The violent attack on passengers travelling on the Abuja-Kaduna train last month represents a fatal strike on the soul of the nation. That passenger train was constructed and advertised as modern and luxurious. Sadly, on that eventful day, some passengers met their unexpected death rather than achieve happiness, comfort, satisfaction and luxury. Other passengers sustained serious injuries. What Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s transportation ministry forgot in the attempt to revive the nation’s dilapidated rail transport system was adequate security mechanism for people who choose to travel by that mode of transport.
Days before the attack on the Abuja-Kaduna passenger train, bandits struck at the Kaduna International Airport on Saturday, March 26, 2022. The two events were unexpected but audacious. They exposed and embarrassed Nigeria’s fragile security system.
Insecurity has always been a touchy topic of discussion in the country. Since Muhammadu Buhari’s government was inaugurated in 2015, the government has not been able to curtail terrorist activities or improve on the low level of security. Indeed, the terrorists who struck at the Kaduna airport and those who hijacked the Abuja-Kaduna passenger train uncovered the weaknesses in Nigeria’s national security.
This is not the first time that terrorists have embarrassed the government or unmasked the inability of security agencies to respond to any security emergency. On Tuesday, August 24, 2021, terrorists launched a daring attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna, an elite defence and military training institution. That attack ridiculed and belittled Nigeria’s entire defence architecture.
The attackers sent a warning and communicated an unambiguous message. The message was clear. There was nowhere, no institution and no agency of government that could be regarded as inviolable, impermeable, safe and difficult for terrorists to infiltrate. Terrorists believe they can gain access to and break down Nigeria’s defence and security system anytime, anywhere and anyway they prefer. Recent incidents seem to confirm that belief.
As everyone knows, the NDA was not an ordinary defence and military training institution. It has a long history. It was established on February 5, 1964, to train military officers for the nation. The NDA is widely regarded as the number one academy that represents the pulse or heartbeat of Nigeria’s national defence, security and training. Following that attack in August last year, many stakeholders in the defence and security industry expressed disappointment that an institution that ought to have been fortified against foreseen and unforeseeable attacks of any kind was invaded easily by criminal elements. The NDA should have been made extremely difficult for terror groups to penetrate.
We live in a nation of outlaws. It is dispiriting that, in Nigeria, a country that is seen as a continental leader, bandits, kidnappers, callous herdsmen and ‘unknown’ gunmen and women could hold citizens hostage in their homes, in their business places, in their offices, in their places of worship, in public transport, in the air, on high seas, and on the roads, both during the day and during the night. The police are overwhelmed. Soldiers deployed to overpower terror groups often become victims.
There is something dubious, if not criminal, in the way money is allocated every year to enhance national security. Budgetary allocations are made to various federal ministries and departments but no one makes effort to render verifiable account of how the money allocated to their ministry is expended.
Why do we allocate so much money to improve national security and yet criminal groups continue to overwhelm our security agencies? Human lives must be accorded priority attention. The attacks on the NDA, the Abuja-Kaduna passenger train, and at the Kaduna International Airport, among others, suggest that funds provided for national security are systematically plundered and not accounted for.
Everywhere, from the north to the south, from the east to the west, security agencies in Nigeria are struggling to cope. They have not been able to have any major impact on various criminal groups, we are told, because the bandits have greater firepower. Ironically, it is the same government that orders armoured vehicles and fully armed police and soldiers to go after members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Eastern Security Network (ESN) that is unable to stop erratic violent attacks against citizens, property and institutions in the northern parts of the country. The contradictions are obvious but largely unstated.
Last week, Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai flagged furiously that, if the worsening security situation did not improve in the coming weeks and months, eight North-West states might be compelled to invite foreign mercenaries to help to provide the much-needed security in the states besieged by armed gangs. El-Rufai’s threats exemplify the collapse of national security. His anguish depicts despair by some northern state governors over the inability of the Federal Government to improve security across the country.
The volatile security situation has raised troubling questions such as: Where is the Buhari government headed? Why couldn’t the government use all the resources at its disposal to provide strong security for citizens, institutions and agencies of government? Why are security agencies always caught unawares when terror attacks occur? Why has Nigeria become a theatre of war even in peacetime? Why has Nigeria been turned into a playground by terrorists and bandits who are treated softly or protected? Why is Nigeria a place where terror groups find refuge to commit atrocious crimes and get away free?
Why on earth has Nigeria become a nation where law and order has collapsed? More important, why has Nigeria become a centre where leaders of regional and continental terror gangs gather to recruit, assemble, train and arm their workforce, and use the opportunity to execute their evil plans to make the country ungovernable?
Long before these embarrassments, Nigeria had been on a speedy plunge into anarchy. And the government must be held responsible for the state of insecurity, for its apparent indifference to violent crimes and the emergence of terror groups. Things were never this bad prior to the inauguration of the current government. During the 2015 presidential election campaign, Buhari criticised the Goodluck Jonathan administration for rapid decline in national security. In nearly eight years, Buhari’s government has not done better.
The current insecurity has persisted because attention to national security has been relaxed and funds voted to enhance security have been embezzled. In this environment, violent attacks occur every day rather than decrease.
Clearly, these terrorist attacks signify a failure of intelligence. If intelligence gathering and sharing had been efficient and prompt as it ought to be, the violent incidents and loss of lives would have been reduced or stopped.
High levels of insecurity in the country have damaged the image of Nigeria, particularly the image of the government. Consider this. Previously, whenever a crime occurred, the government swore to go after the criminals. But the government never did. Of course, criminals understand the body language of a government that hardly keeps to its word.
A government that talks but fails to act offers an invitation to criminals to commit further crimes. The citizens have lost confidence in political leaders. Those clueless politicians who promised to take the country to the next level but failed tragically to show leadership are now perceived as enemies of the public.
If the current state of insecurity worsens, national elections planned for 2023 could be endangered. Free, fair, transparent, credible and non-violent elections cannot take place in an environment ruled by criminal groups. This is the danger that Nigeria faces.