BUHARI’S OSTRICH APPROACH TO INSECURITY

Federal government’s insistence that insecurity is abating is self-deceit, writes Bolaji Adebiyi

Largely because of its enormous capacity for calling black white, it was difficult to believe the social media posts of late noon of Wednesday. The internet space was agog with the story of how an influential monarch that doubles as a spiritual leader in the North-west, reportedly escaped, through the window of a mosque, the rage of invading bandits.

The story was told of how the gun-wielding marauders stormed the state mosque at noon in an apparent attempt to seize the prized monarch who was eventually smuggled away through the window of the place of worship by state security operatives. Despite not catching their targeted loot, it was still a handsome day for the forest men as they reportedly carted away 48 worshippers. At least, millions of naira will still roll in as ransom in a few days.

Although it turned out to be fake, the authors of the story mimicked the worsening insecurity in the country, particularly in the North. With the military turning the heat on bandits in the endemic states of Katsina and Zamfara, the outlaws have found the contiguous states of Sokoto and Kaduna as safe havens to ply their nefarious trade.

The seriousness of the rising violence of the forest men took Aminu Tambuwal, the governor of Sokoto State, to Muhammadu Buhari, the president of the federation, on Monday to make a case for better management of the situation. He did a review of the tactical situation, telling the president, a former general in the army, about the need for the military to rethink its tactical approach to the containment of the bandits. Despite official denials, the media is awash with reports of outlaws’ control of several communities in the state where they have imposed levies and taxes. In an audacious display of bestiality, a week ago, scores of travellers were trapped in a bus and burnt to death by bandits in Gidan Bawa village in Sabon Birni Local Government of the state. These clearly are evidence that whatever the tactics of the security forces, the security crisis is not abating. As usual, the president acknowledged the dire situation and promised to step up action. This, for many Nigerians, is a serious challenge that they are unable to unravel. Why does the president promise but fail to rein in insecurity, particularly in the North?

This poser was the focus of an editorial last weekend by the Daily Trust, an Abuja based newspaper that devotes a lot of attention to northern issues. Titled ‘Life Has Lost Its Value Under Buhari’s Nigeria,’ it lamented the worsening security situation in the North, pointing out that the region must be disappointed by the record of one of its own in the saddle. In a timely but unusual temperate response, the presidency in a statement by Shehu Garba, a presidential media aide, acknowledged the severity of the issues raised and catalogued the efforts of the Buhari administration to tackle the problems.

Interestingly, Garba, for once, left the Goodluck Jonathan administration alone in the blame for the state of affairs, apprehending this time around, the continental nature of terror, banditry and armed violence. “Nigeria is not unique,” he said, explaining: “Violence and terror have risen steadily across the entire African continent over the last decade.” Saying the Buhari administration was worried about the killing field that Nigeria has become, he ended his statement with the habitual refrain: “Nigeria’s persistent and continued efforts to suppress instability have seen results, with the terror group Boko Haram among others reduced to a shell of its former self.”

There lies the problem. The Buhari administration has an Ostrich approach to resolving challenges. It sees positive results where most Nigerians, including credible public opinion moulders, see debilitating failures. Most times it argues against the facts. When it took over in 2015, it claimed that it inherited 15 local government areas in Borno State that were under the control of the terror group, Boko Haram. Although this was a lie it told persistently, it, however, further claimed a few months later that it had technically degraded the terrorist organisation to the extent that it was no longer holding positions. By its own claim, only a section of a state out of the 36 states of the federation was in a security crisis at its inception. But today, what is the situation, which it insists is under control?

The terror organisation, though in disarray, has multiplied. Besides Boko Haram, there is now Islamic State West Africa Province. Despite the discord, its defence intelligence has been unable to catch in and do the kill. Instead, the organisation it claimed to have degraded has shown audacious strength in transforming from a guerrilla to a conventional force that is taking on military locations at will, killing scores of priceless senior military officers and men. Battalions have been sacked severally, and on one occasion or so, a whole brigade.

Six years after Buhari, armed violence in the North has spread from a section of Borno State in the North-east to several communities in Northern Nigeria with intensity in most states of the North-west even as the North-central states of Plateau and Benue suffer intermittent attacks from herdsmen. So, the fact of the matter is that many communities in the Northern states are under the rule of one outlaw or the other: Boko Haram, bandits or herdsmen.

Yet, during the week, Lai Mohammed, the administrations’ minister of information and culture, told Nigerians that but for Buhari, the ISWAP would have established an Islamic state in Nigeria. He was responding to the Monday tackle by Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, that Buhari had approached his wits’ end on the matter of security. Warning the former president to mind his mouth, he contended that the president had provided qualitative leadership that had yielded positive results.

Without a doubt, no Nigerian could have taken him seriously. Certainly not Tambuwal or Bello Sani, the youthful governor of Niger State, who are dealing with the excision of several communities in their states by bandits. Nor would those Northern youths who have taken to the streets of the North with the slogan: ‘The North is Bleeding!’ believe him.

A report by The Punch newspaper this week made the matter clearer. It puts the death toll in the North in the last 11 months at 3,125 while the figure for the kidnapped is 2,703. Obviously, for the Buhari administration, these are tales by the moonlight. But Nigerians who are at the receiving end definitely know better.

Adebiyi, managing editor of THISDAY Newspapers, writes from bolaji.adebiyi@thisdaylive.com