Whenever the number of years this nation has been fighting insurgency and other related criminalities is mentioned, anybody who has lived in Nigeria for the entire period must be counted as very lucky. It is in fact more like a miracle for whoever believes in such. Whichever way it is considered, that one has not been consumed is a wonder. I will call it grace because that is what must have seen us through as a people in the nearly two decades of relentless attacks by these criminals.
They have been branded variously depending on their modus operandi: ISIS, ISWAT, Kidnappers, abductors, bandits etc etc, however the common denominator remains that they are human beings.
They may dress incognito, but whatever they wear is made of cloth, they go on motorcycles, vehicles, collect and spend money, make purchases, and so many other things they do just like the rest of us.
With all the aforementioned activities which define these homo sapiens like this writer, and you the reader, their dastardly activities across the nation stand them out as undesirable therefore condemnable.
When the number of changes effected in the security architecture of the country from the first series of attacks on communities and various organisations including security formations are put into consideration, it remains an embarrassment to the giant of Africa as Nigeria is referred to, even now that she might have been stripped of its giant status.
Right through the two or three administrations, top security chiefs prematurely sent away in successive changes in personnel, not much applaudable in terms of performance.
There was a period when the government kept the citizens hopeful and happy by assuring that the rag tag army had been degraded. The word degraded then became the mantra from the spokespersons of government. However no sooner were the people regaled with victory song that the terrorists would return, this time to inflict even more devastating attacks on communities in times that portrayed them as demented characters.
They raided towns and villages in the dead of the night, at funeral programmes, wedding ceremonies, schools and even hospitals where helpless patients are hoped for medical care.
At such times government would issue statements condemning the acts, bragging that the criminals would be chased and face the music, but alas they rather danced to music in celebrating their defeat of government defence architecture.
There is never a doubt that things are not as vulnerable as at the initial stages, but we are still far from Uhuru! The efforts and demonstrable successes of the military can neither be underplayed nor discounted but there remains the big elephant in the room. The public space is inundated by stories and theories, both of compromises and conspiracies. How the otherwise bloody situation has turned a cashcow for top military officers, many political lords, foreign and indigenous collaborators continues to shock many citizens, while majority still wait for the federal government to name and shame these heartless individuals who hold the nation and its people by the jugular.
Not even the well publicised list of perpetrators volunteered by another country has yielded much from the government in terms of investigating such accused and subsequent making them face the consequences of being the cause of the nation’s most challenging hurdle to peace, and development concomitant to the resources available to the nation.
To further compound the already intractable security challenges is the attraction to foreigners to the abundant mineral resources with which the country is endowed. These foreign interests pose more as marauders, aided by local landowners than genuine investors who have come to engage in legitimate enterprise.
Is it not possible for government to provide the appropriate leadership to rally the people together to join hands with the security forces to bring an end to the ceaseless killings and wanton destruction of entire communities?
The frenzy that the preparations and contestation for political opportunities, more like that, than to serve the people, have overwhelmed the entire nation presently that the jingles and jarring noises of elections will push the all important of the security of life and property to a distant irrelevance.
