Tag: INSECURITY

Some military personnel have been betraying the army by leaking vital information to bandits”.

“This is one killing too many. From here, I am going to see my commanders. We need to change our strategy, look inward, and see how we can address this. We can’t do it alone without the state; we need everybody to be part of it”.

 “If you see the pattern of killings and slaughtering, it means there is an insider. As we were going round, it became obvious that the killing and burnings were targeted. I have discussed with the community and traditional rulers as well as clan heads for us to work in synergy. There have been issues of trust, but we are going to work on it” – Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, speaking during a visit to Yelwata to assess the destruction caused by last Saturday’s attack in Benue State during which more than 100 persons were slaughtered.

“Operation Hadin Kai announces the  arrest of 15 policemen and 18 soldiers under suspicion of selling weapons to terrorists.

Another 8 civilians were arrested  including a traditional ruler. Among the notable arrests is the armourer for the 7th Division who has been engaging in this act since 2018 and had N45 million in his bank account. Another police inspector has N135 million passing through his bank account while a soldier of the 3 div Ordnance Corps has some whooping N34 million in his.

This further shows how the strength of terrorist groups like ISWAP lies in how they embed in the local space and infiltrate circles as deep as inside the armory of the 7th Division just as it highlights how this war isn’t against only an armed group but against a whole network” – Joe Igbokwe on Face book.

From 2018? This puts not only the competence, but the supervisory capabilities of the Nigerian military, into great doubt.

READ ALSO: How we survived herdsmen attack that claimed 200 lives in Benue community – Residents

If the above incidents are recent, not so internal sabotage itself within the military and members of the communities where Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen terrorists – both desirous of forcefully turning Nigeria to an Islamic state –  operate.

That is to say that it is not new and failure to ‘kill’ it must be considered a function of successive Nigerian government’s eternal fear of the powers that be in the North, a fear that stopped even the Buhari government from prosecuting proven sponsors of terrorism; felons who were tried and convicted in the UAE.

It is doubtful if the present government  would improve on that to stop these untouchable enemies of state once and for all. But Nigeria will only be joking with its security as long as this infernal fear lingers.

Internal sabotage within the military and those powerful forces who want to see Nigeria forcefully turned to an Islamic country go far back in their audacity.

As reported by the Vanguard newspaper of as far back as 11 October, 2014 an Army colonel and 10 officers set Nigerian tankers ablaze to pave way for Boko Haram terrorists.

According to the report, the Army colonel, some junior officers and soldiers who were taking part in the military offensive to reclaim communities taken over by Boko Haram  in Adamawa State, were arrested for sabotage.

Top military sources said that the colonel (a Muslim) who was commanding a team of three Armoured Personnel Carriers, APC’s, with the capability to fire up to a range of 1.5kilometres or  more had, rather than pursue the terrorists, deliberately set the APC’s on fire before running away with his team.

Saturday Vanguard gathered that the Army authorities were outraged over the development and ordered their arrest .

Narrating how the embarrassing incident occurred, a source who was privy to the development noted that until the incident, the Special Forces of the Nigerian Army which commenced the putsch to rout Boko Haram terrorists from Bazza, Michika, Gulak and Madagali and had inflicted heavy casualties on the terrorists up until Gulak.

When informed that the terrorists were approaching his team in six Toyota Hilux Pick Up vans from the Madagali axis, the colonel,  rather than blast, and take out the terrorists in their pick-up vans, ordered his soldiers to jump out of the APC’s and set the armoured tanks on fire, not  knowing he was being monitored.

They subsequently ran into the bush, claiming they were overpowered by a better armed group of Boko Haram.

This led to the disclosure by the top hierarchy of the military that there are so many fifth columnists in the military working against the country’s determination to flush out Boko Haram.

The truth is that many of them are deliberately sabotaging Nigeria and making the insurgents look formidable for reasons that cannot be explained.

Some of them appear sympathetic to the insurgents”.

You hardly hear them being given appropriate punishment for their acts of treason.

This, of course, can be explained.

They are, unpatriotically, turning against the country of their birth largely for monetary and consanguinity reasons. That is, for  ethnic and religious reasons.

For these reasons, some military officers, soldiers and  huge parts of the local populace share the same affinity with the terrorists whose primary intent is to see Sharia being forcefully enforced all over Nigeria.

As a result of this  together with some other reasons which I shall briefly discuss, the lacerating, economically ruinous war against insecurity, which began in Nigeria over a decade ago, despite the yeoman’s, even gargantuan, effort of our gallant soldiers, many of who have paid the ultimate price, is not, anywhere near where it should be and is likely to have a much longer shelf life in spite of promises to the contrary.

How are we even sure some powerful forces in the North are not on the payroll of the United States which former Secretary of state, Hillary Clinton recently said started Boko Haram, and probably still funds it – not minding the changes in parties in government in America since then as they always plan longterm.

Has the Nigerian government examined this possibility even as General Musa said that captured Boko Haram elements are always found with wads of dollars?

Consequentially, the alarming rise in insecurity in recent times, which accounted for over 300 deaths in both Plateau and Benue states in less than two months, has become a major concern for  government and citizens alike.

Despite all governmental effort, the country continues to grapple, uneasily, with unspeakable banditry, kidnapping, and needless killings like Nigeria wants to ape Gaza.

There is no doubt, whatever, that internal sabotage is a major contributory factor to Nigeria’s bleeding and, therefore, equally a factor in the sudden rise in insecurity which has made life in Nigeria effete, brutish and short, especially in Northern Nigeria where people now get killed needlessly because some landless, and homeless, people must now grab ancestral lands, change the names and banish the owners from there, mostly with the Nigerian government and security services looking unconcerned.

I saw and wrote about all these years ago when total strangers, foreigners indeed, were being trucked and deposited round all over Nigeria even at a time President Buhari forebade interstate travels.

There are, of course, other contributing factors to the multi – pronged internal dislocation one of which is corruption manifesting as   embezzlement of funds meant for military operations,  sale of arms and ammunition to enemies of state and collection of bribes from civilian agents of terrorists in exchange for intelligence.

Lack of internal coordination  between the different military  agencies, a problem President Buhari grappled with throughout his tenure is another which

terrorists can easily exploit to launch attacks on vulnerable targets.

Also, there have been reports of some military personnel colluding with terrorists and bandits. This can take the form of providing intelligence about operations to terror groups, allowing them to escape or, indeed, participating directly in their operations.

The negative impact of all these on the Nigerian military’s efforts to address insecurity cannot be overstated.

When military personnel are compromised, it undermines the effectiveness of security operations and puts the lives of stakeholders at risk. It erodes trust in the military and can lead to a breakdown in the relationship between the security forces and the people they are meant to protect.

To meaningfully address internal sabotage the  military must take a multi-faceted approach.

First, there needs to be a quick, thorough, and unbiased investigation of any allegation of corruption. Action must be swift and decisive against the guilty.

The military must improve its internal mechanisms for transparency  and accountability.

It must prioritize building trust with the local communities which is usually a trove of much needed intelligence.

This it can achieve through community engagement initiatives like outreach programmes and civic activities.

By building trust with local communities, the military can gather intelligence and gain the cooperation of civilians in its efforts to address insecurity.

Finally, the military needs to improve its operational effectiveness. This can be achieved through training, capacity-building, as well as the acquisition of modern equipment and technology.

By reining in internal sabotage, ensuring accountability, giving pride of place to community engagement and operational improvement, the military can maximally deal with the hydra- headed insurgency problems currently   tormenting us all.