Nigeria is like an item put out for sale at a public auction. Bandits, kidnappers, and other criminal groups are making the strongest bid to buy that geographic entity. How far they would succeed in their bid would depend, to a large extent, on how far the Nigerian government is determined to counter their tender, the extent to which the government is prepared to invest in training of defence forces and other security agents, how far the government is willing to spend to acquire sophisticated weapons to match the terror groups, as well as the extent to which the government is eager to invest in intelligence gathering and sharing to forestall the terrorists’ moves.
Unfortunately, nothing in the past seven years suggests the politicians we elected in 2015 and in 2019 are bothered by the ease with which the terrorists have been striking at the heart of the nation’s defence forces. Political leaders are less concerned about the territories captured by terrorists, the innocent citizens who are displaced in their communities, and others who are forcefully abducted daily.
If the Federal Government had acted early enough, the terrorists would have been pushed back, their advances would have been halted or curtailed significantly, and their capacity to hit and run would have been extensively reduced. In the fight against modern-day terror groups, it is important to stay ahead of the groups rather than play catch-up that would give the terrorists a significant head-start in their campaigns.
The tension in Nigeria is palpable. Residents of the Federal Capital Territory are concerned. They are also sleep deprived. Terrorists have threatened to strike at the Presidency. How audacious. By their threats, the bandits are taunting Nigeria’s security apparatus because they know they can stage raids, seize innocent citizens, attack soldiers and military installations, and institute a reign of terror in the country. Nigeria’s entire defence and security architecture is besieged.
Some four weeks ago, bandits were so audacious to attack President Muhammadu Buhari’s convoy on the way to his hometown. Just imagine. Buhari’s security staff should have done two things to ensure some level of security, given that no one can ever guarantee 100 per cent security. First, they should have used drone technology to survey the route the convoy would take. That would have helped them to spot bandits taking positions along the road. Second, they could have used attack helicopters (if they have access to any) to mount aerial surveillance until Buhari and his convoys had completed the trip. Of course, all these would have been done if money allocated for the President’s security was utilised productively.
Terrorists have shown by their brazen actions that nowhere and no agency of government could be deemed impenetrable, secure, and unreachable. That is the message. They have affirmed, many times, that they have the capacity to unsettle the government and the larger population. Sadly, the government has not responded as vigorously as the public expected. Life in Nigeria is looking more and more like life in a war zone.
Would political leaders allow terrorists and agents of darkness to hijack Nigeria and convert it to what their religious creed encourages them to do?
The collapse of Nigeria’s national security did not happen overnight. The emergence of the Boko Haram insurgency seemed to be the alarm bell that previous governments ignored even before Buhari was elected. However, the Goodluck Jonathan government recorded major successes against the insurgents and recovered some communities and local government areas previously captured by Boko Haram. And then 2015 happened. During the election campaigns, the nation was sold a dud cheque with assurances that the All Progressives Congress (APC) represented a breath of fresh air and the magical or special political party that would solve all our problems.
Voters bought that message and trooped to voting centres with one objective in mind – to overthrow the Jonathan administration. The propaganda worked. Jonathan was defeated in the 2015 presidential election but the Buhari government that was elected proved no better. It did not take time to expose that government’s weaknesses and lack of ability. The rest is now history.
Even as terrorists gained momentum and superior strength, the government threatened to sue the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a global media organisation, for reporting facts, not fiction, about the mushrooming of terror groups in many parts of northern Nigeria. That threat was ludicrous. The government’s notification that it would take the BBC to court was laughable in intent and execution. It suggests the government detests truth and prefers to propagate fabricated stories to force-feed Nigerian people with falsehood. How absurd. The BBC reported the facts.
Like so many previous threats made by Information and Culture Minister Layiwola “Lai” Mohammed, everyone is waiting to see how the government would successfully prosecute the BBC when the government has absolutely no case to advance against the public service broadcaster. Media organisations have the professional obligation to report in the public interest. It is in the public interest to report on the scale of insecurity in some northern parts of Nigeria so that everyone can understand how safe or unsafe they are under the present government that took an oath to protect the lives of all citizens.
There is always a tension between protecting national interest and promoting public interest. Australian academic Martin Hirst (2013) analysed the conflict between preserving national interest and promoting public interest journalism. He argued that national interest and public interest must be conceptualised differently because national interest denotes safeguarding state secrets and hiding things from the public while public interest signifies openness, revelation, and the public’s right to know. Lai Mohammed must recognise these basic concepts to understand the role journalists play in society.
It is not only Nigeria’s national security that has been damaged. The economy is in bad shape also. The value of the naira has tumbled in the foreign exchange market. Last week the naira weakened spectacularly. In the currency exchange market, people with naira found out painfully how worthless the currency had become. They needed 710 naira to buy just one United States dollar. That was a record, an exchange rate never imagined. The sharp drop in the exchange rate of the naira is a national embarrassment. In the 1970s and early to mid-1980s, we must remember, the naira was at par and even stronger than the US dollar.
Indifference to growing attacks against the Nigerian state and people and institutions points to poor leadership, poor governance, and a lack of capacity to respond promptly and vigorously to insecurity. Silence by the Presidency has so far achieved nothing but worsened public nervousness.
Nigerians are facing an existential threat. The greatest and most dangerous threat to any country’s existence is the danger of a civil war. Our political leaders should have learned from the ethnic hatred that turned Rwanda into killing fields in 1994 or the bloodbaths that marked the 1993-2005 Burundian conflict that was generated by entrenched feelings of ethnic discrimination and suspicion, or the dreadful slaughters that occurred during the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
The world has changed in many ways and our response, our national defence strategy, our approach to the invading terror groups must change considerably. Nigerian forces must be proactive and strategic.
Nigeria has never been threatened as it is today by insecurity. The breakdown of national security is real. The current situation is terrifying. The government has little time to halt the country’s descent into anarchy. If the government fails to stop it, the country could be blanketed by smokes of mayhem and lawlessness. This is not the time for Buhari and his officials to continue to dither.