By Suleiman Umaru
Sani Musa, an indigene of Niger, Ibrahim Babangida , a retired Army General and former Nigerian military President home state and a Senator of Federal Republic of Nigeria, on the Platform of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, is not a happy man.
Musa, who is from Niger, one of the worst –hit by the Bandits Group and the north east based Islamic Fundamentalist Group, BokoHaram and the Islamic State of West African Province, ISWAP, source of unhappiness was that ‘’insecurity in Nigerian over the last seven years has gone from bad to worse’’, under the close watch of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Niger state born politician who could not hide his feelings had described ‘’the country’s insecurity situation which is disturbing as an understatement’’, noting that that’’ the country have never seen something like this since after the civil war in 2070’’.
Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, a Muslin Cleric, who had repeatedly called on the Kaduna state born Nigerian President to resign over his inability to resolve the Nigerian intractable security challenges said the Administration had spent over $16 billion in the last seven years to tackle Banditry and Terrorism with incommensurate impact on security.
The Lawmaker believes that If Babagana Munguno, a retired Army General and National Security Adviser, NSA, described in military circles as a ‘’security strategists’’ and who incidentally was a former Chief of Defense intelligence, , CDI, had been alive to his duties as a top security Aide to the President, the continued killings and kidnap of innocent people in the flash point states of Borno, Yobe, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kaduna, Katsina and Niger, and other parts of Nigeria including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, would not have been as bad as it is now.
An angry Senator Musa had challenged Munguno, the NSA, to tell Nigerians ‘’what proactive action’’ he has taken since 2015 and now to resolve the country’s security challenges. He has asked the retired Army Major General and Buhari’s NSA, ‘’to tender his resignation letter’, describing him as a failed NSA. Hear him:If I was the NSA in this country ,I Will tender my resignation because I have failed’’.
He noted that since it has been confirmed that Terrorists from the north east states of Borno, his home state, are building cells residence, in the north west state of Zamfara and the north central states of Niger and Nasarawa the NSA ought not have waited for them to attack, as they did in the FCT, targeting the Kuje Custodial centre, where the cells were opened and 69 BokoHaram, members serving different jail terms escaped into tin air while some joined their fellow gang members in the forest , and also the attack on theTroops of the Presidential Guards Brigade which provides security for the Seat of Power and the nation’s capital city where some soldiers of the Brigade were reportedly killed, in Bwari axis could not have happened.
The recent killing of one Udeng Ibrahim Yamusa, the traditional ruler of Chukuben Chiefdom and his son, by armed Bandits why on their way back to the Chifdom as the peace meeting in Takum town, Headquarters of Takukum Local Government Area of Taraba, home state, of Thophilous Danjuma, a retired Army General and former minister of Defense during Olusegun Obasanjo’s Administration was said to have been postponed further bear eloquent testimony to the worsening security situation in the country
. The trigger hungry Bandits who were said to have been terrorising Communities in Yagngtu Special Development, Takun and Bassa Local Government Areas over the last couple years in the state have continued to kill with reckless abandon. Although the Taraba state Police Command had promised to unravel those behind the killing but that was how far the Command could go.
Senator Musa had said that ‘’the intelligence that is currently been shared by the security agencies is a pre-information given at a stage where these criminal elements have not concluded their plans, for the Troops to attack and kill them. This may have informed why he had said that the NSA has to restrategise to save the country’s deepening security challenges.
His major worry was that the armed non-state actors including the members of the Bandits Group, BokoHaram and IAWAP and Ansaru Group, a breakaway faction of BokoHaram, have scaled up their activities in the recent time, extending their operations to attack some security formations.
The NSA, amid the outcry of the deteriorating security situation in the country had said last week after a meeting with the service Chiefs, chaired by the Nigerian President that the security agencies have adopted a new strategy to tackle the Banditry and terrorism threat in the country.
Senator Musa may have sent a message to the service Chiefs , particular, frouk Yahaya, a Lt. General and Chief of Army Staff, that ‘’Nigeria used to have Army that are reckoned with the world-over as they have fought wars in other countries in order to bring about peace to those countries but today , the story is different’’.
While Senator Musa is not happy that Nigeria military has lost the fight power to defeat the Bandits and Terrorists across the country, Gani Adams, the Aare Onakankafo of Yoruba land has raised alarm that Nigeria is ‘’walking into a collapse’’.
The Yoruba Land traditional War General had said that the government is watching while the Bandits Group and their Terrorist Collaborators buy more weapons to unleash terror on the innocent people with ransom collected from family of victims.
. He had cited situation in which family members were being forced to raise N100 million to pay as ransom to facilitate the release of a loved ones in the custody of these criminal elements in their hide out in the forest. He is right. Alwan Ali-Hassan, Managing Director of Bank of Agriculture and one of the victims in the Abuja-Kaduna train attack on March 28, 2022 by Ansaru terrorists and their Bandits Group Collaborators in which 62 Passengers were abducted and eight killed was said to have paid N100 million to secure his release.
The Yoruba Land Onakankafo may have given out information to the security and intelligence agencies to act on that the Bandits Group, operating in the north west geopolitical region and terrorists operating in the north east region which have exported their members t southern Nigeria have made the forest in Osun, Rauf Aregbesola, minister of Interior home state and the forest between Oyo and Ogun states their new enclave, where they are allegedly planning to attack states in the south western geopolitical region.
The Aare Onakankafo, was said to have specifically mentioned Osu and Ile Ife forests in Osun state and the forest between Ibadan, Oyo state and Abeokuta in Ogun state with various ammunition. This is where the governors of the six south west states have to go back to the drawing board to re-strategise tto forestall the Bandits Group and the north terrorist from turning the region to another north western and north eastern geopolitical regions where life is meaningless to the armed killer gangs.
