Changing the Approach to Fighting Insecurity

Postscript by Waziri Adio

The spate of deadly and daring attacks by terrorists and other criminals within the week should evoke more than the usual threats and recriminations. What is needed is an urgent review and a consequential change of our approach to securing life and property in general and for prosecuting the war against terror in particular.

While the sacrifice and the gallantry of the members of our security forces and the peculiarities of asymmetrical warfare must be duly acknowledged, it is difficult to accept that much more cannot be done to keep our country and its citizens safer and more secure, especially with the quantum of resources devoted to security over time.

The current approach is clearly not doing enough to deliver the desired outcome. We need to quickly switch to a much more aggressive and offensive mode. We need to go all out and take the war to the different breeds of terrorists across the land, and not just be content with foiling attacks or scampering to respond to their unceasing assaults.

If anyone needed any evidence of how emboldened the terrorists have become and are likely to get, the series of attacks around Kaduna within a few days is ample enough. On Saturday, a band of terrorists attacked the Kaduna International Airport, disrupting air transportation and killing one airport staff.

On Monday, it got grimmer. Another set of terrorists planted explosives on the Abuja-Kaduna rail tracks and gruesomely shot into the Kaduna-bound night train, leaving eight dead, more than 20 injured and many unaccounted for. A station on the same rail tracks was allegedly attacked on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, there was a reported attack in Zaria.

With these attacks, including a September 2021 breach of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and an October 2021 failed attempt on a train, Kaduna seems to have been corralled into the frontline of the war on terror. Incidentally, this is a state with high presence of security formations.

The Abuja-Kaduna Road had long been designated as a den of kidnappers, one of the reasons those who could afford it opt for the trains and flights. It should be a serious reason for pause that it is now considered a very risky endeavour to commute by road, rail and air between Abuja and Kaduna, two important and strategic cities.  

But before the sad spotlight on Kaduna, there had been a surfeit of incidents of terrorists storming and plundering villages in Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Niger states, abducting, raping and killing our citizens with reckless abandon. Living in rural North West has become a dangerous proposition, with serious implication for food inflation, poverty and security in the affected communities and beyond.

But maybe because these are mostly poor villagers in some remote places, the unceasing attacks on them hardly generate more than a shrug, even when the body count is in dozens. The reality however is that if not effectively checked, these criminals will become more emboldened and are likely to move from poor and vulnerable villagers to more prosperous but equally vulnerable city dwellers.

This is one of the reasons why the attacks around Kaduna last week should not only shock and outrage us but instigate a different approach. The other compelling reason is the continuous spread of insecurity across the country. While there has been some improvement in the war against Boko Haram, peace is yet to fully return to the North East. Zamfara used to be the only state terrorised by those previously categorised as bandits in the North West but the reign of terror has since spilled into other parts of the zone.

The farmer-herder conflicts in the North Central keep resurfacing. Some parts of the South East, especially Imo and Anambra states, keep boiling. Oil theft is rife in the South South. Ritual killings and kidnappings are frequent in the South West. If the growing insecurity is not seen as an emergency, that in itself should be a serious cause for concern. 

When dramatic episodes like last week’s happen, they are usually followed by some equally dramatic but episodic reactions. We need more than such this time. If a turning-point is needed, this should be it. This should not be because some lives are more important than others but because the risk that we are all exposed to should be more apparent by now.

The first thing we need is a more pro-active strategy on fighting insecurity. No one expects the security high command to put their war strategy in the public square. But they need to swiftly develop and execute a more offensive, better coordinated and ruthlessly implemented strategy against the different breeds of criminals terrorising our land.

We need to switch from the seeming defensive mode to a more offensive one. We need to start seizing the initiative against the terrorists, not through speeches but through concrete actions.  If necessary, the President should demand a three-month plan for clearing the terrorists out of their hideouts and wiping them out. He may need to shake up the team and move key personnel around to signal both urgency and need for change.

To be sure, asymmetrical warfare is different from conventional warfare, which is what most of our security personnel are trained in. Our security forces are also stretched thin, as they are deployed in different hotspots all over the country. Also, the fact that terrorists embed themselves among the populace, go after soft targets, and operate in ungoverned spaces pose challenges. But we have been fighting the terrorists for more than a decade now. So, we should have some valuable experience under our belt, apart from what we can learn from the experiences of others.

At this critical point, we need a more aggressive approach that rides on better intelligence gathering, more swift response to credible intelligence, better coordination between different arms of the security forces, greater deployment of technology, more active tracking and blocking the flow of arms and money, increased mobilisation of all of society to the common threat, and more responsive and empathetic leadership.

Even when terrorists hide in forests or live among the people, it shouldn’t be difficult to track irregular movements. We have security and non-security agencies gathering information and filing reports all over the country. Ordinary citizens and authority figures in the communities can also help in tracking and reporting. But from the recent statement by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State credible intelligence is not always acted on. Also, villagers do not trust the government enough to share information or trust government to protect them from revenge attacks. Building trust and improving response time and coordination will thus be critical.

We need to take better advantage of technology both for surveillance and offensive purposes. It is puzzling that kidnappers are bold enough to use mobile phones to demand ransoms. It is more baffling that the kidnappers and their patrons receive the ransoms with no repercussion despite the array of technology now available and investments made over time. Armed drones tilted the balance in the recent war in Ethiopia, and there is no reason we shouldn’t be exploring that option without the fanfare that accompanied the purchase of some drones by the police last week.

Also, no options should be off the table, including the use of mercenaries. Yes, there is the matter of national pride. But there is nothing to be proud of when our citizens are being slaughtered like goats or are living in constant fear of being kidnapped, raped and killed. There is nothing against national pride in seeking help to protect your citizens. We need to put the terrorist on the backfoot and protect our people by all means necessary.

Some people have insisted on the need to address the root causes and the appeal of terrorism: growing poverty and inequality. It will be important to increase investments in health and education, to address the growing drug problem, and to create jobs and opportunities for self-actualisation. It is also important to continue with the deradicalization programme. All these are investments that will yield results in medium to long term. But we need to stop the advance of the terrorists immediately. That cannot wait.

President Muhammadu Buhari needs to take the increasing attacks by terrorists very personal. His main job, as with any other president, is to secure Nigerians. The train attack underscores the fact that a slide in security undermines some progress in infrastructure as only those who are alive can use the trains, roads, and airports.

One of President Buhari’s strongest appeals in 2015 when he defeated an incumbent president was his military background and his promise to rout the terrorists. With different fronts of insecurity in different parts of the country, that promise has not been fulfilled. In the 14 months remaining in his tenure, the president can still improve security in the country by pushing the security forces hard for better results, and by personally showing empathy in moments of distress.