Ever since President Muhammadu Buhari became President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he has been committed with ensuring maximum security for all and sundry in the polity. To a large extent, the present administration has curtailed the forays of Boko Haram in the North-Eastern part of the country, but the sudden reoccurrence of incidences of insurgency in the geo-political zone; this is a fallout of the post-Ghadaffi era in Libya, where different warlords are controlling different parts of the crisis-ridden North African countries, hence, the proliferation of arms and banditry have crossed over to adjacent and neighbouring counties, of which Nigeria is a major casualty. This scenario has given rise to the menace of armed Fulani herdsmen, who have killed and maimed not a few in the country.
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The nefarious activities of the herdsmen have caused a lot of havoc in the polity; insecurity in Nigeria has retarded socio-economic development in Nigeria in various ways. These include:
- Social dislocation and population displacement
- Social tensions and new pattern of settlements which encourages Muslins/Christians or members of an ethnic group moving to Muslim/Christian dominated enclaves.
- Heightens citizenship question which encourages hostility between “indigenes” and “settlers”.
- Dislocation and disruption of family and communal life.
- General atmosphere of mistrust, fear, anxiety and frenzy
- Dehumanization of women, children, and men especially in areas where rape, child abuse and neglect are used as instruments of war.
- Deepening of hunger and poverty in the polity.
- Discourages local and foreign investment as it makes investment unattractive to business people.
- Halts business operations during a period of violence and outright closure of many enterprises in the areas or zones where incidence of insecurity is rife and are on a daily occurrence.
- Increases security spending by business organizations and governments.
- Migration of people from area or region where there is a prevalence of insecurity.
Hence, the government is working really hard to find lasting solution to security breaches across the country, as the government is aware of the fact that, no reasonable growth and development can take place in an insecure environment.
To this end, according to the Presidential Spokesperson, Mallam Garba Shehu, President Muhammadu Buhari has received assurances that with the harmattan dust gradually easing its hold on the skies, fighter aircraft would this week join the efforts to provide effective air attacks against bandits, kidnappers and cattle rustlers that have been attacking remote communities around Dogon Gona forest in Niger State. The President, who described the repeated attacks leading to the losses of several lives in the communities “as a disaster for the nation,” had authorized the deployment of air power to support troops and policemen deployed to the “difficult terrain,” to counter the menace of the attackers operating in the forest area bordering Kaduna, Niger and Zamfara states. In line with this directive, the Nigerian Air Force is setting up refuelling facilities at Minna, Niger State to support the aircraft operations, giving assurances that given the improved weather conditions, a major exercise to “visually acquire targets” and launch attacks will soon follow. The Police Command in Niger has equally given assurances that the planned dedicated air raids to complement the police helicopter gunship operations remain the best approach given the lack of motorized roads in the areas constantly under attack. President Buhari commiserates with the government and people of Niger State following the attacks and the loss of lives that followed, and assures that victim communities in the state will not be abandoned by the rest of the country.
It would be recalled that PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI IN A LETTER TO THE THEN SENATE PRESIDENT, BUKOLA SARAKI, ON BENUE KILLINGS, DATED JANUARY 25, 2018, for instance, said that,
I thank you for your letter Reference NASS/8S/R/01 /33 dated 18th January 2018 and I have carefully studied the resolutions and comments contained therein.
- As I briefed you and the Rt. Hon. Speaker, when we met on the 14th January, 2018, several courses of action, had already been taken prior to the Senate Resolutions. You may recall that I told you of the following steps taken as soon as the information came to me about the Benue killings.
On Thursday 4th January, I sent the Minister of Interior and the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Operations for an on the spot assessment of the situation.
On Friday, 5th January, the Inspector General of Police briefed me verbally on the latest situation. Calm had by then been restored.
(iii) On Monday 8th the Minister of Interior met with the following:
Governors of Adamawa, Kaduna, Niger, Taraba, Benue and Nasarawa States together with
Director-General of the State Security Services (DG SSS)
Inspector-General of Police
Commandant General, Civil Defence
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
Commissioners of Police from the six aforementioned states
Comptrollers of Civil Defence from the six aforementioned states.
- After the meeting, I instructed the Minister of Interior to brief you on the information gathered so far and steps taken. On Tuesday 9th January, I had a long session with Governor Ortom of Benue State during which I informed him of police arrest of some suspects with Kalashnikovs. In addition, I told him that I had instructed the IGP to speed up trial and prosecution of the suspects and give wide publicity to the police efforts.
- At the request of the Governor, a meeting was held in the Presidential Villa on 15th January, with a wide – cross-section of Benue personages where frank and open discussions were held and everybody in the meeting appreciated the complexity and difficulties of this farmer/herder strife. I assured all and sundry of my commitment to ensure that justice is expeditiously done.
- To infer, therefore that nothing has been done is incorrect. The police are strenuously working to apprehend the rest of the culprits of these heartless killings. Furthermore, I have instructed the Inspector General of Police to relocate to Benue State, redeploy forces to the most sensitive areas. The Federal Government is initiating additional measures to address these and other security challenges, alleviate the consequences of these attacks and forestall reoccurrence. The Senate Resolutions itemized in your letter will be taken into consideration and I am instructing all relevant MDAs to factor them in their work.
- Earlier, on December 19th 2017 to be precise, while receiving the report of the Committee which I had set up to review the operational, technical and administrative structure of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), I underscored the need to review the entire national security architecture – as I promised in my inaugural address on 29th May 2015. Action is being initiated and I expect to receive maximum cooperation from the Senate, in line with paragraph (iii) of the Senate Resolutions.
- Please accept, Mr. Senate President, the assurances of my highest regards.
Recalled that, worried by the spate of cattle rustling in the country, the Nigeria Police recently, unveiled a high tech, user-friendly technology that will help for proper identification, tracing and tracking of cattle in the country.
Speaking during the event, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), said the Force want to eliminate the menace of cattle rustling and pastoralists-farmers clashes. He said that police had among other measures established a National Implementation Committee on the Curtailment of Cattle Rustling in Nigeria in December 2016 to work out modalities for identification and implementation of strategies that would sustainably curtail cattle rustling and its attendant security implication in Nigeria. “It is in realization of its mandate and terms of reference that the committee engaged the services of INGSOC International Nigeria Ltd to bring up a technology of international standards for animal identification, registration and tracking,” he said. The IGP commended members of the committee for coming up with practical and useful ways to track down stolen cattle and also reduce cattle rustling. In his welcome address, the chairman of the committee, AIG Charles Ugomuoh explained that the committee had engaged the services if the INGSOC, which is a Nigerian company in order to achieve its mandate.
He added that the tool will not only help in eliminating cattle rustling but will aid in producing actual population census and demography of the nation’s herds with the data generated. Ugomuoh stated that the tool will also improve the country’s international ranking in livestock and livestock products, thereby creating a positive impact on the nation’s GDP. Unveiling the tool, one of the consultants from INGSOC, Uche Okiro explained that the tool involves putting a tracking solution on the livestock which will aid easy identification and return to the owners”. The herdsmen register their livestock and each animal has a different number. The animal will be injected with a tracking solution and if for instance, the cattle are stolen, the police can track it easily and retrieve it. With that, the owner can easily be identified,” he said.
It is for this reason that, President Muhammadu Buhari recently in Abuja said “harder times” await bandits whose disruptive activities have brought sorrow to Nigerians, kept many away from their means of livelihood, and heightened insecurity in parts of the country. The President, who received a delegation of Eminent and Respected Citizens of Niger State led by Governor Abubakar Sani Bello in State House, said the activities of the bandits had forced many to abandon their farms and homes, adding: “we will now be harder on them.” “I was taken aback by what is happening in the North West and other parts of the country. During our campaigns, we knew about the Boko Haram. What is coming now is surprising. It is not ethnicity or religion, rather it is one evil plan against the country. “We have to be harder on them. One of the responsibilities of government is to provide security. If we don’t secure the country, we will not be able to manage the economy properly,” he said.
President Buhari said the onslaught of the bandits had also affected agricultural output in some parts of the country, in spite of the favourable weather for farming, because many farmers were attacked, and others had to stay away for safety. The President said the poverty level in the country will be significantly controlled by diversifying into agriculture, instead of the heavy reliance on oil, urging more Nigerians to take up agriculture. President Buhari said discovery of oil and gas reserves in Chad Basin, Benue trough and Bida, and some parts of Bauchi and Gombe, will further bolster current efforts to strengthen the Nigerian economy.
He advised leaders in the Niger Delta to counsel those who blow up pipelines, resulting in spillages that affect farming and farmlands, noting that the loss had always been collective, sometimes turning hard working farmers to victims. The Eminent and Respected persons said they needed to show appreciation to the President for his many interventions on infrastructure, security and appointment of indigenes of the state into key positions of government.
Apart from this, the government has purchased different categories of weaponry to beef up the activities of soldiers in the counter-insurgency efforts, while pursuing this method in routing out the insurgents and terrorists from within the polity; the government should also interrogate other internal and external factors as well as political and socio-economic considerations that can assist to fester the atrocious and nefarious activities of terrorist, the government must be commended for rising up to the occasion to challenge this untoward development but government must be encouraged to do much more to make the nagging issue of terrorism a thing of the past.
*** Written by Jide Ayobolu.
