Good news from Operation Kosaye

THERE are moments in the life of a nation when a single ray of light acquires the significance of a sunrise. Such moments are especially treasured in a country where scary headlines have become drearily predictable, and where the vocabulary of national discourse is replete with words such as kidnapping, terrorism, banditry, gunfight and ransom. Against this bleak background, the remarkable debut of Operation Kosaye, the joint security initiative of the Ogun and Lagos State police commands, deserves more than passing applause. It calls for careful reflection, generous commendation and, above all, faithful replication.

The operation announced its arrival not with fanfare but with performance. Barely 24 hours after five travellers were abducted along the Ijebu-Ode-Benin Expressway, they a were rescued by the Operation Kosaye in a swift and well-coordinated operation. Four suspected kidnappers paid the ultimate price for their criminal enterprise, while another escaped with gunshot wounds. Elsewhere, four more suspected kidnappers and 84 other criminal suspects were apprehended, with security operatives recovering AK-47 rifles, pump-action guns, locally fabricated pistols, ammunition, mobile phones and communication equipment.  The lesson is that the Nigerian State can still summon the will, the intelligence and the operational dexterity required to confront organised criminality.

Frankly, there should be nothing extraordinary about the police rescuing kidnap victims; this is, after all, the elementary expectation of every civilised society. Yet, Nigerians have travelled through such a long valley of insecurity that any display of professional competence by the nation’s security agencies now appears surprising and  miraculous. Nigeria has become like the Trojans who, after years of siege, scarcely remembered what peace looked like. Nigerians have lived too long under the dark shadow of insecurity, where highways have become hunting grounds, forests turned by insurgents into kingdoms of outlaws and innocent citizens merchandised through ransom payments. That is why Operation Kosaye is significant beyond the statistics it has already accumulated. It has interrupted the depressing narrative that the Nigerian State is perpetually one-step behind the criminals. The operational onslaught has hinted Nigerians that security institutions may not be inherently weak; that they merely require vision, discipline and purposeful leadership to fulfil their constitutional obligations.

The greatest strength of the Operation Kosaye lies in its architecture. Kidnappers do not pause at state boundaries to seek permission from governors. Terrorists do not consult administrative maps before crossing forests. Armed gangs acknowledge neither jurisdiction nor bureaucracy. They move with frightening fluidity across territories while security institutions frequently remain trapped within invisible administrative fences. It follows, therefore, that no meaningful war against banditry and insurgency in Nigeria can be won by isolated command structures. The collaboration between the Lagos and Ogun police commands should become a permanent doctrine. Joint patrols, integrated intelligence, coordinated operations and seamless communication should become the defining grammar of modern policing and surveillance throughout the federation. Criminals have long perfected the art of cooperation. This lesson is particularly relevant as Nigeria moves to establish state police. The success of Operation Kosaye demonstrates that decentralisation must never become fragmentation. State police, if eventually established, cannot become independent outfits pursuing divergent security philosophies. Multiple policing structures must function like rivers flowing into one ocean of national security. Intelligence must travel without obstruction. Operations must be synchronised. There must be no compromise, no infiltration, no sabotage, no intelligence leaks, and certainly no treachery. The enemies of the Nigerian State exploit every crack within the walls of governance. Those walls must therefore become impregnable.

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The operation’s name is both elegant and profound. Kosaye—”There is no room/space”—is a declaration of war against insurgents, bandits and kidnappers. Thus far, the Kosaye special squad has dignified that name through action. It has shown that when security agencies deny criminals the oxygen of freedom, they suffocate. Nigerians cannot resist comparing this philosophy with the regrettable disposition that has characterised aspects of Nigeria’s broader security architecture in recent years. Too often, insecurity has flourished because opportunities were wasted. Delayed responses, poor intelligence coordination, operational rivalry and avoidable bureaucratic inertia have repeatedly granted criminals the one commodity they crave most—time. Sadly, time, in the hands of kidnappers and terrorists is measured in innocent blood. The Federal Government, the Armed Forces and every security institution should embrace the spirit of Kosaye. The objective of security policy should be exactly what the name proclaims: leave no space for crime. No sanctuary in forests. No refuge in border communities. No corridors of escape along highways. No room for compromise. No quarter for those who have declared war upon peaceful Nigerian citizens. In his epic poem, The Divine Comedy, the Italian poet, Dante Alighieri, treats betrayal of trust as the worst of all sins, because it corrupts the relationships that hold society together. Those who profit from kidnapping, those who leak operational intelligence or who collude with violent criminals betray not just the Nigerian State but the social covenant itself. 

To the Operation Kosaye managers, now is not the hour for self-congratulation. It is the exact time for relentless pursuit. The security network must relentlessly comb forests, raiding known hideouts and dismantling the logistical networks that sustain organised crime. The operational success recorded so far has evidently constrained criminal movements. This, precisely, is the time when criminals must be denied every opportunity to regroup. As the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu counselled centuries ago, “one must never interrupt an enemy while he is vulnerable. Momentum is a strategic asset; it should never be squandered.”

The English novelist, Charles Dickens, began A Tale of Two Cities with the immortal paradox: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Nigeria today appears suspended between those two extremes. The worst of times is reflected in the tears of bereaved families, the anguish of abducted travellers, and the silence of abandoned communities. Operation Kosaye offers the promise that the best of times need not remain a distant dream.  The message from Lagos and Ogun should therefore reverberate throughout the federation with unmistakable clarity. The Nigerian State must recover its monopoly of force, its authority and its moral confidence.