It would appear that the Federal Government has chosen to pursue the strategy of closing itself up against creeping and dangerous insurgency across the nation and the escalation of violence in Jos. Key points such as residences of V.I.Ps, offices and security installations are being boarded up by elaborate security arrangements. Much of the centre of Abuja is now locked behind checkpoints, scanners, C.C.T.V and strict entry and exit arrangements. Vulnerable points are likely to be similarly sealed up behind security arrangements. While all these may or may not make central Abuja safer for government officials and some citizens, they will raise the feelings of insecurity among and around the citizenry. And they will not address the worrying spread of the violence in other old flashpoints. The impression being created is that government is locking itself up behind elaborate security boundaries, but has no response for the worsening phenomenon of Boko Haram insurgency or the resurgence of daily killings in Jos.
Ten years after Al Qaida members undertook the most daring assault on western powers by bombing the New York Twin Towers, Nigeria is feeling the heat of organized terror and the resurgence of communal conflict which is being stoked by dangerous complacency and incompetence of its leaders. Ten years ago, Nigerians watched television pictures of the slaughter of thousands of people in America by a group which had vowed to fight America and bring it to its knees. As part of the global community, most Nigerians felt the pain and revulsion which every civilized people should feel for an act which in the end changed the world more than any event in recent history. Nigeria played its role in all areas which were aimed at making our world a safer place. We even passed an anti-terrorism legislation, which from all appearances, was an off-shoot of other legislation targeting terror with its source largely outside Nigeria.
Even as we went along with the rest of the world in the fight against terror, our nation was dealing with its own domestic manifestation of terror. Ten years ago, organized violence was emerging around the Niger Delta, as a real threat. Kidnappings, bombings and sabotage of oil installations were clearly aimed at scoring political goals through the widespread use of terror. Criminal elements cashed in on the act, and the entire South South Zone and many parts of the South East were taken over by criminals and political agitators using criminal tactics. In those days, the mass killings in Jos which have now become endemic, and periodic riots around religion were the other threats to national security but they became more serious and permanent threats they were poorly handled.
Since then, the Niger Delta insurgency and criminality appears to have subsided, but only at a huge cost. There are reports that as many as 22,000 former militants are currently receiving training all over the world under the amnesty and rehabilitation programme. While the Niger Delta insurgency was being handled as a political problem, the threat of another insurgency from the North East was rearing its head. This one had a clear religious content, but was unclear in terms of its political objectives. Its initial intimate links with local politics, and the failure of the Federal and neighbouring States to recognise its potentials to feed on existing sentiments made it difficult to adopt an appropriate strategy to deal with it as an emerging threat. When it did become a threat, the response of the authorities secured a temporary respite, but drove it underground to resurface as a much stronger threat. Today, the nation is under siege from many threats, and our governments’ responses appear uncoordinated and limited largely to attempts to throw technology and barrickades against it, or to ignore it and hope that it will go away.
President Jonathan appears to have little to fight these widening spectres of violence with, other than building security walls and checkpoints and use of technology which is of questionable utility. Every time a high profile violent act takes place, Mr President fumes and promises to apprehend those behind if. On some occasions, he even says he knows those behind the acts. Yet the bombings continue. Then he disappears, leaving spokespersons to tell us how insecure we are. Abuja, the seat of government is now a garrison of barricades, yet the people who live there are no safer. In Jos, people live with daily horrific murders, and there but no fresh initiatives from the State or Federal Governments to bring them to an end. Neighbouring areas are catching the fire. Southern Kaduna is tense. A bomb factory was reported to have been found at a location between Niger State and the Federal Capital Territory. Threats are issued daily, and rumours fly all over the country of new threats, and government appears to respond by chasing every rumoured threat with barricades, body scanners and patrol vehicles. When citizens see more of these, they get more scared.
The threat of more terror and the unending bloodbath in Plateau State which has the potential to spread, is affecting millions of Nigerians very badly. There is a widespread perception that governments and security agencies have no response to these threats other than chasing them around and building walls around them. We are spending huge amounts in improving physical security of important persons and places, but public security is still being threatened. Rumours of bombings of bridges in Lagos, hotels in Abuja or railines in Kaduna generate panic among ordinary folk because the believe they can be real victims.
The most important demand Nigerians now make of President Jonathan’s administration at this stage is to address the issue of widespread insecurity and actual violence which threatens to paralyse the nation. We cannot all live behind checkpoints, barrickades or bullet-proof vests. Our leaders must show themselves as active and concerned. They must explore all avenues to seek immediate and realistic solutions to the creeping insurgency under the cover of Boko Haram, and the bloodbath in Plateau. How they do this is the business of government, but it cannot be done until President Jonathan moves from threats and condemnations to taking the type of action which goes beyond merely securing a few kilometres of Abuja, and leaving the rest of the nation at the mercy of bombs, bullets and machetes.
Ten years after Al Qaida members undertook the most daring assault on western powers by bombing the New York Twin Towers, Nigeria is feeling the heat of organized terror and the resurgence of communal conflict which is being stoked by dangerous complacency and incompetence of its leaders. Ten years ago, Nigerians watched television pictures of the slaughter of thousands of people in America by a group which had vowed to fight America and bring it to its knees. As part of the global community, most Nigerians felt the pain and revulsion which every civilized people should feel for an act which in the end changed the world more than any event in recent history. Nigeria played its role in all areas which were aimed at making our world a safer place. We even passed an anti-terrorism legislation, which from all appearances, was an off-shoot of other legislation targeting terror with its source largely outside Nigeria.
Even as we went along with the rest of the world in the fight against terror, our nation was dealing with its own domestic manifestation of terror. Ten years ago, organized violence was emerging around the Niger Delta, as a real threat. Kidnappings, bombings and sabotage of oil installations were clearly aimed at scoring political goals through the widespread use of terror. Criminal elements cashed in on the act, and the entire South South Zone and many parts of the South East were taken over by criminals and political agitators using criminal tactics. In those days, the mass killings in Jos which have now become endemic, and periodic riots around religion were the other threats to national security but they became more serious and permanent threats they were poorly handled.
Since then, the Niger Delta insurgency and criminality appears to have subsided, but only at a huge cost. There are reports that as many as 22,000 former militants are currently receiving training all over the world under the amnesty and rehabilitation programme. While the Niger Delta insurgency was being handled as a political problem, the threat of another insurgency from the North East was rearing its head. This one had a clear religious content, but was unclear in terms of its political objectives. Its initial intimate links with local politics, and the failure of the Federal and neighbouring States to recognise its potentials to feed on existing sentiments made it difficult to adopt an appropriate strategy to deal with it as an emerging threat. When it did become a threat, the response of the authorities secured a temporary respite, but drove it underground to resurface as a much stronger threat. Today, the nation is under siege from many threats, and our governments’ responses appear uncoordinated and limited largely to attempts to throw technology and barrickades against it, or to ignore it and hope that it will go away.
President Jonathan appears to have little to fight these widening spectres of violence with, other than building security walls and checkpoints and use of technology which is of questionable utility. Every time a high profile violent act takes place, Mr President fumes and promises to apprehend those behind if. On some occasions, he even says he knows those behind the acts. Yet the bombings continue. Then he disappears, leaving spokespersons to tell us how insecure we are. Abuja, the seat of government is now a garrison of barricades, yet the people who live there are no safer. In Jos, people live with daily horrific murders, and there but no fresh initiatives from the State or Federal Governments to bring them to an end. Neighbouring areas are catching the fire. Southern Kaduna is tense. A bomb factory was reported to have been found at a location between Niger State and the Federal Capital Territory. Threats are issued daily, and rumours fly all over the country of new threats, and government appears to respond by chasing every rumoured threat with barricades, body scanners and patrol vehicles. When citizens see more of these, they get more scared.
The threat of more terror and the unending bloodbath in Plateau State which has the potential to spread, is affecting millions of Nigerians very badly. There is a widespread perception that governments and security agencies have no response to these threats other than chasing them around and building walls around them. We are spending huge amounts in improving physical security of important persons and places, but public security is still being threatened. Rumours of bombings of bridges in Lagos, hotels in Abuja or railines in Kaduna generate panic among ordinary folk because the believe they can be real victims.
The most important demand Nigerians now make of President Jonathan’s administration at this stage is to address the issue of widespread insecurity and actual violence which threatens to paralyse the nation. We cannot all live behind checkpoints, barrickades or bullet-proof vests. Our leaders must show themselves as active and concerned. They must explore all avenues to seek immediate and realistic solutions to the creeping insurgency under the cover of Boko Haram, and the bloodbath in Plateau. How they do this is the business of government, but it cannot be done until President Jonathan moves from threats and condemnations to taking the type of action which goes beyond merely securing a few kilometres of Abuja, and leaving the rest of the nation at the mercy of bombs, bullets and machetes.
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