During the campaigns leading to the last general elections in the country, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the then presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said he had drawn a roadmap towards tackling insecurity in Nigeria.
The assurance stemmed from the fact that under his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria almost sank into the abyss of insecurity, where his own state of Katsina was almost becoming the epicenter of the hydra-headed menace in the north.
Tinubu said he was ready to provide security and rebuild the economy, assuring that if elected president, he would eliminate criminals, including terrorists, stating that he would tackle insecurity headlong as the economy won’t thrive under an insecure environment.
“I used the same approach to tackle the bad security situation that faced me when I became governor of Lagos State. I created programmes and institutions to solve the real and dangerous challenges Lagos faced.
“I shall increase security personnel and better equip them. Advanced air and ground surveillance technology will identify, track and attack the criminals until they are utterly defeated,” the former governor of Lagos State said.
As if the assurance wasn’t enough, the president, during his inaugural speech on May 29, assured that security would be his top priority, reeling out his approaches towards achieving that.
“Security shall be the top priority of our administration because neither prosperity nor justice can prevail amidst insecurity and violence.
“To effectively tackle this menace, we shall reform our security doctrine and its architecture.
“We shall invest more in our security personnel, and this means more than an increase in number. We shall provide better training, equipment, pay and firepower;” Tinubu stated.
Also in June, following unabated attacks in parts of the country since his inauguration, the president assured that the Federal Government had drawn a roadmap towards tackling the various security challenges.
Speaking through Vice President Kashim Shettima at a two-day Northwest Peace and Security Summit in Katsina, he disclosed that the non-kinetic measures being explored to tackle insecurity included police reforms, enhancing local policing efforts, promoting community dialogue and peace building, and investing in youth empowerment.
Last month, the Federal Government, through the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, shared a significant update on the government’s efforts towards tackling insecurity.
The event was a High-Level African Counter-Terrorism Meeting in Abuja. He revealed that the number of terrorism-related deaths in Nigeria had dropped from a staggering 2,600 per month to less than 200 at that moment, marking a substantial decrease. In making a case for the present administration, Ribadu said security had also significantly improved in the North-West and North-Central areas, where bandits used to have their field days unchallenged previously, saying government authorities reported that banditry decreased by 45% in the second part of 2023, coinciding with when Tinubu began his watch on Nigeria. As a result, many displaced residents, including farmers, he said, had returned to their base and continued their farming activities. Many kidnap victims, he revealed, were also rescued from their captors in those regions.
The NSA revealed that the FG had so far rescued over 1,000 kidnap victims without paying a ransom. He stated this while receiving 22 rescued students and the Federal University of Gusau, Zamfara State staff.
Ribadu emphasised that the present administration’s counterterrorism efforts had been yielding tremendous results by blocking access to small arms and light weapons, thereby making it difficult for non-state actors to acquire them.
He said according to the Small Arms Survey, a Switzerland-based non-profit organisation, in 2020, Nigeria had an estimated 6.2 million arms in the hands of civilians, excluding those of the military and law enforcement agencies.
“For example, the AK-47 rifle, which used to be sold for less than N500,000 last year now goes for N5 million,” Ribadu said.
The NSA said security agencies recovered and destroyed over 5,000 military-grade rifles and intercepted over 20 gun-running networks in the last months.
Pleasing as the words of the president before, during and after the last election, as well as the assurance by the NSA were, the recent terrorists’ attack through suicide bombing in Gwosa, Borno State, has shown that under President Tinubu, nothing much has been achieved to secure the lives of Nigerians.
Recall that over the weekend, female suicide bombers targeted a wedding, a funeral and a hospital in coordinated attacks in northern Nigeria that left at least 18 people dead.
While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in Borno, which has been heavily affected by the in- surgency launched in 2009 by Boko Haram, the extremist group previously used women and girls in suicide bombings, prompting suspicions that some attackers came from the many thousands of people the militants had kidnapped over the years, including schoolchildren.
Barkindo Saidu, director general of Borno State Emergency Management Agency, told reporters that the first suicide bomber detonated a device during a marriage celebration in the north-eastern town of Gwoza,
“Minutes later, another blast occurred near General Hospital,” Saidu said, and the third bomber at the funeral service was disguised as a mourner. Children and pregnant women were among those killed, while at least 30 others were wounded, even as Saidu said injuries included abdominal ruptures and skull fractures.
The attack on Gwosa is a sad reminder of the height of insurgency in Nigeria when bombs were regularly detonated in major cities in the north, including the Federal Capital territory, with soft targets like motor parks and markets the worst hit.
The current attack is also a confirmation from statistics that under President Tinubu, it has been business as usual as insecurity has continued unabated.
For instance, data from various sources showed that the security situation hasn’t changed under Tinubu’s administration, as over 600 people were killed under him within 45 days of assumption of office.
Data from SBM Intelligence, an analysis platform, revealed that about 629 Nigerians were killed within 45 days across the country under President Tinubu between May 29 and July 13, 2023.
According to the data obtained by DAILY INDEPENDENT, the killings happened primarily from activities of non-state actors like bandits, Boko Haram insurgents, ethnic militias, armed robbers and others.
Other data from the Council on Foreign
Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) and media reports checked, as obtained from ICIR reports, showed that non-state actors killed 587 people within the same period.
A report by a civil society organisation,
Global Rights Nigeria, revealed that at least 555 people had been killed and 267 others abducted six weeks after President Tinubu took office.
At least 2,336 people were killed in various violent attacks within the first three months of 2024, according to data sourced and analysed by The ICIR. This is an approximate average of 26 persons killed daily between January 2024 and the end of March 2024.
In March, four officers and 13 soldiers were murdered in Okuama on March 14. Also in March, over 100 students were kidnapped in Kuriga Town in Kaduna State. The incident generated public outrage among Nigerians. Not quite long ago, five soldiers were killed in Aba, Abia State, by non-state actors and the reprisal, according to residents inter- viewed by our correspondent, has been huge.
“A lot of our brothers and sisters have been taken away and I believe a lot of them have been killed,” said a resident of Aba named Kelechi Ukaha, who spoke to our correspondent.
“We have seen even the young and old taken away and sometimes ago, one young man was shot and killed near the waterside.
“Nobody is happy about the death of the soldiers because that wasn’t the right thing to do but I want the army to know that those who killed their colleagues may not even be from Aba.
“They should stop killing our people here; they should put efforts to get those who killed their colleagues,” Ukaha said.
In Benue and Plateau States, it has been killing spree this year as gun-wielding men have been ransacking communities, killing and abducting residents. Just few days ago, some youths in Benue blocked roads, using the remains of those killed by bandits and chanting songs of melancholy to underline their present predicament.
Meanwhile, the failure of the present administration to curtail insecurity has also drawn the ire of mainly affected persons.
For instance, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) recently came down hard on Tinubu, saying the growing insecurity across the country indicated that the present government had failed to protect Nigerians.
They spoke in the aftermath of the kidnap of Kuriga school children. Speaking through their spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, they said; “The Northern Elders Forum firmly declares that enough is enough. The safety and security of our children should never be compromised or subject to negotiation. It is unacceptable for Nigerians, particularly those in the northern region, to continue living under such insecure conditions.
“Unfortunately,months into the Tinubu administration, there were clear signs of failure in providing the vital aspects of security of life and property to citizens. This situation is deeply con- cerning and requires immediate attention from our leaders.
“While we celebrate the return of the abducted Kuriga school children, we must also recognise this event as a wake-up call for all of us.
“We cannot afford to become compla- cent in the face of such acts of violence and disregard for human life. As elders, it’s our duty to protect and nurture the next generation.”
However, some security stakeholders
have also called out the government on this latest suicide bomb attack, proffer- ing solutions on the possible ways to counter insurgency in the country.
Issa Ozi-Salami, president of Nigeria Institute of Industrial Security, who himself had previously been a victim of kidnapping, while speaking on African Independent Television (AIT), challenged the Federal Government to intensify efforts and increase security funding.
He also advocated for heightened intelligence gathering from the authorities.
“This is like showing that the government isn’t doing enough because it’s their duty to safeguard Nigerians,” he said.
“They should intensify efforts and increase security funding. They should build trust among the communities so that one cannot be afraid to avail vital information.”
On the alleged 25 female suicide bombers still on the prowl, he said “they (Government) should intensify intelligence gathering very well and look out for heavily veiled women.
“Obviously the bombers would wear heavy veils “Gwosa is always their territory but I want to commend the security personnel and the Borno governor. The terrorists are merely fighting to regain that place after it was liberated and this is why I’m calling for more funding and deployment of technology like drones and artificial intelligence. There is a lot of work to be done right now.
“The terrorists are always working to be ahead of the plans and strategies of the government so this is why it is very necessary to deploy every efforts.
“There should be high level collabora- tions. Private security agencies and even traditional rulers should be involved at this time,” he said.
Also speaking while granting interview on Arise Television, retired Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman, former Nigerian Army spokesman, also said following the decimation of Boko Haram members, with almost two hundred of them killed by the security personnel, it was obvious that they are trying to pay back the people and to regain Gwosa.
He also said following the regain of Gwosa from the terrorists, it was obvious that the residents and perhaps the security were complacent that all was well, leading to the attack, challenging the authorities to also intensify efforts through deployment of non-kinetic measures.
“Boko Haram is perhaps trying to hit back after their foot soldiers have been hugely killed.
“But I think the people tended to relax at Gwosa because they felt peace had returned to them. So they seem to relax on security.
“We should intensify intelligence gathering because these terrorists are getting more emboldened and intelligent. Each and every one of them knows
each other. We have to have proper synergy and inter-security agency collabo- rations with sincerity. They should be meetingintermittently.
“We should really harmonise relation- ships and be security conscious all the time.
“That is also part of what should be the synergy and it will also help the se- curity agencies effectively do their job.”
“Incidentally, eighty percent of the solution here is non-kinetic, meaning everyone has a role to play in tackling this menace. To what extent we have approached this is one thing we have to ascertain.
“You cannot deal with security challenges with a divided house. Everyone has a role to play, from the president to the least man on the street; from the army general to the private soldier in the trench.
“Unless we solve this squarely, we are still not ready yet.
“Like I said, there should be regular inter-security meetings at the state house where strategies should be regularly reviewed and analysed,” he said.
Also speaking, Dr Celestine Iwendi, an Artificial Intelligence specialist, said it was high time the president declared state of emergency on security. He called for deployment of technology to solve the problem.
“The president should declare state of emergencyinsecurity. It is not enough to speak on the bombing but there should be collective efforts.
“We should relook our approach and see that we are working together over this. We need to sit up and get CCTV that align with Artificial Intelligence. That is very important in order to have knowledge of where things are happening on time.
“The intelligence units, police, army need to come together and synergise,” he said.
The poor security situation under Tinubu has obviously not aligned with his approach on inauguration as the president.
Recall that upon assuming office, Tinubu demonstrated his administration’s unwavering commitment to defence and security. He took a proactive step by outrightly reading the riot act to service and intelligence chiefs on the need to join forces to defeat all adversaries confronting the nation. That was necessary, timely and very apt because Nigeria was grappling with so many challenges from different angles, with insecurity taking the major role and seeming to defy all forms of solution.
Reports afterwards confirmed tangible results of counter-terrorism efforts under the Tinubu administration. Then in the North-East, it was reported by the military that Boko Haram and ISWAP activities had significantly decreased, with incidents dropping to a mere 8.0%.
On why such initial actions didn’t yield results, some stakeholders have blamed such on corruption in the effective and judicious management of funds earmarked for the defense and counter terrorism, thus calling on the president to beam his searchlight in the ways the funds are utilised. Incidents have been reported of those officers saddled with the responsibility of judicious management of defence funds mismanaging same with allegations of high level corruption rocking those handling the monies meant for those in the battlefields.
Meanwhile, to be fair to the president, information gotten by DAILY INDEPENDENT indicates that in 2023, out of a total of 394 attacks on Nigeria by non-state actors, only 64, representing 16.24%, occurred under the Tinubu administra- tion, underscoring the administration’s initial success in combating terrorism.