The terror attacks in Kaduna

THE outcry over the recent terrorist attacks on Kaduna State is yet to subside. And the attacks are continuing. Recently, Nigerians were thrown into mourning when passengers on an Abuja-Kaduna train, said to approximate 970, were waylaid by terrorists who blew up the rail tracks with objects suspected to be IEDs. The passengers on the train were then subjected to a barrage of gunfire by the terrorists who, after immobilising the train, began to pump bullets into the coaches. At the end of the sad episode, seven officially acknowledged persons had been shot dead and several others kidnapped. The terrorists had arrived the crime scene on motorbikes, clutching firearms and other deadly weapons. While the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) officially declared that 26 passengers were missing, there were allegations that more than 150 passengers were yet to be accounted for. Apparently, ticket racketeering was at play.

Two days before this unfortunate incident, the outlaws had raided the Kaduna Airport, killing two personnel of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and kidnapping many other workers. This led the NRC to suspend its operations on the route. Sadly, fresh terror attacks have compounded the misery in Kaduna. For instance, on April 4, 11 soldiers were reportedly killed in an attack by suspected gunmen at a military base in the Birnin Gwari council area of the state. The gunmen, who reportedly stormed the base in large numbers on motorcycles, armed with heavy weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), engaged the troops in a fierce gun battle that lasted for about two hours, at the end of which the soldiers were dislodged. Again, terrorists hit two communities in Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State, killing 23 locals, and also attacked Anguwar Maji in Jere town by the Abuja-Kaduna highway, kidnapping 22 persons a day after the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Usman Alkali Baba, toured the highway and decreed peace and safety. As if to underscore their invincibility, the terrorists who attacked the Kaduna-bound train have threatened to kill their captives if the government does not quickly accede to their demands. They issued the threat in a video they released stating why they freed the managing director of the Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Hassan, whom they had abducted together with an unknown number of victims.

To be sure, the terror attacks on Kaduna demonstrate the failure of the Nigerian state and the meaninglessness of existence under the present government. In a comment a few days after, former President Olusegun Obasanjo concluded that the Muhammadu Buhari government had apparently been overwhelmed by the security situation in the country. In a riposte to this, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, claimed that the administration had put in place  mechanisms to ensure that insecurity became a thing of the past. The truth is that in the estimation of Nigerians and indeed the international community, the Buhari government is lax, helpless, and incapable of protecting the citizenry. Ex-President Obasanjo was apparently putting it mildly when he deployed the euphemism “overwhelmed” to describe the government’s state on matters of insecurity.

We are saddened by the Kaduna attacks and we sympathise with the people of Kaduna State. We also note the strenuous, though unheeded, calls by the Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, on the Federal Government to take out the terrorists making life a nightmare in the state. It is a pity that a governor has to beg higher powers to dislodge terrorists. It is also a thing of regret that Nigerians, who opted for rail transport largely because hardened criminals had laid siege to major highways in the country, killing, maiming and robbing passengers, are now at a crossroads. Even the elite who choose to travel by air have since found out that they are as prone to attacks as anybody else. In any case, when the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, said that the government had identified 21 sponsors of terrorism in the country but did not want to name them, it was obvious that the government was preparing the ground for free reign of terror.

The attacks are a national embarrassment with far-reaching consequences. The cacophony among key government officials on the causes of the tragedies merely assaults the sensibilities and psyche of Nigerians. We align with the position that security facilities ought to have been in place on the railway corridors and should have been part of the railway architecture ab initio. This is because insecurity, especially in that part of the country, is no recent phenomenon. The buck-passing among government officials confirms the belief among the populace that nobody is actually in charge in the country, and that no one cares enough to guarantee good governance and safety of life and property.

The Kaduna attacks are indeed unfortunate: Kaduna is home to most military facilities, equipment, installations and institutions in Nigeria. Is the country so weak that it cannot take the fight to the doorstep of the bloodsucking terrorists? The attacks show the country’s vulnerability to destruction. Life has become miserable for the common people. The Federal Government must halt the reign of terror across the land. It must accept the restructuring imperative, particularly the issue of state policing. Enough is enough.