Insecurity: Nigeria on keg of gunpowder as terrorists, militants, bandits hold the nation to ransome

Insecurity: Nigeria on keg of gunpowder as terrorists, militants, Bandits hold the nation to ransome

By Moses Tom

The worsening security lapses in Nigeria have threatened the very foundation of the country as she heads toward a total collapse.

From the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast to the banditry and kidnapping in the North-West. Or from the breakaway threats from the IPOB in the South East to the threats by Niger Delta militants to resume hostility and the challenge posed by Fulani herdsmen, one thing appears certain: Nigeria is on a keg of gunpowder, waiting to explode.

The current security situation in Nigeria did not come to the President as a surprise. In his inaugural address, President Buhari admitted that:

“Boko Haram is not only the security issue bedeviling our country. The spate of kidnappings, armed robberies/herdsmen clashes, cattle rustlings all help to add to the general air of insecurity in our land.”

But the rate security situations keep deteriorating during Buhar’s administration are alarming. Now farmers-herders conflicts and banditry in states like Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Ekiti, and others have assumed ‘criminal’ status.

It is estimated that between 2015 and January 2020, more than 47, 000 people have died in Boko Haram insurgency and banditry, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a Washington D.C, reports.

But killings by the insurgents have assumed more dangerous proportion than any security threat.

Research by BBC Monitoring claimed that at least 967 people were killed by Boko Haram attacks in 2017, while 910 deaths were recorded in the previous year (2016). In its 2019 report, Amnesty International reported that Boko Haram carried out 31 attacks that resulted in at least 378 civilian deaths.

Just this week, some bandits claimed that:

“There is no day that someone is not killed between Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna, Sokoto and Katsina. There is no tribe that is spared, gunmen kill, soldiers kill, vigilantes kill. Whoever you see with a gun today in Nigeria, he uses it to kill people. You may not know but if I were to tell you the situation of things in this country, you will cry. Even the president will cry.”

Spate of abduction of school children

The abduction of 317 school girls in the state of Zamfara on Friday, 26th February, 2021, is a further indication that it is no longer safe to school Nigeria particuarly in the North-West Region of the country.

The kidnapping occured few hours after 42 people, including 27 students, abducted from a boarding school in Kagara, Niger State, in a similar incident last week, were freed after about 10 days in captivity.

One boy was reportedly killed as armed gang stormed the school when the pupils were asleep.

Friday’s attack happened at midnight when a group of gunmen arrived at the Government Girls Secondary School in Jangebe,  in what looks like a re-enactment of the abduction of 276 school girls from Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, on the night of 14-15 April 2014 by Boko Haram.

On February 19, 2018, 110 schoolgirls between the ages of 11 and 19 years old were abducteded by Boko Haram insurgents from Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi.

But more worrisome is the growing threats by these dangerous groups, including the regrouped Niger Delta Agitators, to do the worst and observers said none of them should be taken lightly.

Bandits Blast Buhari

Militants threaten to resume hostility: