Worries over insecurity back on front burner

Providing security for Nigeria’s growing population of about one hundred and seventy million people has become a big issue in recent times and the outgoing year 2018 was no exemption. As a new year berths, an election year at that, concerns are being raised about the security challenges likely to confront the nation, writes Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan.

AS we wind up 2018 and approach the brand new 2019, Nigerians across divides are worried about the security situation in the country and are hoping very strongly that the federal government will place the need to address their worries atop its wish list. Their anxieties are not unfounded, giving the many threats to national security in recent time.

In the outgoing year, the tense security situation proved challenging for the government, forcing it to adopt various measures. In the end, much is still left to be done to improve the situation across the country. The headlines about insecurity that shaped the year 2018 in Nigeria include the Boko Haram crisis in the northeast, armed robbery, ethnic crises, cultism, cattle rustling, kidnapping and among many others.

Sadly, most of these challenges are yet to be surmounted. To say the least, many of them have even escalated beyond what they were at the beginning of this current year.

Meanwhile, 2019 is an election year and analysts say it is important for the government to make security a priority right from the first day of the New Year if the country’s challenges are not to be further complicated.

Recently, the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, declared that the National Security Council was ready to curb every challenge during the forthcoming general elections. He said the council recommended the deployment of security agencies to the states, to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conduct the elections peacefully.

He was hopeful that the deployment of security personnel would further douse the tension created by the outcome of the political parties’ primaries and “some desperate persons” to sabotage the electoral process.

Similarly, federal legislators have approved expenditures for security agencies towards the success of the election. The Senate approved the security budget of N53.2 billion for the 2019 general elections. The approval of the budget followed a presentation of the report of the National Assembly Joint Committee on Appropriation at plenary. The lower chamber of the National Assembly, House of Representatives equally approved N831.3bn virement for INEC, security agencies.

To benefit from this fund are INEC, ONSA, DSS, NSCDC, NIS and NPF based on the approved request by President Muhammadu Buhari for passage. Several other efforts geared towards putting adequate security measures in place ahead of the elections are either in the pipeline or being implemented as we speak.

But with all these efforts, is it safe to say there should be no fear or concern with regards to preparation for the 2019 general elections?  Given the current state of insecurity across the country, it is difficult to answer that question in the affirmative.

All through the outgoing year, the situation was so bad that analysts claimed the nation’s economy suffered immensely from the many effects of these security challenges especially as regards foreign investments.

Billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote, speaking earlier in the year, had said: “The security situation in the country is discouraging agribusiness investors. Most of the people that own large farms on the Kaduna-Abuja Road have abandoned their farms due to the menace of kidnapping.”

His position underscores the seriousness of the problem as the very first day of the year marked the beginning of sorrow, tears and blood occasioned by insecurity. On that first day of January 2018, residents of six communities in two local government areas of Benue State began the year on a sad note when about 50 persons were cruelly murdered in cold blood by rampaging herdsmen.

Casualties included women, children and some members of the Live Stock Guards who were assigned to enforce the anti-open grazing law. The affected communities are Gaambe-Tiev, Ayilamo and Turan all in Logo Local Government Area as well as Umenger, Tse-Akor and Tomatar near Tse-Abi in Nongov District of Guma Local Government Area.

Few days later, at least three people were confirmed killed in a blast in the northeastern town of Madagali. Boko Haram terrorists were soon to claim responsibility for the dastardly act, in continuation of their reign of terror in the region. Then, the nation witnessed a return of the face-off between followers of Zaria, Kaduna State-based Shiite cleric, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, who has been in detention for months now.

Alongside widespread kidnapping, incessant armed robbery, worrisome ethnic clashes and frightening cult-related fracas and killings, the Boko Haram insurgency made headlines all through the year, giving strong indications that the nation’s security situation requires more stringent measures to put it on the track to peace.

By the time 2018 entered its last month, the growing ambushment and killing of federal troops added to the growing concerns about safety across the country.

Security threats

Everywhere you look these days, it seems like a new problem is cropping up to impact the nation’s security. While many of the challenges have actually been with us for years now, the reality is, they have not been firmly dealt with and new ones, like election-related violence, renewed herdsmen killings and gang wars, are springing up day by day.

The nation’s landscape is changing, as serious considerations about safety and security are now major priorities for businesses and travelers. In recent years, there has been the emergence of new developments that are fast changing our cities and roads; talk about Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP) camps that now dot our landscapes and the heavy militarization of some of our major cities, especially in the northeast, and you will be right on track.

The foregoing is a pointer to the fact that the security challenges of 2018, may remain the same for years to come, if left unattended to in 2019. The following are issues that whoever wins the February 16 presidential polls would contend with:

Boko Haram

Any conversation about security in Nigeria today must touch on the menacing activities of Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast. Though this terrorist organization has been unleashing havoc on the northeastern part of the country for years – coming into global limelight with the infamous abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from their dormitory in the sleepy town of Chibok in 2014 – the emergence of the Ansaru faction made its evil activities more pronounced in the year 2018.

Analysts ascribe the increase in abductions, killings and deadly attacks by the insurgents to the nature of the leadership offered by the new splinter group by Abu Musab Al-Barnawi, son of the late founder of the group, Muhammad Yusuf.

Initially he was thought to be less extreme than Abubakar Shekau in his approach to killings and other vices, but the young man in 2018 proved people wrong as his faction championed much of the slaughter and abductions by the sect.

It has been argued that the resort to increased violence by factions of Boko Haram in spite of claims by the federal government that the insurgents have been ‘tactically defeated’, may not be unconnected with the intense rivalry among its leaders. A pointer to this is the hurried manner in which the Shekau faction joined in the kidnapping and ambushment game this year. Currently, it is as if a contest in viciousness is ongoing between the factions.

The highlight of the activities of this group in 2018 remain the kidnap of the Dapchi schoolgirls and the continued detention of Leah Sharibu, the Christian girl who reportedly refused to renounce her faith as a condition for being freed alongside other abducted girls. The young schoolgirl, who turned 15 last May, was whisked away from her hostel along with 109 other girls. The others were later released a month later but Leah remains in captivity till date.

In 2013, Boko Haram was designated a terrorist group by the US after it declared a caliphate in areas under its control and started kidnapping foreigners. But in spite of the designation, little was done in 2018 by the US and other world powers to help Nigeria combat this menace. Their realization of the need to do more to help Nigeria and other affected nations tackle this problem is one of the urgent steps that must be taken in 2019 if this terror is to be tamed.

As talks on what government should do to end the menace in 2019 rages, one area observers are urging President Buhari to look into is the issue of the nation’s porous borders. Nigeria has borders that are poorly guarded. Insurgents from other countries can infiltrate easily, making it very difficult to curtail the reinforcement efforts of the insurgents when depleted by federal troops. This may partly explain why the insurgents are thriving in the Northeast.

Herdsmen killings

The killings in Benue State that heralded the New Year with sorrow, tears and blood remained in the headlines for much of 2018 as bloodletting by suspected herdsmen continued.

To underscore the menace that killer herdsmen were in 2018, the International Crisis Group (ICG) in its half year report issued last July, said armed herders were six times deadlier than Boko haram insurgents.

The report then recommended urgent steps that the Nigerian government must take to stem further attacks. “What were once spontaneous attacks have become premeditated scorched-earth campaigns in which marauders often take villages by surprise at night,” the non-profit think-tank said. “Now claiming about six times more civilian lives than the Boko Haram insurgency, the conflict poses a grave threat to the country’s stability and unity, and it could affect the 2019 general elections.”

The report also found that the anti-open grazing statutes recently enacted by state governments in Benue and Taraba States also contributed to the escalation in latest attacks. “The Benue State government should freeze enforcement of its law banning open grazing, review that law’s provisions and encourage a phased transition to ranching,” the ICG said. It suggested that that Buhari’s approach to solving the crisis is acceptable but largely insufficient.

Similarly, the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, claimed that 1,750 Christians and other non-Muslims fell to the weapons of rampaging killer herdsmen and Boko Haram insurgents in the first six months of 2018.

“From our general evaluation too, no fewer than 2,360 innocent Nigerians were killed. 1,750 by herdsmen, 250 by Boko Haram and 360 by Zamfara bandits in the first six months of 2018 (Jan-June 2018),” it reported.

“No fewer than 13,221 defenseless Nigerians also got killed by the trio as well as the security agencies in the past three years. “The total death toll in Plateau State following the 23rd and 24th June 2018 coordinated attacks and killings in eleven villages may most likely have hit 300, from its present 250, out of which 218 bodies have been recovered and buried in mass graves. Dozens of people are still missing after the head count was carried out,” the society claimed last July.

The federal government says ranching is one way out of the crisis. It promised that will take off soon but it is yet to start as the year rolls to an end.

In 2019, beyond ranching, security measures that will curtail the deadly activities of the herdsmen are expected from the country’s political leadership. Buhari will be expected to walk his recent talk on how he intends to checkmate killer herdsmen if the security situation of the country is to improve.

Kidnapping

With the arrest of wanted kidnapper, Chukwudi Dumeme Onuamadike a.k.a. Evans, and other members of his gang in Lagos, there were high hopes that the menace of kidnapping will be curtailed in 2018. Alas, such hopes were dashed as the menace became pronounced in the outgoing year. Beyond high profile abductions, criminals now kidnap for as low as a few thousands, making both the rich and the poor possible victims of kidnappers.

When snatching people for ransom began in the creeks of the Niger Delta some years ago, nobody thought it would become the menace it is today. It was largely seen as a tactic in the agitation back then. But today, it is one of the most ‘lucrative businesses’ among the nation’s teeming bands of criminal-minded and jobless youths across the nooks and crannies of the country.

From January, the nation witnessed several cases of kidnapping. The most bizarre was the abduction of a busload of passengers coming from Enugu to Lagos last September. The passengers were released after their relatives paid ransom to the kidnappers. The ‘God is Good Motors’ transport company vehicle they were traveling in was intercepted at Ore in Ondo State around noon. The passengers were taken to an unknown destination.

To Musa Ahmed, the Secretary General, Association of Licensed Private Security Practitioners of Nigeria (ALPSPN), the poor state of the economy condition should be blamed for the rising wave of kidnaps.

He said: “Some people are even tired of living. If you look at the crop of people involved in kidnapping today, most of them are not educated; even the educated ones among them don’t have jobs. So, they see crime as a way out.

“The economic situation in the country is now strangulating. It is driving many people into doing a lot of things. It is now obvious that both the literate and the illiterate are finding life tough. So, some people are going into crimes, kidnapping in particular, because it is paying. Also, we have enormous security challenges plaguing the country. So, people are taking advantage of everything happening around them,” he said.

Election violence

In 2019 the government must be prepared to deal with possible violence that will be a fallout of electioneering campaigns. Already, the nation has witnessed flashes of what can befall it when politicians fully take to the hustings in the New Year. From Port-Harcourt to Ilorin, from Kano to Owerri; Kaduna to Oyo and Yola to Asaba, election violence has reared its ugly head.

Just days back, the sleepy town of Ilorin was almost thrown into chaos when supporters of political parties disrupted an annual event that had the respected Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Sulu Gambari, in attendance. Expectedly, the two leading parties are now exchanging words over who is to blame.

Recently, the United States Government expressed fear that the 2019 elections in Nigeria are likely to be characterised by violence. It said the conduct of the elections could have significant consequences for the democratic trajectory of the country, West Africa, and entire continent. It, however, said the public disturbance that the elections would cause might not be “large-scale nationwide conflict” but “localised violence.”

The US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, disclosed this in his presentation during the US Congressional hearing on Nigeria’s forthcoming elections in Washington DC. Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Ben Murray-Bruce; and the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Nnena Ukeje, were present at the hearing titled, “Nigeria at a Crossroads: The Upcoming Elections.”

Bishop Matthew Kukah of the Sokoto Catholic Diocese who is the Secretary of the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee, has also expressed worries over the next elections, urging the government to ensure that peace reigns before, during and after the polls across the country. He called on politicians and political parties to always think of the larger interest as they mount the podium to campaign.

No doubt, as the election approaches, apprehension will increase. One good news is that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, has warned Commissioners of Police in the 36 states and the FCT and other senior officers against partisanship during the upcoming 2019 general elections. He also directed them to arrest and prosecute any party member or supporters in possession of firearms or dangerous weapons during campaigns and rallies.

The IG said that the Force would not condone hate speeches, indecent and criminal conducts from any individual or groups.

If the police and other security agencies all back their words with action, the country may witness a peaceful election. But if they don’t, their partisanship and meddling may lead to a chaotic election that could further deepen the security challenges of Nigeria in the New Year..