Insecurity: President Buhari’s ocean of hope

WE must restate the point again: the climate of insecurity in the country is worsening by the day. However, President Muhammadu Buhari seems to be swimming in the ocean of hope, speaking of improved security. Recently in Kaduna, Kaduna State, during the passing out parade for cadets of the 68 Regular Course (Army, Navy and Air Force) the president, while acknowledging that “our beloved nation, Nigeria, is facing many security challenges at this period,” and that Nigeria “continues to face security threats and violent crimes such as insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and politically motivated killings which threaten our national integration,” still vowed that the Federal Government would do everything within the purview of the law to ensure the protection of Nigerians from the onslaught of criminals.

The president added that notwithstanding the avalanche of security challenges bedeviling his government, improving security and the economy as well as fighting corruption remained the core projections and priorities of his administration. In a statement signed by his spokesperson, Mr. Garba Shehu, President Buhari said: “I assure you that this administration will continue to do everything within the ambit of the law to eliminate all forms of violent crimes that are creating fear and anxiety among the citizenry.”

Truth be told, the Buhari administration has been quite generous in giving Nigerians a rich supply of assurances. However, at the risk of being repetitive, what is on the ground runs contrary to the picture that it has been painting. For instance, as we noted previously, hardly had the president finished giving an assurance of his government’s resolve to protect the people when gunmen invaded a weekly market in Goronyo, Sokoto State, operating continuously between two days. The terrorists killed at least 43 people in the attack. According to reports, scores of people sustained injuries from the ensuing melee.

Insecurity has continued to heighten in the last six years under President Buhari, with gunmen having a field day across northwestern, northeastern and even the southeastern states. While bandits have terrorised the North-West and central Nigeria without let for years, these attacks have become seemingly intractable in the last few months. In the South-East, unknown gunmen continue to kill with impunity, while the so-called bandits continue to kidnap and kill people with abandon. It cannot be a thing of joy that while the government was celebrating its impact in the transport sector, terrorists were blowing up rail lines.

In the spate of attacks that have taken place recently, countless numbers of Nigerians have been killed and kidnapped in hundreds, most of them for ransom. The situation got so dire that, in conjunction with communication outfits, some state governments in the northern part of the country have had to tackle the menace by having communications blackouts in several parts of their domains. Again, military operations have been heightened in some northern states in order to forestall the operations of the armed gangs.

The seeming barrenness of military operations  against insurgents and bandits, among others, must have provoked the Economist, a London-based magazine, to write a leader titled “Insurgency, Secessionism and Banditry Threaten Nigeria” wherein it claimed that Nigeria had begun to collapse under the huge weight of insurgency, banditry and secessionist bids of its component groups, and that these resulted from the failure of the Nigerian  Army and other security agencies to ruthlessly attack the menace of insecurity. Rather than attack the specifics of this claim, the Nigerian Army, in a release signed by the Director, Army Public Relations, Brig Gen Onyema Nwachukwu, however attributed the editorial to an attempt to “denigrate, demonise and destabilise the Nigerian government.”

The spate of insecurity in the land and the president’s chest-beating are disturbing. They show that the president is unaware of the reality in the country. We counsel a more forward-looking outlook from the president as well as an appreciation of the dire situation facing the country. The incoherence of the president’s narratives makes Nigeria a laughing stock in the world.

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