By all indications, Nigeria is now home to terrorism. Similarly, its dire manifestations: killings, destruction, shock and awe have come to stay with us. Even with international coalition to fish out and release the abducted Chibok school girls, the terrorists have in the last couple of days, shown beyond unmistakable terms that they will not let go. They appear determined to demonstrate their capacity to strike in any state of their choice especially in the northern part of the country.
That ought to be the proper reading of the twin bombs that killed over 120 people in Jos, Plateau state with scores of others inflicted with varying degrees of injury. Before then, there was another successful bomb attack in Kano that wreaked unmitigated havoc in human lives and property.
The message which the renewed bombing and killing of innocent citizens is meant to convey is the terrorists’ unlimited capacity to inflict pains on our people beyond Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states where local and international attention is currently focused. Therefore, the target of the terrorists and their sponsors is not just about the abduction that has been accomplished but how to enforce their devious and wired agenda on the rest of the country.
Campaigns and demonstrations that seek to focus on the abducted girls may miss the point if a holistic perspective of the phenomenon is not undertaken now. It is even possible that having been put under pressure in the north-east axis, the terrorists will begin to focus on other areas of less attention. There is therefore the compelling imperative to evolve measures to prevent terrorism from spreading to other parts of the country. And because of the very unlikely prospect of the scourge fizzling out very soon, our citizens should brace up for a long drawn battle with terrorists. Matters are not remedied given that we are confronted with an asymmetrical warfare.
For a country that is battling with high level poverty, ignorance and disease, the effects of the current war on high defense budgets will leave very little if anything for the pursuit of our development programme. We are thus left with a vicious cycle of poverty and underdevelopment. That is the sad fate those who promote this evil scourge have consigned this country to.
Already we have been forced to allow foreign countries into our territory on account of this self-inflicted problem. As desirable as foreign intervention may be at this point in time, it comes with its own shortcomings. It has its repercussions for a sovereign nation irrespective of the fact that international cooperation has been a major feature of the fight against terrorism due to its peculiar nature. Those who are helping have come with their own terms. The days ahead will witness a massive deployment of resources to fight terrorism. It will involve the acquisition of sophisticated technology such that the foreign countries offer. It will entail a comprehensive security network through out the length and breadth of the country to reduce the relative ease with which terrorists penetrate vulnerable segments of our communities. All these will take a lot from the national purse. The defense industries of the advanced countries will have patronage.
Yet, this is a problem this county could have avoided but for greed, self-serving and sectional promptings.
And for a society that lacks the basic data on its citizens and foreigners as well, the situation can be that hopeless. With the uncontrolled influx of neighboring African countries, the inability to differentiate some of them from Nigerians, it can only be imagined the difficulty to be encountered keeping a tab on movements and suspicious elements.
Our society is at the moment very porous with security counting for little in the daily calculations of the ordinary people. It is therefore to be expected that such a society will harvest plentifully from the evil machinations of these purveyors of terror. The fact that even the most sophisticated and highly advanced countries have not been able to rid themselves of terrorism is a sufficient indication that we are in for hard times if those who sponsor Boko Haram do not have a change of heart.
Since bad habits die hard, it is safer to assume that terrorism has come to stay with us. It will not quickly disappear in the same manner armed robbery, kidnapping and militancy have not.
Apart from any comprehensive programme the government may put in place to detect and make terrorism a very risky endeavor, we must begin to prepare our citizens to brace up for the scourge. It is time to commence very aggressive and comprehensive sensitization programme to acquaint our people with the necessary precautions and safety valves against terrorism.
The high casualty recorded in the Jos incident would have been avoided had the local population been properly schooled on the right responses when bombs are detonated. For now, such campaigns are not on and not many know what to do in such circumstances. Plateau State commissioner of police Chris Olakpe captured the above scenario very succinctly when he warned the public against rushing to bomb blasts scenes as the possibility of another primed to explode soon after was very high. As it turned out, it was a second explosion that wreaked much of the havoc in the Jos incident. He also gave another tip on what people should do immediately they hear a blast near them. He advised that when such blasts occur, people close by should lie down to avoid being hit by flying objects.
Another security expert Dr. Ona Ekhomu has also come out with a piece of advice on how to detect the making of improvised bombs and the materials that go into them. He said “accumulating gas cylinders or bags of fertilizer are terrorists’ attack pre-incident indicators which could signal the imminence of a bomb attack”. He also spoke on monitoring people who behave in very suspicious and secretive ways as it fits into the characterization of terror agents.
These tips are very useful and needful given that terrorism is unlikely to disappear from our shores so soon. We must therefore brace up for the reality it has become, educate and sensitize our people on how to detect the making of bombs so as to aid in apprehending culprits. And since the possibility is there that some of the terrorists will still succeed in their devious endeavors, we must arm the people on the right responses whenever there is a bomb explosion.
The Jos experience has shown clearly that the message of keeping off bomb blast scenes is yet to be internalized. It therefore calls for a more comprehensive sensitization approach, deploying modern means of mass communication including the traditional ones to drum these messages into the ears of the ordinary people.
These are the measures that will add value to the current fight against terrorism and not endless street demonstrations. We must proceed beyond the current euphoria to institute and internalize measures not only to detect terrorists but reduce the pains associated with their activities due to ignorance on the part of the public.
