By Suleiman Umaru
The return of the old war horses which had made the Opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to rule the country for an uninterrupted sixteen years, to the back, appears to have prepared it for the May 18, 2023, general elections. The latest to find his way back to the party was Jerry Gana, a Benue state born Politician and former minister of Information, during Olusegun Obasanjo’s Presidency.
Gana, may have been encouraged to return to the PDP, fold, a party that had been sustained over the years, from total collapse by Uche Secondus, the current Natinal Chairman , because of the worsening security challenges facing the country under President Muhammadu Buhari, popular, PMB, a retired army General of the Ruling All Progressive Congress, APC.He was said to have bumped into the party National Secretariat at Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, on Wednesday, May 5, 2021,
An aggrieved Gana, had said that Nigerians do not deserve what they are going through under the Buhari Administration . He may realized that they, who were the founding members of the party, described as the biggest in Africa , with mass followership, had made a mistake to have abandoned the party when it matters most to run to their different directions which threw up the ruling APC.
Given the respect enjoyed in the party, he was said to have told members that that they must take decisive steps to rescue the nation from total collapse. Hear him: The economy is stagnated. There is insecurity everywhere, noting Nigerians are beginning to doubt their nationhood. He had stopped short at saying that the solution is for the PDP, which had won itself back to the heart of the people to take back power in the 2023, general elections . Appreciative of the efforts of the Current Leadership of the party, epitomized by Secondus, to stabilize the party, he said the PDP, is back to reckoning.
Secondus, who could not hide his feelings to see gana back to the party was said to have asked him to deploy his wealth of experience and intellect in the collective quest of well-meaning Nigerians to rescuing the nation from the APC misrule. Secondus may have taken advantage of Gana’s return to declare that the Objective of the PDP, is to rescue the nation from collapse’’. He disclosed that the country is currently being confronted with guerrilla warfare ,orchestrated by the Islamic Fundamentalist, BokoHaram and the Islamic State Of West African Province, ISWAP, a splinter Group of the original BokoHaram in 2016, thus threatening the foundation of the country.
But Dave Umahi, governor of Eboyi, would not agree with the PDP, that the Buhari is the architect of the country’s insecurity situatiin. He had blamed the present insecurity situation of the county to the past Leaders produced by the Opposition PDP , when it was in government.
The Eboyi state governor had accused the past PDP Leaders for failing’’ to address the future of the Youths which gave them room to carry guns and operate from the bush’’. An aggrieved Umahi, stressed that ‘’it is not proper for the Opposition party to blame the Buhari Administration for the heightened insecurity in the country as the reasons are systematic’’. According to him’’ the country insecurity situation did not just develop overnight’’.
In a related development, Halilu Shaba, Director General, of the National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRD, has given an insight why the anti-Jihadist war in the north east and Banditry in the north west had dragged this long. This is because it has been very difficult for the agency to effectively monitor the activities of the BokoHaram and ISWAP, insurgents in the north east states of Adamawa, Borno, Yobe and the Bandits in the north west states of Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina including those operating the north enntral state of Nigerand other Criminal elements across the country.
Shaba, had painted a gory image of the agency , stating that ‘’ it has inadequate satellite and other facilities for effective monitoring of the Criminal gangs across the country’’.
The NASRDA, Director General, may have shocked Nigerians when he said that the country satellite is not static in the north east, stressing that for the country to have only one satellite is not enough . He revealed that its two satellite equipment are current doing different things.
This includes the High Resolution Imaging satellite and the Medium Resultion Imaging satellite. He noexplained that the activities of the BokoHaram and ISWAP insurgents and their Collaborators, the Bandits , could not be easily monitored by them as expected because the two functional satellites are far away from the Nigerian Borders in the north west, north central, north east south west and the south- south Geopolitical regions. This may have informed why he is advocating for provision of more satellites for the agency to do its job as obtained in other parts of the world.
Given a clue on how to solve the security challenges facing the country, the NASRDA, boss has called for ‘’Collaboration between the agency and the security agencies in the country in the area of information sharing, especially when planning attacks on the Criminal gangs to be able capture their locations.
However, he asserted that the insurgents and the Bandits appear to have become more sophisticated in their operations , stressing that waves received by the agency from the remote areas where the criminal gangs carry out their attacks shows that they no longer use the Global System for Mobile Communication, GSM, phones but walkie- talkie.
The two insurgent Groups, may have resorted to the use of the walkie-talkie as a means of Communication given the information making the rounds that they had gotten an insider information on why Isa Patami, the minister of Communication and Digital Economy had initiated the ongoing synchronization of National Identification Number , NIN, with SIM cards across the country to track them in their hideouts in the bush.
The Nigerian President may have alsohit the nail on the head when he said that ‘’the synchronization of the NIN with the SIM cards across the country will help the military prosecuting the anti0Jihadist war in the north east and Banditry in the north west to identify and know the personality of Nigerians, particular, identifying the crooks’’.
Perhaps, to bring to an end to the anti-Jihadist war in the north east and Banditry in the north west, the Ahmad led Senate , had assured the service Chiefs in their recent meeting that they will for ways ‘’to better fund the military and equip them with adequate resources. This is good news is that the military personnel who have been complaining of dearth of equipment to effectively deal with the Insurgents and Bandits in their respective areas of Operations have heaved a sigh of relief that there is life in the horizon.
Only recently, some alleged Indigenous People of Biafra, IPO, fighters who were said to have made attempt to attack an orlu Police station in Imostate, south east Nigeria, would never forget their experience in a hurry. An eyewitness account confirmed that the policem did not give them a breather as several of them were said to have been killed. This is a remarkable departure from past attempts where they could invade a Police station , attack , Kill officers and stole their AK AK47. This is a signal to the BokoHaram and ISWAP, insurgents operating in the north that it is no longer going to be business as usual as the military are now full prepared for them in order to restore peace in the country ahead of the 2023 general elections.
