[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ecently, more Nigerians have joined in the call for the actual defeat of the Boko Haram insurgents, arrest and prosecution of bandits and kidnappers and the return of enduring peace and security in the country. They also believe that this can only be achieved if there is a total restructuring of the country’s security architecture.
DESPITE the assurances from the military and the officials of government that Boko Haram insurgents have been decimated and that the perpetrators of various heinous crimes, including banditry, kidnapping and that the perpetrators would be arrested and punished, the daily reports of the activities of the insurgents and the bandits have proved otherwise and this development is responsible to the recent protests and demands for changes to be effected in the security architecture of the country.
The latest protect on Sunday, March 1, 2020, was by the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria, which led thousands of their followers and other Christians to march through some streets of Abuja to protest against the worsening insecurity in the country.
The protesters, who wore black attires, denounced the barbaric killings of Christians by the Boko Haram insurgents and the incessant cases of kidnapping for ransom in the country.
Speaking after the protest, the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN)), Most Rev. Augustine Akubeze, said: “We embarked on a peaceful protest on behalf of over 50 million Catholics and over 100 million Christians in Nigeria. We are protesting against the brutal killings of innocent Nigerians by Boko Haram and terrorist herdsmen, who are invading people’s farmlands forcefully. We are gathered here to register our protest against the kidnappings for ransoms in every part of Nigeria.
“We are gathered to mourn the women, babies, children and men who have been killed by the terrorists. We are gathered to let the Federal Government of Nigeria know that we are tired of hearing from them that Boko Haram has been technically defeated even when they still attack with impunity. Even local and international security experts have concluded that the terrorists use weapons that are very sophisticated. Our protest is part of our religious obligations to speak prophetically against whatever is against God’s commandment.”
According to him, the silence of President Muhammadu Buhari on “the worsening insecurity problem in the country is sowing and breeding a seed of mistrust, and the longer it stays, the more you lose those who could have given you the benefit of the doubt”.
“As things stand now, it appears only a few Nigerians can defend you with reasons, only a few Nigerians can argue that your silence is not an endorsement of the barbaric actions of the terrorists and criminals,” he said.
The bishop urged Buhari to listen to the “cries of Nigerians, and also listen to the National Assembly, which has unanimously called on you to change the security chiefs and take more proactive actions to prevent terrorist attacks in the country, especially in the North East.”
He advised Buhari to seek foreign help over the raging attacks on Nigerians as well as reassure the citizens that there was no agenda to Islamise them by not “giving an undue advantage to a section or religion and its adherents bearing in mind that Nigeria is a secular state”.
The Catholic Bishops Conference and the Christians are not alone in this agitation as the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had earlier staged some protests and asked Buhari to resign for “failing to secure the nation’ and putting her democracy under threat”.
The PDP’s national chairman, Uche Secondus, who led the party members during their protests at the embassies of the United Kingdom and the United States in Abuja, said that there was an urgent need to seek international intervention to help improve security and the Nigerian judicial system.
He explained that the party was in full support of its Senate minority leader, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, who asked President Buhari to resign his office for “failing to solve the security challenges in the country”, years after Nigerians voted the APC.
The PDP Chairman said “Mr President has lost control of security” and that Nigeria was “in danger and we are in trouble”.
“Today we back our minority leader asking that Mr President should resign because he has lost control,” Secondus told journalists recently in Abuja.
Speaking in the same vein, the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, had in February accused President Buhari’s administration of failing to secure the citizens from the incessant attacks by bandits and other terrorist groups.
The NEF Convener, Professor Ango Abdullahi, lamented that poverty, particularly in the north, and massive social security have worsened under this administration.
“With this type of mindset, it is difficult to see how President Buhari can accept the challenge to radically improve his handling of our security situation.
“Nonetheless, we believe that Nigerians must continue to raise our voices and organise through all legitimate means to demand that the administration addresses major failings in his perception of our situation and his response to our demands for our rights to security,” he told journalists after the group’s meeting in Zaria.
In addition, some Nigerians have also called for major restructuring of the security architecture of the country and the removal of the Service Chiefs. They also called for coordination between the various
arms of the military in their battle against insurgency as well as the deployment of new formations to take over from the current formation fighting the insurgents in the Northeast.
But in their usual defence of government’s position on any issue, the Special Adviser to President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, described the statements by the Northern Elders Forum as comments from a quasi-organization that boasts of no credible membership, and its leader is akin to a general without troops.
Adesina said in a recent statement that “hearing that title, northern elders forum, you would think the body was a conglomeration of true elders. But the truth is that NEF is just Ango Abdullahi, and Ango Abdullahi is NEF.
He noted that before the 2019 presidential election, the ‘one-man army’ called NEF had shown its antipathy against President Muhammadu Buhari, and its preference for another candidate, yet they all got beaten.
According to Adesina, the Northern Elders Forum is merely waving a flag that is at half-mast and that President Buhari steadily and steadfastly focuses on the task of retooling Nigeria.
In his own defence, Adesina’s colleague, Garba Shehu said that President Buhari was the best man to destroy the Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast and bring an end to their carnage in Nigeria.
“President Buhari is going to finish off these terrorists. He alone can do it,” Shehu assured in a statement he issued earlier in January.
Reacting to the call by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe asking President Buhari to resign for ‘failing to secure the nation’, Shehu said that “if a leader like President Buhari needs to resign, there are millions of other Nigerians who need to resign, including the lawmaker”.
He accused Abaribe of unlocking the door to enable the escape of traitorous and treasonable suspects.
Shehu further claimed that Abaribe’s party ‘raped’ the nation and left it collapsing in 2015, adding that President Buhari has been fixing things up since he came into office.
He noted that the President is working hard to keep Nigeria and Nigerians out of the harm terrorists have unleashed in the entire Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa and assured that the reign of terror will soon come to an end with the support of Nigerians and her foreign friends.
Speaking on the issue of insecurity, with particular reference to the role of Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, called for support for the gallant men and women, “who are making all the necessary sacrifices to keep us safe”.
The minister told journalists in Abuja at a news conference late in February that Boko Haram and the ISWAP “have recently changed their strategy, in the wake of their ceaseless pounding by the military”. At its peak, Boko Haram, in particular, was a fighting force, conquering and keeping territory, installing and deposing Emirs and also collecting taxes. It had the capability to take the battle to many states, mostly in the north, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, where it bombed the police headquarters, the UN Complex, shopping complex and motor parks.
According to the minister, soon after assuming office on May 29, 2015, Buhari directed the Command and Control centre to relocate from Abuja to Maiduguri and rallied the support of our neighours as well as the international community. This yielded immediate results as Boko Haram was not only decimated, but all the territory under its control was recovered. The insurgents also lost the capability to carry out the kind of spectacular attacks they were used to, and then resorted to attacking soft targets, including churches and mosques as well as schools.
“But in the wake of a renewed onslaught by our tireless military against Boko Haram and their ISWAP allies in recent times, the insurgents have apparently changed their strategy: They have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason, which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos. Apparently, they have realized how emotive and divisive religion can be, when exploited by unscrupulous persons,” he said.
The minister also said that the renewed vigour by the military in the war against the insurgents was paying off handsomely, especially, the killing of top ISWAP leaders at two separate meeting venues at Marte Local Government in Borno State a few days ago
As laudable as some of these military successes may appear to be, Nigerians are consistent in their demands for the actual defeat of the insurgents, release of the Nigerians in their captivity, including the schoolgirls and the restoration of enduring peace and security in the country.