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ON SHIRORO, KUJE AND PRESIDENTIAL CONVOY
The attacks on Kuje, the president’s advance party, and elsewhere by terrorist forces bode ill for the nation
Three deadly attacks within one week define the state of insecurity and helplessness in Nigeria. First, dozens of people, including soldiers, mobile policemen and civilians were killed in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State by terrorists who wiped out an entire military platoon. Then, members of an advance party of President Muhammadu Buhari were attacked in his home state of Katsina after a police area commander had been ambushed and gunned down. And on Tuesday, terrorists took their battle to the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre in a daring raid for which the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has claimed responsibility.
If the authorities do not understand the meaning of what is going on, perhaps we should break it down for them. In Mali, the jihadist advance on Bamako was only halted by the intervention of French troops in a country that is now in perpetual turmoil. In Chad, the threat to overrun Ndjamena had compelled President Idris Derby to personally go into battle where he got killed by terrorists who had infiltrated his security forces. In Guinea, Burkina Faso and tangentially Sudan, the threat of jihadist military challenges has at different times led to the resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government. Since Nigeria is too huge and untidily configured to be subjected to these extreme pressures without falling apart, attacking Kuje in the manner reported, and ambushing the president’s advance party in Katsina may be a strong message from ISWAP and other terror networks that they are closing in.
Unfortunately, the current administration has not demonstrated the needed competence in dealing with the existential challenges facing the country. Under President Muhammadu Buhari, military and other security agencies in the country have been degraded. Yet, the most basic imperatives of governance and leadership is to define the right priorities and hire the right people. With that serially compromised, it is little surprise that Nigerians ARE now practically at the mercy of criminal gangs.
By attacking prisons and releasing their men, ISWAP and other terror affiliates are making the point that they are stronger than the Nigerian state. Between April and November last year, a period of just seven months, eight of the prisons in the country were attacked with hundreds of hardened criminals released to the streets. The madness started on 5th April 2021 with the attack on Owerri Prison in Imo State followed by the attack on Bauchi Prison four days later, on 9th April. Another five days after, on 14th April, the Ubiaja Prison in Edo State was attacked. It took only eight days after this for the Kumawa Prison in Kano to be attacked on 22 April. On 25th July, Jos Prison in Plateau State was attacked while the bloody attack on Kabba Prison in Kogi State took place on 13th September. On 22nd October, the Abolongo Prison in Oyo State was attacked and on 28th November, the attackers came back to the Jos Prison.
We do not need to enlist in the security agencies to realise the efficacy of preemptive and preventive intelligence in the situation we have found ourselves. But the approach to security in Nigeria seems to be based on kneejerk reactions after the damage had been done. Following the Shiroro attack, for instance, the military high command decided that the best way to fight back at a band of roving killer bandits was for the Chief of Army Staff to relocate to Shiroro, as if such mobile killers would wait to give him a guard of honour when he and his costly entourage finally arrive from Abuja.
The insecurity in Nigeria is no longer a series of random and opportunistic attacks. There is now a strategic selection of targets, well-coordinated attacks as well as careful map reading by the terrorists. The attacks on the Kuje prison and the presidential convoy are aimed at the heart of national power. In the pattern of these attacks, their timing and precision, there is a disturbing indication of sabotage and failure of intelligence, as the president pointed out. The time has therefore come for him to realise the severity of the threat to our national security by reassessing the current strategies which have proved ineffectual.
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The attacks on the Kuje prison and the presidential convoy are aimed at the heart of national power. In the pattern of these attacks, their timing and precision, there is a disturbing indication of sabotage and failure of intelligence, as the president pointed out
