•The blast in Abuja and kidnap of 100 school girls reinforce need for a new thinking in handling the insurgency
Even as Nigerians were still busy counting their losses from the bomb blasts that rocked a bus station in Nyanya, near the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Monday, insurgents suspected to be Boko Haram members abducted 100 girls at the Girls Senior Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on Tuesday. The relative successes recorded by the insurgents in both incidents would suggest that we are still a long way from winning the terrorism war. Yet this is a war on which we have spent billions of naira; a war in which we have had to declare a state of emergency in three states for close to a year.
The Abuja incident occurred between 6.30 a.m. and 6.55 a.m., when workers, traders, artisans and others were setting out for work. An account had it that the blast came from a Golf car XQ 2291 SD that was parked near the buses in the park where commuters had converged. A top security source said: “Report indicated that five insurgents came out of the car pretending to be waiting to join a bus. But these insurgents had barely alighted when the remote-controlled bomb went off”. By the time the dust settled, no fewer than 150 persons were killed and about 164 others injured, many critically. Official death toll however stood at 72. The sight was too gory to behold, with human parts littering the scene apart from the heavy losses incurred by vehicle owners whose buses were burnt beyond recognition. “I saw a woman lying face down without limbs. One who was surrounded by the children, struggled for life and gave up in their arms”, an eyewitness recounted.
The abduction of the secondary school girls may not be as bloody, but it also leaves sour taste in the mouth that as many as 100 students could be abducted at once without anyone being able to abort the plan before it was executed. And this in a state under emergency! Armed men were said to have stormed the town in the night of Monday, burning and shooting. They killed the soldier and the policeman on guard. The girls were said to be preparing for their Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) when they were forcibly taken by the gunmen.
It is intriguing that the president could not even take time to rue the Abuja incident as he visited Kano and Ibadan on Tuesday. He was in Kano for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Unity Rally to receive former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau to the party; and Ibadan to rejoice with the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Samuel Odulana, who was celebrating his centenary birthday. Did the president think the few hours between when the Abuja blasts occurred and the time of the rally was enough to grieve with the aggrieved? Could the rally not have been rescheduled? However, whether this insensitivity is becoming a pattern on the part of the president is not the issue here. Suffice it to say that the Abuja blast and abduction of the students have exposed the nation’s underbellies once again in several areas.
For example, what has happened to the N76billion National Security Communications System Close-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras that were reportedly installed in strategic areas of the FCT? Some FCT residents want the government to justify the money spent on the project by providing the video footage of those who perpetrated the crime. Would one be wrong to smell corruption here? With specific reference to the park incident, cameras ought to have been installed in every garage, given that this is not the first such attack on garages.
In the same vein, it should not have been easy for the insurgents to take away 100 students the way they did if government had ensured adequate security in schools after the attack on the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, near Damaturu, the Yobe State capital in February, during which they either burnt or shot to death 59 students. All the school’s buildings were burnt and the Federal Government responded by closing down five schools in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. It also asked students writing public examinations to relocate to other schools. The February 24 attack on FGC Buni Yadi was the fourth recorded attack on schools in Yobe State since the insurgency commenced, as Government Secondary School, Damaturu, Government Secondary School Mamudo and College of Agriculture, Gujba had all been attacked last year.
We may ask for a summit on security, but a pertinent question in all these is the place of inside intelligence. It is unfathomable that 100 students could be taken away unnoticed in a state under emergency where every school should be under surveillance. Could there be collusion on the part of some security agents with the insurgents? There are also complaints that, in spite of our experience on the insurgency, our response to such tragedies remains slow. Some eyewitnesses said it took rescue teams some time before arriving the scene of the Abuja tragedy and that some of the victims who could have been saved had there been prompt emergency response during the critical moments died after losing much blood.
Given the frequency of the attacks by the insurgents and their ferocious nature, it would seem we lack the capacity to adequately address the scourge. This is a war that we have spent billions to prosecute without much result. We may need more foreign assistance than we presently have. But even then, intelligence is key to the success of the outsiders with the requisite knowledge and experience in anti-terrorism matters that we may invite. If the government feels otherwise, fine; but it must have realised by now that there is need to restrategise in the battle to defeat the insurgents. One thing is sure however, and that is the fact that the matter has gone beyond the usual presidential assurance that “… we will get over it” that we are now so familiar with whenever the evil ones have done their worst.
Yes, we will get over it; but we have to be alive to get over it. And if we are to get over it, the president must lead the way; he should show genuine leadership. He cannot be junketing about to social functions and political rallies and expect the Boko Haram challenge to disappear into thin air. That is tantamount to Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned. To wish Boko Haram away is the height of incurable optimism on President Jonathan’s part. We cannot subscribe to that.
