There can be no doubt whatsoever that Nigeria as a country is currently passing through its most traumatised periods in her history since the end of the civil war in 1970.
The cause of this socio- political trauma and instability as we all know is none other than the criminal activities of terrorists, bandits and kidnappers all of which had combined to almost snuff out life out of our dear nation. And as has been succinctly expressed in the Yoruba adage, the butchering of the mammoth elephant provides the opportunity for all kinds of knives and machetes to surface.
In like manner, the seemingly intractable war between the Nigerian security forces and the criminal elements has elicited all manners of recommendations and solutions from so-called security experts, public analysts and even the plain ignoramuses.
One of such solutions to the current problem of unending insurgency war which to them the security forces seem to be losing, is that all the security chiefs must be sacked and new ones appointed. One surprising aspect of this outlandish recommendation is that many knowledgeable and supposedly well tutored professionals in such matters bought into the “sack the security chief” panacea.
This wide spread clamour only confirms one thing – that a good number of our public commentators do not give serious thought to public issues upon which they are commenting. Every public affairs analyst or commentator worth his salt must consider his ideas thoroughly, weigh his suggestion and recommendation carefully before voicing it out particularly when it involves the matter of national security.
Now, a careful analysis of our security challenges should tell us that the removal of the security chiefs is not the solution to the current problem of insurgency, banditry, armed robbery and kidnapping that Nigeria currently faces. It ought to be realised from the onset that our security forces, particularly the armed forces are being made to fight an unusual war for which they are ill-trained and ill-equipped.
The current war between our armed forces and insurgents plus bandits is not a conventional war. In a conventional war, the opposing armies face each other to join battle. Victory is achieved when one of the opposing armies defeats its opponent in battles, destroys its formations and equipment and finally invades and occupies its previously held territories.
That is the kind of war in which we can objectively assess our armed forces and their chiefs as a result of which we can correctly apportion blames if any.
The kind of war being currently fought by our armed forces is that in which the enemy is invisible, has no identified territory, wears no identified uniform and indeed could turn out to be the army commander’s next door neighbor. Thus, the enemies facing our regular security forces in the on-going war are ubiquitous. And to make matters worse, add the socio-political environment, particularly in the northern part of the country, where the war is being waged.
Let’s first consider the masses of illiterate and jobless young men and women that are available in the north who can be easily recruited and converted to dangerous terrorists; when they are so converted and fully armed they move about in the community like ordinary folks since nothing differentiates them from other people. As a result of illiteracy and mass poverty, everyone is too busy to eke out a living and hence does not have the time to care about what others are doing.
Under such circumstance, how do we expect the army to fish out such dangerous elements who live among the people and deal with them appropriately? Another societal factor that promotes the escalation of insurgency and banditry that we currently witness is the attitude of majority of the Nigerian political elite whose minds are dominated by greed and excessive desire for power and money.
To fulfill these selfish and sinful desires, there is no length they cannot go including even sacrificing the lives of fellow Nigerians. Not long ago, a peculiar kind of criminality and brigandage was about to be imported to the Southwest. Suddenly, the entire place became rife with ritual killings, kidnapping and armed robbery and all were attributed to the activities of Fulani herdsmen. But thank God, the powerful hands of His heavenly Majesty abruptly brought an end to the nefarious activities of the faceless enemies of peace among us.
A deep reflection on the painful incident that brought about this termination of evil in the Southwest should give us food for thought. In considering the evil that has suddenly overtaken our country and trying to find solution, our mind must not be fixated only on the superficial aspect alone. We must examine our situation comprehensively in order to tackle our problems fundamentally.
To effectively tackle the problem of insurgency and general insecurity currently facing our dear nation goes beyond the issue of changing the headship of our security forces. Doing that alone will amount to doing the same thing all over again and again and expecting different results.
We must develop the political will and enlightenment to do the needful at the appropriate time. While the failure of our national organization and structure stares us in the face, yet our so-called leaders remain adamant in continuing along the old, outdated and outmoded route that we had followed for decades.
For instance, the task of preventing and detecting crime in any modern nation is that of the police – that is a police that is well trained, well equipped, well motivated and quite adequate in manpower. Can the Nigeria Police measure up in any of the aforesaid indices?
Yet our leaders remain reluctant to change the unitary police structure that was imposed on us by the military constitution of 1999. It is this refusal to restructure and modernise the Nigeria Police in keeping with the current national security demands that brings about the recent brouhaha about Amotekun and Ogbunigwe, all of which are mere palliatives and not solutions.
If we truly desire to remain one strong, peaceful and indivisible country that we continuously proclaim, this is the time to summon courage to make drastic changes in many aspects of our national life.
President Buhari, in the name of all that is good, must rise up to lead this required revolutionary change so that our dear country may quickly head towards a new and positive political, economic and social trajectory.
We surely cannot afford to waste more time doing the same thing over and over, affirming our unity and indivisibility, while refusing to effect needed changes. If we do, our political, economic, social and security conditions are likely to worsen to the detriment of all Nigerians.
