In the eyes of security chiefs, the bloody civilian is unlearned in security matters. They call him the bloody civilian, as if the veins of the officially certified gunmen are devoid of blood and water. Yes, I talk of the officially certified gunmen. They are the men in Army, Navy and Air Force uniforms; they are the policemen who cuddle their AK 47 in menacing manners around the streets and highways; the gun-wielding men of the Prisons Service, Customs, Civil Defence and the Department of State Services.
We have to distinguish that from the unofficial gunmen. The bandits, the kidnappers, armed robbers and insurgents. Take it or leave it, the bloody civilian must bow at the sight of the gunmen, whether officially assigned, stolen or acquired.
But while the bloody civilian and his sympathizers cannot ask questions whenever they encounter the unofficial gunmen, the hint that the official guns were acquired with funds raised either through taxes or monies that belong to us energized the temerity to ask the ogas at the top some layman’s questions.
The questions have been building up all the while. The country has been fighting insurgency in the North East flank for close to a decade, why is that so? Kidnappers have turned the Nigerian setting to a booming corridor to ply their trade and in many instances they are helped to get the targeted sums by security operatives, who just tell the families to cooperate to save lives. Why should that be? Armed robbers seize highways as busy as Benin/Ore, Kaduna/Abuja Expressway and sometimes the Lagos/Ibadan Express and they go scot-free. Today, a governor told us that over 3,000 Nigerians are in kidnappers den in various camps in Nigeria and no national emergency was declared?
Just before the general elections, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, raised the alarm about a number of criminal elements said to have been engaged by the opposition in a bid to influence the elections negatively. He mentioned one gang leader in Benue, who was said to have carved out a section of that state to warehouse his kidnapped victims. Some of them he has held for nearly a year. You wonder what has happened to those elements, who are already well known to government since the elections were concluded.
Last week, the Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai, raised the frontiers of the allegations out there when he told a committee of the House of Representatives that the Army was in possession of credible intelligence which indicated that some disgruntled politicians were responsible for the spate of violence across the country.
It was not the first time he would raise such alarm. During the general election, he made a similar intervention, only God knows to what avail. But the recent outburst only helped to raise the tempo of questions agitating the minds of the bloody civilians.
While addressing the House Committee, Buratai urged its members to advise the aggrieved politicians on the need to place national interests before any other sentiments.
He said: “We have some strong evidence, but we are still being conscious, but the best thing is to advise these politicians who are aggrieved for no just cause and are inflicting serious injury and discomfort to individuals and the country.”
Soldiers are trained to kill, so they say and we believe that. But when has it become the lot of a gun totting soldier or security man to shout thief, thief, at the sight of a robber? It is either you arrest or shoot the intruder. The sermon by the uncertified clergy cannot be a welcome tune.
Maybe we will have to say that in a democracy, a trained soldier is permitted to mimic the politicians who lay claims first and then scurry around for evidence to back up the claims.
The military, which has been battling insurgency in the North East for years has made several claims of bursting different cells of the insurgents; arresting their food suppliers and what have you. If those claims are correct, how come the insurgents remain elusive and are still potent to kill soldiers as recently as last week?
Some scores of alleged kidnappers were paraded by the Police last week apparently on the orders of the acting Inspector General Mohammed Adamu. They were said to have been arrested on the kidnapping-prone Abuja/Kaduna Expressway. A layman would expect that such a haul would lead the security operatives to the depth of the criminality. But what do you say when the Air Force has been releasing ‘evidence’ it neutralized hundreds of bandits in Zamfara axis only for reports to emanate that several communities now pay ransom to the same bandits and criminal gangs?
What do we say to some security chiefs who have served as go-betweens to ferry ransom to kidnappers, who pick the huge dough only to disappear forever? How come the kidnappers who communicate freely are without trace in today’s world?
What have we got to say as laymen? Nothing really. Only to take solace in the words of the revered Oba of Benin, Omo N’oba Erediauwa, who when pressed by elders and Igwes from Imo state to forgive the former Military Administrator of Edo state, Navy Captain Anthony Onyearugbulem for his affronts against the Oba, while he (Onyearugbulem) administered the state said: “As mere mortals, we do not have powers to forgive. We have handed the young man over to the gods and ancestors, who have the powers to forgive.”
Like the Oba, let us hand over all those who have shied away from performing their roles in the security circles to God Almighty, the gods and the ancestors for appropriate adjudications.