Editorial

The attack on Buhari’s convoy

IF any proof were needed of the mounting audacity of the roving bandits who have laid siege to several parts of the country in the past few months, it came with last week’s attack on the advance convoy of President Muhammadu Buhari near Dutsinma, Katsina State, an estimated 152 kilometres from the president’s hometown of Daura. According to reports in the media, the advance convoy was on a “clearance operation” when gunmen numbering over 300 on motorcycles suddenly opened fire on it. There are conflicting reports as to whether an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Aminu Umar, and another police officer were killed during this particular ambush or during another incident in Kurfi Local Government Area, Katsina, on the same day.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Federal Government has sought to minimise the attack on the president’s convoy, describing the incident in an official statement signed by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, as “sad and unwelcome” and commending the “gallant presidential guards” who bravely repelled the attack. While we understand the wish not to admit that the president could have been exposed to mortal danger (it was an advance convoy after all, the president was not there, and the team made it to Daura after trading bullets with the attackers), the simple truth is that an attack on the convoy of a sitting president, even one without the president in tow, is more than “sad and unwelcome.” On the one hand, it is an unmistakable message to the Buhari government about its impotence in tackling the security situation in the country. On the other hand, it is a direct message to the people of Nigeria that they are on their own, and that they cannot afford to rely on protection from those who are pretending to still own the legitimate means of violence.

As if to drive home the point about the authorities’ impotence, shortly before midnight on the same day the president’s convoy came under fire, another group of gunmen attacked the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). After reportedly detonating bombs which sent the guards on duty scampering for safety, the gunmen killed six inmates and one prison official before freeing more than 600 inmates. The gunmen had so much time to wreak havoc (they were at it for almost two hours) that they even delivered a lecture and had enough leisure time to distribute cash to some of the newly freed inmates.

During a visit to the prison the following day, President Buhari was reported as having wondered aloud: “How can terrorists organise, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?” It’s a good question the president is asking, for that is precisely the very question that frustrated Nigerians have been asking, and since the buck stops at his desk, he is the one who urgently owes Nigerians an explanation. Besides, while the Islamic State for West Africa Province (ISWAP) has claimed responsibility for the Kuje attack, it is worth noting that attacks on prisons and correctional facilities across the country have become commonplace in recent times. Among others, gunmen have launched deadly attacks on and freed inmates at the Ikot Ekpene Correctional Facility in Akwa Ibom State (December 2017), the Owerri Custodial Centre in Imo State (April 2021), the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Jos, Plateau State (July 2021 and again in November 2021), and the Abologo Custodial Centre, Oyo State (October 2021).

Frustration with the evident incapacity of the authorities to protect life and property has led to calls for Nigerians to arm themselves. Two weeks ago, the Zamfara State governor, Mohammed Matawalle, urged citizens of the state to acquire guns to defend themselves and ordered the state Commissioner of Police to issue licences to residents “willing and fit to bear arms.” Matawalle’s desperation is understandable. Since January, at least 250 people have been killed in various bandit attacks across the state. While we are open to a debate over whether Nigerians should be able to bear arms, what is clear at the moment is that this does not begin to address the broader question of the degrading of official capacity to the extent that bandits now carry more sophisticated weapons than members of the Nigerian armed forces. If soldiers kitted by the state have no chance, how can ordinary citizens without the requisite training? If Nigerians must guarantee their own personal safety, what is the point of the police and the armed forces?

Nigerians voted for this president on the assurance that he would guarantee the safety of the ordinary citizen. It is entirely President Buhari’s fault that he has been remiss, and profoundly so. To whom much is given, much is expected.

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