The latest report by the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), which ranked Nigeria the third terrorism most impacted country in the world, is deplorable. According to the report, only Afghanistan and Iraq, which ranked first and second, respectively, were ahead of Nigeria as countries that suffered most from terrorism. The report entitled, ‘Global Terrorism Index 2019,’ is used to measure the impact of terrorism across the world.
The GTI is produced every year by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a non-profit think tank with offices in Sydney, New York and Mexico City. Although Nigeria was ranked fourth in the global terrorism index in 2014, it has since 2015 retained the third position among countries worst hit by terrorism.
Details of the report showed that Nigeria remained the most terrorised country in Africa with huge economic and financial losses. The report also revealed that deaths from terrorism in Nigeria rose to 2, 040 in 2018. According to the report, terror-related incidents increased 37 per cent, from 411 in 2017 to 562 in 2018 due to the activities of extremist herders and Boko Haram. “Violence between Nigerian herders and farmers intensified in early 2018 with approximately 300,000 people fleeing their homes,” the report further stated.
Also, the sub-Saharan Africa recorded the highest number of deaths from terrorism. The Boko Haram, which ranked as the fourth deadliest terrorist group in 2018, still remains the deadliest in sub-Saharan Africa. The report equally revealed that “since its rise in 2009, Boko Haram had been responsible for thousands of deaths throughout the Lake Chad Basin region of West Africa.” In Nigeria, the Boko Haram insurgency led to 35,000 combat-related deaths and 18,000 deaths from terrorism since 2011. Although the report observed that the Multinational Joint Task Forces (MNJTF), which operates alongside Nigerian military, had reclaimed some territory from the insurgents and weakened the Boko Haram in 2015 and 2916, the sect was responsible for 615 combat-related deaths in the first eight months of 2019.
No doubt, banditry in the North West and herders/farmers violence in the North Central must have escalated the growing insecurity across the country. The Boko Haram insurgency is still on the rise, contrary to government’s claim that the sect has been degraded or technically defeated. Recently, the convoy of Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State was attacked by the insurgents while on his way to an IDP camp.
The killer herdsmen have added to the worrisome security situation in the country, especially in the North Central and the South where they operate with relative ease. Terror-related deaths by this group alone accounted for 1,158 fatalities in 2018. Sadly, not less than 1,071 people were killed and 775 people kidnapped across the country between January and April, 2019.
The present administration came to power in 2015 with a promise to tackle rising insecurity, unemployment and fix the economy, among others. However, rather than abate, the general insecurity across the country is becoming worse with each passing day. Since the primary function of government is to provide security for life and property, we call on the Federal Government to ensure adequate security for all Nigerians. We believe that this is, indeed, the right time to overhaul the nation’s security architecture. There is need to bring in new people with fresh ideas and strategies to rejig the nation’s security in all its ramifications. The government should stop paying lip service to the decentralisation of the police. This is perhaps the right time to commence state policing.
Besides, the government must take decisive steps to adequately equip the military as well as the police so that they can effectively check the rising insecurity. The GTI 2019 ranking has shown that all is not well with our security system. The recent alert by the United States that Al-Qaeda is penetrating the North West geo-political zone should not be ignored. It should serve as a wake-up call on the government and the security agencies to sit up and come up with pragmatic measures to combat the looming danger. At the same time, the welfare of the soldiers and the police must be prioritised. Government must shore up the morale of the fighting troops in the North East zone as well as boost intelligence gathering and sharing among the security agencies. Therefore, all hands must be on deck to check the rising insecurity in the country.