The seeming helplessness of the Federal Government in the face of the deadly activities of terrorists across the country, especially in the North-West, is alarming. The past few days have been particularly dreadful for Nigerians who have had to live with the hunting spectre of terrorism.
From kidnapping of schoolchildren to the attack on Kaduna Airport, laying siege to roads and military installations and bombing of a train on the Abuja-Kaduna Railway Line, the marauders are having a field day. No place is safe from their attacks anymore. With each passing day, the terrorists plunder at will, striking fear into the hearts of Nigerians, many of whom are even far away from the theatre of violence.
It is unbelievable that this state of anarchy has been left to fester for long under a government that has security as one of its major reasons for coming to power.
Sometime ago, Governor Sani Bello of Niger State raisesd the alarm that bandits, as they were called then before an Abuja Federal High Court recently pronounced them terrorists, had annexed eight out of 25 Local Government Areas in the state, which is less than 200 kilometres to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. No action appeared to have been taken. Up till now, the terrorists are still in those local government areas, collecting taxes and carrying out some form of administration there.
Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has painted a similar picture of his state, where farmers have to pay millions of naira to terrorists in order to access their farms. Even so, they are usually accompanied by armed guards whose duty is to protect them from rival gangs.
The case of Kaduna with its daily orgy of violence, bloodletting, maiming and killings is already in the public domain to warrant more emphasis. What is important now is to avert attention to the worsening insecurity in the country and get to the bottom of it, with a view to bringing an end to it.
First, the Federal Government must realise that it is losing grip of the country’s security structure to protect the life and property of Nigerians. It bears repetition to say that one of the three-point agenda of this government is insecurity, besides corruption and the economy. Added to that manifesto is the Constitutional requirement to provide security for the lives and properties of Nigerians as the basis of existence of any government.
Beyond sentiments therefore, the performance of this government can only be fairly and correctly assessed by what it has done to fulfill its promise to tackle insecurity, which is one of its campaign promises,  and to what extent it has done so constitutionally.
Since terrorists have graduated from being mere bandits and kidnappers to bombers of trains, raiders of airports and military bases, it is, safe to say that things have degenerated progressively for the past seven years under the watch of the present government. Without mincing words, it is our considered view that the government is failing to justify its promise on security to Nigerians after seven years in office.  With insecurity of life and property, it can only be imagined how this governance deficit has impacted the other promises to fight corruption and revamp the ailing economy.
Banditry and terrorism had gradually escalated until it reached the current frightening scale. The recent judgement by an Abuja Federal High Court, which pronounced bandits as terrorists, was a wake-up call on the government to do the needful and eliminate this virus from the land. But, as often happened with other calls to action on matters of national importance, it was taken with levity, emboldening the terrorists to strike harder and farther.
Some time ago, the Auditor-General of the Federation, Aghughu Adolphus, confirmed that 80,000 assorted weapons were missing from the police armouries. Even President Muhammadu Buhari said that the arms carried by criminals were locally sourced. Still, the government, which once threatened to name the sponsors of terrorism in the country, failed to do so. What about prosecuting those captured for terrorist acts?  What happened thereafter? These questions are begging for answers.
Governor Nasir el-Rufai has said all that needed to be said in this matter. His indictment of the DSS, Army and other agencies of government for their laid back attitude to tackling terrorism in the country shows how much value we place on human life and how seriously governance has fallen. Why, for instance, as the Kaduna governor said, would the security agencies know the hideouts of terrorists and listen to their conversations regularly and yet fail to arrest them? Whose authority are they obeying? Federal Government or the terrorists? Why has nobody connected with this worrisome affair been brought to book? Why shouldn’t an emergency be declared in states like Kaduna, whose governor disclosed that it was in a state of war and that he was helpless?
The situation at hand calls for hard decisions and sober reflection, if things will not continue to fall apart.
We believe that sanity and governance will return to the land, if the preceding posers are addressed adequately.
People are appointed to perform functions and not to warm office seats. Mere identification of a problem without taking necessary action will only achieve the opposite, which is to compound it. Those considered to have failed in the performance of their duty should be relieved of their post and fresh hands appointed to replace them. In a few words, this government must sit up!
