DURING plenary on February 2, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, responding to a point of order raised by Senator Bello Mandiya (APC, Katsina South), joined his colleagues to call on the country’s service chiefs to “wake up” and protect Nigerians. The senators were worried that there had been no evidence of a full-scale action to stem terrorism, banditry and militancy in the country despite the recent declaration of bandits as terrorists. They had expected the declaration to galvanise the military into carrying out a comprehensive and ruthless onslaught on the outlaws. “The military needs to wake up. We want to see a difference because we have made a difference in terms of funding,” Lawan said. The senators admitted that funding was not the only factor affecting the military but insisted that for one and a half years, the increased level of funding for its operations should have yielded some results.
The concern about the performance of the military is coming against the backdrop of worsening insecurity in virtually all parts of the country, with the North-East being worst hit. Indeed, a recent report by SBM Intelligence, a socioeconomic research firm, showed that during the fourth quarter of last year, 2,085 persons were killed in violent incidents, including attacks from Boko Haram, militia herdsmen, abductions, gang clashes and terrorists, raising the number of deaths in 2021 to 10,366. The report noted that banditry had spread to parts of the country such as Kwara, Plateau and Taraba states that hitherto were not dealing with such incidents. The report noted further that “little progress has been made in attempts to coordinate the security agencies to achieve a shared strategic outcome” and that officers of various agencies lacked discipline and professionalism.
In a previous editorial, we noted that contrary to President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise, insecurity had spread to virtually all the nooks and crannies of the country, depicting a Hobbesian condition for many. We believe that there is a counter-terrorism economy that is sustaining and protracting the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East. The Federal Government needs to address this issue as it is linked to corruption, indiscipline and lack of professionalism among the security agencies, accounting for the failed coordination of activities and poor inter-inter-agency collaboration. The newly inaugurated Presidential Committee on Repatriation, Return and Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-East must take this into consideration and advise the President appropriately. Happily, the committee marks a shift in policy by the government from counter-insurgency to peace building, stabilisation and development.
It is expected that the resettlement of displaced persons will include addressing issues of corruption, indiscipline and lack of professionalism among the agencies involved, in order to ensure that the new drive to develop the affected communities does not fail. This lesson is buttressed by the experiences from the amnesty and development programmes in the Niger Delta where corruption remains an albatross of the quest for peace and development. The Niger Delta is a place where peace remains fragile and where failed developmental projects predominate.
Security forces are overstretched and, worse still, the Commander-in-Chief and the service chiefs have not responded to the need to provide more training and sophisticated weapons and equipment to the officers and men on the frontlines to enable them to perform effectively and efficiently. These chiefs do not seem to realise the urgency of reforming the military, the police and allied agencies to reposition them to work together effectively and efficiently to stem the tide of insecurity. The required expediency dictated by the precarious state of insecurity makes it imperative that they wake up from their slumber. We join the Senate in calling on the president and the service chiefs to rise to the occasion. Insecurity is wasting Nigerian lives.
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