Nigeria: Let’s Fight Insecurity The Same Way We Fought COVID-19 (1)

 By Magnus Onyibe

 In the very popular Bob Marley song: Redemption Song. The lyrics goes thus; “how long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look? “

If you substitute the word ‘prophets’ for ‘masses’ in the music maestro’s scintillatingly and solemnly rendered lamentation song, he might have been singing about Nigeria of today, even though the music was sang and released in June 1980-some forty years ago.

*Buhari receiving Covid 19 vaccines  

And the reason the lyrics of the song would resonate in Nigeria today is owed to the reality of the fact that a similar circumstance of life at its most horrific level- slavery and colonialism that prompted Marley to sing his song of agony is here with us in Nigeria, the land of our birth which has been transformed into a killing field. Unlike white oppression that Marley was wailing about, the misery is not being brought upon us by external forces.

But by our own people with extremist views and therefore at war with society by committing atrocities that debase human lives and demonstrate complete loss of value of life as our country has become a sort of war zone. And this season of weeping and gnashing of teeth has come upon the entire nation like a boar constrictor, that has wrapped its body around its victim and it is squeezing breathe out of him/her, at the same time breaking all the bones in the victim’s body, which by any measure can only be excruciatingly painful and gruesome. That is why despite the fact that we are all slowly dying like the Boer constrictor reptile victim, the entire nation is forlornly waiting for president Buhari to save us.

While in Bob Marley’s song he wailed about prophets being killed, the current reality in Nigeria is that the innocent and hard working masses are being butchered in droves in the past ten (10) years or thereabouts of the malaise being brought upon us.

And it would appear as if the outlaws- terrorists, bandits, known and unknown gunmen are getting bolder in their evil enterprise as they are currently setting their eyes on leaders, (of the political hue) currently being killed by the violent elements.

And the evidence of the ugly phenomenon evolving is the recent assassination of a commissioner/ cabinet member of Katsina state government, Dr. Rabe Nasir Bindawa a fortnight ago. Barely a week after that incident, a law maker from Kaduna state, Mr. Rilwanu Gadagau, was also murdered by terrorists as he traveled between Kaduna to Zaria. As the festive seasons of Xmas and New Year are now upon us, politicians that have been dwelling in the safety of Abuja would be going back to meet with the long suffering members of their constituents in their homesteads where intense acts of terrorism, in the dimension of hurly burly is being unleashed on the defenseless masses.

In the light of the two recent killings of members of the executive and legislative arms of government in both Katsina and Kaduna states highlighted earlier, it is not beyond the marauding outlaws to seize or kill a governor very soon.

The suspicion that politicians are being targeted is not being made up by me. The Directorate of State Services, DSS, recently issued that alert via a press release.

The merchants of death, for lack of a better terminology to characterise them, might have failed in the past attempts to take the lives of Professor Babagana Umara Zulum and Mr Samuel Ortom, both of whom are governors of Borno and Benue states respectively that were attacked in the recent past.

And they only escaped by the whiskers from the dragnets of the bandits now officially branded terrorists by the authorities in Abuja.

But the terrorists are getting bolder. Having not been able to kidnap or kill a governor or other high ranking politicians by ambush on the road or while attending a public event, as was the case of professor Chukwuma Soludo, governor-elect of Anambra state whose police aides were killed in an attack during his campaign for office and Mr Hope Uzodinma, governor of lmo state whose country home was recently razed down by arsonists that are after his life, they may even soon attack a governor’s lodge or government house in the north or south east.

The reasoning above is also not far-fetched. And it is underscored by the fact that if they succeeded in attacking Nigerian Defense Academy, NDA-the premier military training institution in Nigeria that is supposed to be as impregnable as Fort Knox and abducted a serving army major, after killing a couple of other residents, why won’t they attack a government house or governor’s lodge? Terrorists are on record to have also shot down a Nigerian air force fighter jet from which a brave pilot successfully ejected and managed to return safely to base after search and rescue team scouted the forests for him.

Did someone not reveal that the army paid the terrorists a huge sum of money to retrieve from them, a rocket propelled weapon that could bring down airplanes?

The military reportedly has been so worried about the suspicion that terrorists possess such a weapon that poses grave threat to the president and commander in chief of the armed forces of Nigeria who travels frequently on that route to his home stead in Daura, that it paid a huge some of money to get the ‘bazooka’ off their hands.

Since the claim was reported in the media, the military has repudiated it. Perhaps, because it is inelegant, or it may be a mere ruse. But the suspected development is very disconcerting simply because, as the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire. Also, perception can sometimes become reality.

The Katsina State Governor and Chairman, North West Governors’ Forum, Aminu Bello Masari, who in the face of unbridled killing, raping and maiming of defenseless and innocent indigenes of his state by terrorists, had advised his compatriots to arm themselves up to defend themselves. Because bearing of fire arm by non members of the armed forces was against the laws of our country, there was public condemnation of the proposition by the governor who was obviously compelled to float the idea as a reflection of his desperation, to save his people since the armed forces whose duty it is to protect life and property has failed them. Following the renewed onslaught by the outlaws, Masari has again doubled down on his call on citizens to bear arms in self-defense to curb the overwhelming security threat, particularly in northern Nigeria, and which is also rapidly taking hold in south east Nigeria.

His Sokoto State counterpart , Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has also, perhaps arising from a sense of desperation after 23 (by another account, the casualty number is higher ) innocent passengers in a transport bus were shot by terrorists and set ablaze inside the bus in which they were traveling, also told a delegation of security apparatchik from the presidency that government should bring back South African mercenaries, who former President Goodluck Jonathan had contracted to flush out Boko Haram insurgents from their Sambisa forest base, where they first made their home.

In the same bid to combat terrorism ,but from a different perspective, Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who has identified reserved forests in the northern part of the country as home to the criminal elements, also called for the reclaiming of forests by governments through what he characterized as full ownership. The Kano governor’s proposition about taking over forests is in tandem with the sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Saad Abubakar’s suggestion that the military should make deliberate efforts to occupy all the forests so that they would cease to be haven for terrorists. And that position reinforces my plea in a previous media intervention that all forests should be converted to farms not only for the purpose of preventing terrorists from converting them to their abodes, but also as a verifiable source of food for the masses through active cultivation of the wild forests as farms to feed the nation.

Not many of us consider taking ownership of the forests from the prism of its playing the dual purpose of solving the problem of insecurity and at the same time taking care of another critically important challenge-food insecurity, which is a corollary to the scourge of insecurity of lives and properties afflicting a critical mass of Nigerians.

Here is how l made the case in an article titled, “Pastoralists and Farmers’ Conflicts in Nigeria: Time for Fulani Capitalism, Not Herdsmen Terrorism” which l wrote and published widely in the mass media on February 15, 2021 by Vanguard and other platforms.

“Before proceeding to the nitty-gritty, permit me to introduce you to the concept of Fulani-Capitalism, which is a variant of AfriCapitalism – a pseudo or hybrid business/social investment model being promoted by Tony Elumelu, chairman of Heirs Holdings.

As earlier stated, the underpinning philosophy behind Fulani- Capitalism is similar to the raison d’être for Africapitalism, which is the creation of job opportunities for Africans by Africans in ways that the host communities of the business are not exploited but empowered by the presence of the corporate entity – A sort of symbiotic relationship between entrepreneurs and host communities.

Fulani-Capitalism is conceptualised to catalyse and drive the concept of cattle ranching to discourage or displace the current nomadic practice of animal husbandry. It is so named because it is the Fulani that is undeniably, inherently the predominant pastoralists in Nigeria.

The whole idea is to overtly or covertly persuade the well- heeled or deep pocket Fulani men and women to strategically invest in ranches to facilitate the change of the lifestyle of the nomadic herdsmen and offer them more reliable as well as better return on their investments and efforts.

Given the strategic role that cattle ranches, (as opposed to nomadic animal husbandry) can play in stemming the ugly side of human carnage arising from herdsmen killings, investing in ranches (confining animal husbandry within a farming space) by successful men/women of Fulani extraction needs no further elucidation because it is both a social and economic investment.

By this, I mean that rather than wait for the government to set up ranches, Fulani men and women of means (who are in their legions) should make deliberate and conscious effort to invest in ranches, which would serve as sanctuaries for cows and those who tend them because it is financially rewarding.

Aside from the financial returns, it would serve as a veritable means for safeguarding the livelihood of their people whose mainstay is animal husbandry, and which they are still practising in the same nomadic and primitive manners that their forebears did centuries ago and now constituting a threat to peace and security.

So far, the balance of loss of human lives is in favour of the herdsmen who are rampaging all over the country, particularly the Sahel and plateau (for their green pastures) and leaving sorrow, blood, and grief in their trail. But the first mover advantage which the herdsmen are currently enjoying would not be perpetual, if and when their victims begin to fight back.

*Onyibe is a commentator on public issues