboldened them to continue with their wicked campaigns. Also, Nigerian borders are so porous and open that the insurgents come in and go out of the country at will, with no one to stop them. Besides, the amount of funds that have been committed to fighting the scourge of Boko Haram is so huge, but yet not reflected in the arms and ammunition used by the Nigerian armed forces, necessitating the question, about how and on what the massive funds were expended on. Similarly, the insecurity situation created by the Boko Haram sect threatened the existence of NYSC scheme, which is regarded as a unifying factor in Nigeria. The activities of the Boko Haram sect obviously has threatened the corporate existence of Nigeria and its sovereignty, with the insurgents having succeeded in instilling fear and hatred among the people who had been living in peace and harmony for decades.
The terrorising effect of the activities of the fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram on the socio-economic condition of the northern states of Nigeria has become so devastating that some financial institutions and other business ventures have closed down in many areas, thereby causing relocation of non-indigenes to their own states. The dangerous dimension the insecurity challenge has posed by the fundamentalist group has heightened serious fears among the Nigerian populace. This has evolved from the incessant suicide bombings and all sorts of attacks in the northern parts of the country, with little or no provocation. Consequently, lives and property are lost, business ventures and shops have remained closed.
The case of the Chibok school girl’s who were horrendously taken away by the Boko Haram insurgents is a very sad experience that the country would never want to go through again. However, it is imperative to underscore the fact that there was no swift response by the Nigerian government to get the abducted Chibok School girls back to their families. The Federal Government and Borno State government gave different accounts of how the girls were kidnapped, and both governments traded blames, with a breakdown in communication between them. But the manner in which the girls were kidnapped in several buses and trucks without any security interception is really very disturbing and worrisome. This is accentuated by the assertion of Amnesty International that the military had been tipped off about the abduction but they failed to act. This is a glaring and egregious error that cannot be explained away under any guise. In all of these, the Nigerian government was highly lethargic, standoffish and unconcerned, behaving as if nothing of any significance had occurred. In fact, with the benefit of hindsight and body language of the Federal Government, it did not initially believe that the girls were actually kidnapped, and carried on as if it was a gimmick meant to settle political vendetta. This raised question about the information gathering mechanism of the security agencies and the quality of advice it offers the government. It was only much later that it dawned on the Federal Government that the girls were actually abducted, and the president was busy traveling all over, even campaigning for elections in devastated areas.
Instead of getting to the brass tack of rescuing the girls, the government was more concerned about the politics of terror, initially treating the kidnap saga with levity, thinking it was a ruse, but the general public outcry and demonstrations across the country and beyond, even by very prominent people in the society, made the government to come to the realisation that it had goofed and made a strategic miscalculation. To that end, it took sluggish steps to retrace its earlier stance to no avail. The point of departure in that regard was the acceptance of global assistance, not only to help rescue the abducted school girls, but also to fight terror in the country. This is because Nigeria’s economic wellbeing is strategic to the economic interests of some superpowers.
It would be recalled that, initially, President Goodluck Jonathan had rebuffed all entreaties to accept the offer of the international community to fight terror in the country. The mismanagement of the Chibok school girl’s abduction, which subsequently attracted global attention and outrage, was bad advertisement for the country in terms of how the government cares for its citizens. This is indicative of the fact that those who claimed to be in charge of the affairs of the Nigerian State then were not on top of their game. This was further buttressed by the fact that after several weeks of the unfortunate kidnap saga, the president claimed not to know the whereabouts of the abducted school girls, as if to say they were being abandoned to their fates.
It would be recalled that when the Boko Haram insurgents went to students’ hostels and killed, maimed, as well as slaughtered helpless minors, all the government did was to commiserate with the parents of the departed souls, with no concrete plan to deal with the nagging problem of insurgents and its concomitant effects on the polity, only for such to repeat itself again and again. Hence, the whole war on terror in the country before now was nothing but unmitigated disaster, hence, its funding should be thoroughly probed.
From all indications, the fear of the Boko Haram was the beginning of wisdom, and even in Abuja, schools were shut down, business were closed, people lived in fear and the insurgents dictated the scheme of things, as the security agencies were apparently confused and clueless; unfortunately the people of Nigeria and the national economy are the worst for it.
The information gathering mechanism of the security apparatuses in the country were very poor, and insurgents seemed to have infiltrated the rank and file of the security architecture enabling them to strike at will with recklessness and precision. The government found it difficult to galvanise confidence and hope amongst the people under Goodluck Jonathan.
Each time the insurgents struck killing hundreds of people, government official just came out to talk tough and promise the people that the culprits would not only be apprehended, but that such dastardly act will not occur in the country again; only for such mindless attacks to repeat itself over and again.
It was under this confusion that President Buhari became the leader of the country, and he is of the firm view that the responsibility of putting paid to the ugly insecurity afflicting the country is with the government; that government must sit up and find a lasting, urgent, and all-embracing solution to the menace; and that trading blames would not solve any of Nigeria’s problems. His attitude is that government should not only take responsibility but must show capacity and capability to resolve this quagmire as soon as possible.
The senseless bombings and security challenge had to be stopped, and this is exactly what the Buhari administration has done. It has reorganised the armed forces and motivated them accordingly; the counter-terrorism war is now prosecuted with determination and vigour, new arms and ammunitions have been procured, the probe of the $2.1 billion arms procurement fraud is on-going. Equally, all the territories previously occurred by the insurgents have been captured by Nigerian soldiers, the rescue of the Chibok girls has gathered the much needed steam and, yes, there are still incidents of bomb detonations here and there, but by and large, the insurgents have been largely defeated and incapacitated. Yet the government is not resting on its oars, as it is collaborating with the country’s immediate neighbours and indeed the international community to stamp out terrorism completely from the country.
The Federal Government is not collaborating and not fighting the governments of the North-Eastern states, as used to be the case, but finding a lasting solution to the activities of the insurgents in the area. Therefore, it is imperative that the efforts of the government in this regard should be deeply appreciated, after all, the 1999 Constitution states unequivocally that the security and welfare of the people shall be the purpose of government. Hence, this is the best of constitutional democracy in practice.
PREMIUM TIMES
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