Insecurity: Generals who failed Nigeria

• Presidency’s Success Verdict On Stemming Insecurity Insincere —Experts
• Insist Value On Lives, Property Has Been At Lowest Ebb
• Advise Incoming Govt On Addressing Security Lapses

Barely five weeks to the end of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, experts and analysts in the national security sector have described it as a failure owing to its inability to decisively deal with the security worries of Nigerians as promised.

The administration rode to power in the first instance in 2015, and again in 2019, basically on a three-pronged campaign plan, with the fight against insecurity as key.

The President had promised to put an end to terrorism, banditry and herdsmen attacks, among other security challenges, which ravaged the nation at the time.

And though the Presidency recently assessed the Buhari-administration has having taken the country to a better place than where it met things in terms of security, incidences of insecurity occasioned by serious breaches are still daily occurrences in the country.

Attacks by armed bandit groups in Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina, Niger State amongst others, as well as the continued violence by members of the Boko Haram sect and the Islamic State in West Africa, still leave civilians in most parts of the country at risk.

This is besides kidnappings, alleged herdsmen attacks, and wanton killings of farmers, among other dastardly acts being perpetrated by unknown assailants.

Analsying the situation, Col. Hassan Stan-Labo (Rtd.), said that the outgoing government has failed woefully in terms of security, noting that on a scale of 100, he would score the government less than 20 percent out of sheer magnanimity.

He said President Buhari got things wrong from the outset by putting square pegs in round holes with his appointments. He observed that besides that, the government was not listening to the people. “It was a government that does not understand what democracy is all about, that power belongs to the people and not the government.”

Stan-Labo said: “I am from Southern Kaduna, and when we talk of people who have suffered security-wise under this government, I know how it feels. The Federal and state governments have become compromised and accomplice in the on-going affair. When you are carrying out a reasonable task, you do not allow sentiments to blur your senses of reasoning, be it ethnicity, religion and the fault lines in our country. This government has failed to use all the instruments of coercion at its disposal as the federal might to protect its citizen.

“This is a government that made us understand it cannot protect our airspace and so the enemy’s aircraft could take-off and move within our airspace, come down in forest areas, drop logistics and reinforcement for bandits, go back up and continue its journey without the federal power being able to identify or bring such an aircraft down. And somebody would tell me the government has passed in the area of security. This government has failed to protect our airspace and land space. Bandits and terrorists keep moving through our borders, from Lake Chad, Niger, Cameroun into our country. Bandits carry AK 47 and herdsmen carry rifles.

“What of our maritime area? The government could not stop or prevent foreign ship or bunkers from stealing oil through our waters. The government keeps telling us that it is the militants from Niger Delta that are creating all the problems, and that it is the reason we are generating poor revenue from our oil supply. The truth is now that what the militants are stealing is less than what the saboteurs in the government are stealing.

This government has failed because it could not protect our airspace, waterspace, nor our landspace.”

According to Certified Protective Officer, Frank Oshanugor, President Muhammadu Buhari is not finishing strong in spite of what hypocrites in the corridors of power and their supporters would want us to believe.

Oshanugor said: “Agreed that the insurgency in the North East has been checked to a great extent, it is still worrisome that up till now in the North and other parts of Nigeria, organised killings are still taking place. An example is the Benue massacre of last week where over 30 persons were killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

“Kidnapping for ransom, gunmen attacks, herdsmen’s unprovoked invasion and destruction of people’s farmlands, and the like, in parts of Nigeria are all indices of failure of the outgoing Buhari administration.”

Oshanugor advised the incoming administration to go the extra mile in addressing the root causes of insecurity, which the Buhari government failed to do.

“Our political leaders should desist from primitive accumulation and use the money to provide employment and other welfare services for the masses. We should drastically reduce the cost of governance and use the money to provide infrastructure, particularly in the rural areas so as to reduce the rate of rural-urban migration.”

Security consultant, Christopher Oji, opined that the Buhari administration would be unfair in its assessment by saying it would be leaving the country better than it met it, securitywise.

He noted that, for instance, the number of deaths recorded under this administration is three times more than the statistics during the previous administration while the number of security men killed also outnumbers those killed during the previous administration.

“Don’t forget that during the previous administration, terrorists were confined to the North and Sambisa forest in Maidugiri. But today, terrorists and bandits are all over the country. They now operate in the four geographical regions.

“Recently, they attacked Ondo State, killing many Church worshipers. What can we say about the incessant train attacks? Terrorists and bandits have virtually taken over everywhere. During the previous administration, people could travel to anywhere by road, it is not possible now. When people are traveling these days, they hold their hearts in their hands. How many military formations and police stations were successfully attacked and arms and ammunition carted away by hoodlums.? For fear of herdsmen, farmers have also abandoned their farms, causing food scarcity.”

President of Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in his assessment, also submitted that the administration of Muhammadu Buhari has performed below expectations in the aspects of security and justice delivery.

He noted that terrorists and their funders have been above the law under President Buhari as there is no legal accountability in the government regarding why the sponsors of terror attacks are yet to be named, shamed and prosecuted over two years since the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami promised to publish names of the sponsors of Boko Haram.

“There have been over 30,000 deaths caused by terrorists, Fulani herdsmen, and other sundry freelance armed groups. The President, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces has no workable panacea to the ever increasing attacks by terrorists and kidnappers who are still keeping hostages in the different forests of the North West of Nigeria. Sokoto, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau and Benue states are the key flashpoints of horrendous killings.

“What must be done is for the government that will be inaugurated soon to round up all the funders of terrorists, prosecute them and set up the most maximum security prison facilities to detain them, along with their funders,” Onwubiko said.

He admonished the incoming President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to concentrate the office of the military chiefs, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Director General of State Security Service (SSS) and the heads of other security agencies in the hands of few Nigerians of one faith and one tribe as was done over the last eight years by President Buhari against constitutional demands of federal character.

“On no account should the President entrust all sensitive security institutions in the hands of one faith group and one ethnicity. Buhari gave all to Fulani/Hausa/Kanuri Muslims.

“There are too many saboteurs within the military and police including the DSS. These moles must be fetched out and punished for their collective treachery that almost led to the collapse of the Nigeria federation.

“The police must be reformed and state police established to be controlled by an independent body of governors appointed from a strata of the Nigerian society. On no account should governors be allowed to control the state police because they will transform to demons if that is allowed and they will go after opponents as we see with Ebubeagu in Ebonyi under Dave Umahi and Imo under Hope Uzodinma.

“There is too much procurement corruption in the police and military. Forensic analyses and investigations must be activated to arrest these gangsters that have destroyed the armed forces and police wherever they may be hiding and their assets and cash seized by Nigeria.”

Former President, Private Security Practitioners Association, Dr. Wilson Esangbedo, on his part, observed that the new Central Bank of Nigeria policy on cash withdrawals reduced the incidences of kidnapping to the minimum.

To return peace to most areas that are challenged, Esangbedo advocated a stakeholders’ conference to examine the issues and proffer a lasting solution. “Each zone of the country has peculiar crimes known with it. The resolutions of the said conference, if properly implemented, will help us in tackling our security challenges.”

To surmount the security challenges, Stan-Labo said the incoming government must avoid putting square pegs in round holes.

“By now, the incoming government should have raised its team. It must make sure that individuals taking up appointments are qualified for the seats. The incoming government must have a clear vision of what our security should look like. The incoming government should be close to the people and be able to have the right interpretation of what the people want and not just what the government want; that gap that often exist between the government and the governed must be closed,” he said.

He further stressed that the new government’s sense of vision must not be blurred by sentiments. “As a professional, I would say, we should look at the big five concept used in analysing problematic areas in the national security sector. By this, I mean manpower, funding, logistics and equipment, training, welfare and motivation. These five components make up the big five in the national security sector, which encompasses all security agencies.  If you get the big five right, you have gotten not less than 65 or 70 per cent of the problems bedevelling the national security sector right. I am talking as a professional that has been involved in four international operations in Liberia, Sierra Leon, Darfur, and Bakassi.”