Mr President, welcome back from your working visit to France. Since you left, it has been a harvest of misfortune across the country. Terrorists, euphemistically called Fulani herdsmen, have spilled innocent blood across the country, accentuated by massacres in Plateau and Benue.

Your Excellency, I dwelt on the killings in Plateau in my last piece. In this one, I focus on Benue State. In the case of the killings in Benue, the Fulani terrorists are at the core, but the leading politicians and their trained militias are part of the problem. The collusion of these three main actors is at the centre of it. 

The killings have become transactional. It is a situation where the Tiv militias, heavily armed, now do the killings of their people and drive them out of their communities, the Fulani terrorists come in to complete the job on a scorched-earth scale, and occupy. Subsequently, they are rewarded for a job well done. Then, the murderous cycle continues.

This is the new twist to the Benue crisis that no one talks about. The Tiv militias, trained and well-armed, are capable of defending their people from the Fulani terrorists, many of whom Reverend Father Hycinth Alia, the incumbent governor of the state, claimed are killing his people.  To cure the Benue killings, the rogue Tiv militias and Fulani terrorists, their new patrons, must be taken out of the picture. Mr President, I have given you the key. Run with it, notwithstanding the contradictory intel you may have.

However, Mr President, you have done well by summoning our security chiefs to a meeting. I don’t know how many new ideas they have. I learnt that the meeting suggested acquiring new high-tech platforms, among others.  You would recall that in 2021, this same request was made by the then nominated service chiefs, namely, Major-General Lucky E.O. Irabor, Major-General Ibrahim Attahiru, Rear Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo, and Air Vice Marshal Ishiaka Oladayo Amao, for appointment as Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, and Chief of Air Staff for the Armed Forces of the Federation.

Here is an alternative idea put on the table by an acquaintance of mine that I found intelligible, more so that it confirmed some of my research findings, especially in the case of Boko Haram’s exploit in the Northeast
(See my “Boko-Haram Insurgency” published in an edited volume by George Kieh and Kelechi Kalu and published by Lexington Press in 2023).

“There is what I know in security that is called insiders threats and that is what we, especially those elected into the administration of our government and those appointed into the management of the Security and Intelligence Agencies have always failed to look into, but why??? Who are those behind the various elements of the insecurity that started from the NE as BH?

Jonathan said that some of them were in his administration, but was that investigated? Why?? OBJ went to Maiduguri to see the father of one of THEM and if he was not debriefed, was the visit investigated? WHY??

The BH movement from the NE that got terminated in Abuja after the bombing of the UN office recessed and shifted direction to the NW and found ‘Gold’ to further financial support for its crusade towards the NC, Niger, Kwara, etc as staging posts to the SW, SE and SS.

They have returned to their former staging posts at Plataeu, Benue, etc that was abruptly stopped with the bombing of the UN Office and the fighting is getting intense from both sides. Where is the funding for these double swords coming from??? Are the national intellegence agencies really at the moment at work???

The Instability in the country in many facets and names are meant to confuse the Intelligence Agencies from getting estimates on what are the reasons for the instability and those behind the instability that started as BH and later Herdsmen, and now Bandits, Kidnappers and all in disguise with various homegrown and international terrorist names that are not confused to members but to our intelligence and security agencies and services.

What is to be done quickly and to what is happening to the National Security is for those in the administration of our government and the management of the agencies to put the searchlight in the direction of the National Intelligence Services and Agencies and not the Security and Defence Services Chiefs as the President is getting to be doing.

He needs to know the National Intelligence Estimates on the National Security before he can order the Right and Loyal National Security Agency to the Right Direction. Otherwise, the war that started over 20 years ago on homegrown terrorists (terrorism) can never end”. 

Back to our service chiefs. What new platforms do they want?  I sincerely believe they don’t need an F-Series aircraft to fight the insurgents and bandits. They certainly need first-rate conventional weapons to deal with the miscreants in our forests, and to boot, unconventional tactics. For example, Turji Bello had been pictured with an American special forces rifle complete with telescope and night vision elements.

Mr President, our biggest problem as a country is that we live a lie. The reason why we are not winning the war are manifold. One is the presence of a state-nation, in other words, a social force, namely elements of the fulani nationality, the only non-indigenous nationality historically, who believe Nigeria belongs to them on the assumption of the force theory of state formation.

Two is the infiltration of the armed forces by these elements working in cahoots with these miscreants on a conquest mission. The third is the unprofessional behaviour of our men in the armed forces, monetising the security matter and thereby undermining our collective security. What nation on earth would an army General be abducted and his/her colleagues, serving and retired, would form a WhatsApp group to raise ransom for the freedom of their own? Fourthly, our boys on the battle field are poorly fed leading to low morale.

To deal with the current threat, the armed forces need close-knit special units with a code of integrity and without infiltration. It worked in the spell of engagement of Executive Outcome in the northeast under the Jonathan Administration. It was the succeeding Buhari administration that sabotaged that effort. What is required, sir, is political will. Tinubu, do this for Nigeria. 

Akhaine is a Professor of Political Science at the Lagos State University. This colunm will be on recess for six weeks.