Nigeria Times

By Adamu Balarabe

I was jolted with the news that the honourable minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development is involved in an infraction in the North East Development Commission, an agency under her ministry. From the onset, I dismissed the report as arrant nonsense and a joke.

I took my time to scrutinize the allegations. I found out that there were not only spurious but a figment of the imagination of the group. As a start, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq is a very proud woman that protects her name and her heritage religiously. As a reporter that has covered some of the ministries interventions, I dare say that once you are noticed not to be professional in your assignment, there is always a reprimand from her.

I know that she took particular interest in us that are female reporters covering her ministry. On numerous occasions, she has lectured us on the need to be upright and focused on our various assignments. Her passion for the job is infectious and a source of inspiration to some of us that she has continued to mentor.

I won’t mince words. The report alleging that the minister is involved in an anomaly in the NEDC is balderdash. Maybe the group that made the allegations are referring to someone else and not the Honorable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. I dare say they didn’t think through their strategy before coming out in public.

As a first, the honourable minister would not entertain any form of favouritism in the discharge of her duties. Her belief in meritocracy is such that I have never seen before. I recall during a media parley; she stated that the task of providing succour to the vulnerable people in the society is a task from God and anyone, so privilege to carry out such task must realize that anything short of that would incur the wrath of God.

She stated that she knows that some people would not be comfortable with some of her actions and inactions, but her ultimate goal is peace of mind, blessings from God and protecting the trust reposed in her by President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the less privileged and the vulnerable group indeed benefits from the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Back to the allegations, it is indeed preposterous to link the minister to any form of fraudulent activities in the North East Development Commission. I also wondered if it’s the same North-East Development Commission that she is passionate about. I know for a fact that of all the agencies under the supervision of the ministry, the North East Development Commission is the most monitored by the ministry to ensure that it fulfils its mandate of the rapid reconstruction of the war-ravaged communities in North-East Nigeria.
This is nothing but a feeble attempt to tarnish her image and hard-earned reputation for daring to take the bulls by the horns to ensure that nothing short of accountability is implemented in the operations of the commission. It is my considered opinion that the sponsors of the story were in haste to give her a bad name and consequently missed the plot. I say this because the various allegations were contradictory. In one sentence it stated that the “Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq, in collaboration with the MD of the NEDC, illegally took about N5bn recently to purchase vehicles for the military against its scope of operation and board’s approval.”

I wondered if that was ever possible under a system that has multiple layers of check and balances. I also wondered if the group and their promoters are conversant with the mandate of the NEDC as well as its operations. If indeed they did their homework well, they would have realized that indeed they would be chasing shadows to make such reckless allegations in the public space.

This is most despicable and an affront to our sensibilities as a people. It is also most uncharitable to the people of North East whose lives are gradually returning to normal due to the tireless efforts of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development via the North East Development Commission.

I recall that on numerous occasions, reporters covering the ministry have embarked on a fact-finding mission to North-East Nigeria to run an independent assessment of the various interventions of the North East Development Commission. The minister I also recall has enlisted our support to be as objective as possible in our evaluation. She stated that the assessments would give her another perspective on the operations of the NEDC other than what her subordinates submit to her office periodically.

That alone was ingenious, and I can state for free that the minister is not the meddlesome type. She gives you a task and respects your judgment. This much we gathered from the ministry and the agencies under her supervision. I recall a director general of one of the agencies telling us that Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq is not one you would attempt to be clever by half with. You must be thorough and ensure that your books are clean before it gets to her. And if she notices any form of discrepancies, there is always a penalty because her stance has always been that of service to humanity and nothing more.

Yet this is the woman that a shadowy group wants members of the public to believe would condescend to encouraging and form of an anomaly in the sensitive North-East Development Commission. I am sure the promoters of the group are not aware that the plight of the displaced people in North-East Nigeria occupies a strategic place in her heart. As a matter of fact, from all the interactions we have had with her, it was evident that the task of rebuilding North-East Nigeria remains a top priority for her. In some quarters she is often referred to as Madam North East because of her commitment and passion for seeing that normalcy returns to the region. But again, ignorance is not an excuse as issues must be put in proper perspectives before the generality of Nigerians.

This is also part of a smear campaign against the indefatigable Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq. Make no mistakes; I am not saying of all these because I am of the same gender. But my postulations are first-hand experiences and one conversant with her strength of character and disposition to her job. This is not your everyday politician occupying government office.

The promoters of the plot to tarnish the image of the minister should rethink their strategy as this also is dead on arrival as others. Needless, I add that this is part of the price to pay in a country like ours when you stand on the side of truth and dispense invaluable services. Those that have benefited from the rot in the system would always go overboard to tarnish the image of those that have refused to play ball with them in their dishonourable acts.

Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq has been a tough shell to crack. For this, they have continued to throw all manners of shades at her to weaken her resolve to stand for the people and the peace and progress of the country. This is the stark reality before us. So long the Pull Down syndrome continues in this country, sustainable growth and development would continue to elude us.

Ordinarily, I should not have bothered penning this article. But again, we owe this country a great sense of patriotism to ensure that those that are passionate about the translation of our hopes and aspirations into tangible realities are not intimidated by a group of demonic and self-serving individuals and organizations that have contributed to the rot in the system. Nigeria belongs to us and not one.

Balarabe is an anti-corruption crusader and wrote this piece from Yola.

By Philip Agbese

Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council for Foreign Relations and former Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, prides himself as the expert on Nigeria to the extent that he now leads the posse of the discontented. He is on a mission to finish what he could not achieve during his duty tours of Nigeria, assignments on which he woefully failed whether assessed from the perspective of his overt employer – the United States, covert employer – the discredited Council for Foreign Relations, and even his Nigerian opposition paymasters. Campbell will be adjudged an even worse failure should he be assessed without making allowance for the compromises caused by the aforementioned affiliations.

Wikipedia has it that “The main functions of diplomats are: representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending State; initiation and facilitation of strategic agreements; treaties and conventions; promotion of information; trade and commerce; technology; and friendly relations.” But who dares apply this to Campbell ambassadorial tenure in Nigeria from 2004 to 2007? In those few numbers of years he did the exact opposite of the expectations one should have of diplomats.

With the benefit of hindsight, one can now appreciate that while seemingly facilitating relations between Nigeria and the United States, Campbell was apparently running a sideshow for his then covert employer, the Council for Foreign Relations, which many may not know to be a death machine one that is committed to world domination, not by the United States of America as many will think but by a cabal of sociopaths who immorally treat war as a business as opposed to recognizing the human misery that comes with any instance of strife.

The sideshow that Campbell possibly ran for the Council for Foreign Relations has blossomed, fruited, shed fruits and the windfall from this tree of strife are now germinating, growing saplings that threaten to form a forest of chaos in northern Nigeria unless citizens wake up enlightened to the point of rooting out the saplings being watered by human blood and taking an axe to the tree of strife and getting rid of it for good while ensuring that Campbell and his bloodlust is kept out of Nigeria and Nigeria’s affairs and his overlords with him.

Boko Haram’s first major attacks may be the 2011 spate of bombings in Abuja, the killer group’s initial justification for its violence may be the 2009 death in detention of its leader Yusuf Mohammed, but the actual ground work for its ascendancy was done by Campbell, who spent his stay in the country between 2004-2007 to have close contact, enough to build the network that unfurled to become the world’s most murderous group. It appears that while he was busy prepping Boko Haram to kill Nigerians on an industrial scale, he also connected with other Council for Foreign Relations assets to precipitate similar destabilization in the Middle East and North Africa.

The same period was used to scout for and identify characters who are irredeemably peeved with the country of their birth that they somehow found the shortcut of being the opposition irrespective of who or what political party is in office. This Campbell’s alliance of the disgruntled became the pool from which he is able to constantly recruit detractors that are always ready to criticize government’s efforts at resolving the mess he helped midwifed on behalf of the Council for Foreign Relations. To compound the woes of the country, these disgruntled posse has recruited a new generation, keyboard warriors that hide behind the unanimity of social media, which detaches them from the reality of war and its attendant human suffering, to heap praises on imps like Campbell while bad mouthing the efforts of patriots that lay their lives on the line to clean up the mess created by Godless people like him.

It was on this bases that Campbell pushed around the lie that Nigeria will disintegrate in 2015. He might have made the right moves on his imaginary chessboard – a virulent terror group, an angry opposition, a cohort of national saboteurs operating as activists and leadership that has been compromised to order. But he did not reckon that a President Muhammadu Buhari will emerge neither did he figure that he will appoint military chiefs that will alter the equation he thought he had diligently pored over. With this unexpected turn of events, the 2015 disintegration prediction fades into oblivion with each passing year such that a person that is truly mentally competent would own up to his employers – Council for Foreign Relations – that this is a bad call and that it is time to allow Nigeria enjoy its peace.

Sadly, Campbell has difficulty accepting that he has hit the end of the road in Nigeria and that his mission to the country has ended, in disgrace. He continues to abuse the ubiquity afforded by technology and the internet in a bid to expand the problems he created for Nigeria. The practicality of virtual gatherings promoted as part of the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has become for this bloodsucker the new tool to congregate his misguided followers and associate towards stoking fear and blowing the crisis he created out of proportion. For him, the things that have been developed to make human life better must be perverted to manipulate the unwary into becoming recruits for his fledging desperation to create “a new world order” in which targeted countries are turned into wastelands.

A so called town hall meeting to be held virtually, with the sickening tag ‘Insecurity: “State of the State”’ is the latest abuse of online meeting that a desperate Campbell wants to use to exhort his Nigerian assets while seeking out new recruits in the failed mission of making Nigeria a failed state. He is of course being cheered on by an equally discredited news portal, Sahara Reporters, which discerning minds have rechristened “Sahara Disaster”. Other rabble rousers, like the commercial activist, Aisha Yesufu and the country representative of the disruptive Amnesty International are expected on the panel. This further exposed it as nothing but a circuit that is intended to make peace loving Nigerians feel bad about their country.

It may appear on the surface, as depicted in the e-fliers for the sick show, that John Campbell is a mere guest invited to appear on the show. The reality however is that the organizers are his recruits, selected for their misplaced commitment to sabotage their own country for whatever indoctrination that Campbell has filled their heads with. He has had the benefit of grooming them over the years – paid terrorists that are usually compensated with travel honoraria to attend brainwashing sessions tagged as international conferences, scholarships to take part in radicalization programmes and grants that are in reality financing to undertake activities aimed at undermining Nigeria. So, having been so programmed and mobilized over the years who else will these hapless organizers chose if not Campbell, who has from day one set up things to play out according to his script.

Like the Buhari presidency popped up as a variable that that Campbell never anticipated, another variable that will do him in is time. Even when the present crop of leaders is done safeguarding the interest of the country from carrion eaters like Campbell, the successor generations will build on the legacy of today such that the former US Ambassador to Nigeria will never have his wish of seeing Nigeria destroyed. Whether it is senility that takes him or the inevitable death, the last memories John Campbell will have of Nigeria is that of the country where he failed, failed and wasted his entire lifetime.

Agbese is a human rights activist and publisher based in the UK.

By Nkechi Odoma

Within a week, the dark clouds which hovered on Northwest region as a result of the activities of armed bandits and their conspiratorial criminal gangs started vanishing. It is a reflection of the instant actions Nigerian Army, led by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and overseer of the counter-insurgency operations, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai.

The COAS has always played the messianic role for Nigerians under threats of extermination. In the latest instance, Gen. Buratai responded to the Presidential order directing an immediate termination, in whichever way possible, all acts of criminalities disrupting the peace and security of the area and Nigeria.

And as identifiable with Gen. Buratai’s heroism, armed bandits and other linked criminal gangs in the Northwest are now bleeding regrettably from the fresh military firepower confronting them in forests and caves of the region. The numero uno soldier in Nigeria has docked his warmongering troops in the zone. Both natives and residents know, the Army is the only saving grace in the present circumstance.

The yelling of voices of liberation in all dictions are reverberating again and again in the zone. Even the sick, the crippled and all those emotionally or psychologically weakened by months of aggressions on their souls have suddenly garnered strength and loud chants of liberation have proclaimed heavenly bliss.

Women, children, the aged and everyone regales with the news. Natives, farmers, traders, businessmen and genuine leaders are excited that a indeed, the long-awaited redeemer and unsung master of insurgencies and insurrections in Nigeria, Gen. Buratai has responded to their lamentations. The season of agonies and sorrows instigated by wantonly massive extermination of lives, destruction of properties, hostage-taking of beloved ones and other inhuman acts, which punched the serenity of their ancestral abodes is all over.

The only persons reliably regretting the presence and shadows of Gen. Buratai and the troops of Nigeria Army in the Northwest are the armed bandits; their financiers, informants, logistics suppliers, leaders with soiled hands and the romanticists of the bandits. They are scared to the marrow. But innocent and law-abiding citizens in the tormented region are singing liberation lullabies, in loud echoes that Gen. Buratai, the disguised emancipation angel has finally arrived the endangered terrain. With troops already operating, the coast is getting clearer from the engulfed darkness with each passing day.

But before now, the wailings agonizingly sparked public protests in the North and assailed empathetic faces gloomily, across the nation. The tears on the faces of enslaved people are dissipating fast because Gen. Buratai , the protective angel God has donated to Nigeria’s counter-insurgency operations in disguise has moored the area against criminals or killers. But some Nigerians are still in slumber and so, have failed to recognize his numerous heroic deeds, mindless of the risks to his life and that of gallant soldiers for the sake of his beloved compatriots.

Nevertheless, in the Northwest like elsewhere, Gen. Buratai is not in a strange terrain. He is neither a dunce on the field of battle or war strategies and tactics. Armed bandits, sponsors and enablers are already groaning under first week of his application of Super Camp Strategy IV. He has a bagful of them.

And certainly, the enemies of Nigeria who have escaped his initial dangling sword to take shield in in distant lands are troubled. By now, they would be subjected to eating uncooked rodents and reptiles or wild animals wherever their fate has dumped them in the obscurest dingy forests of the Northwest and its extension into in Niger state, near Abuja in North Central Nigeria. But they will be fished out eventually.

Gen. Buratai, the humane, indomitable soldier, a warmonger of rare courage and dexterous leader, who leads the counter-insurgency operations knows, the lives of Nigerians in the way of harm by threats of enemies are topmost than his own personal life and the lives or troops. Therefore, he constantly delves into the frontlines and trenches to fight alongside troops against enemies to protect Nigerians.

Buratai is uncompromising about the counter-insurgency operations or knocking the ganged criminals to shape and teaching latter-day repentant of the sect how to become responsible citizens to their families, communities and Nigeria. Had Boko Haram any slightest opening to kill Buratai in cold blood on the warfront, they would have done it long ago. And that’s why many Nigerians classify him variously as a heroic hero.

And even when you relapse to his former endearing epaulets, the people referred to him as “The Peoples General,” “The Peoples Hero,” or and, the “Generalissimo General,” aligned with the famed warriors of the ancient Benin Kingdom in the colonial wars of resistance and conquests in Nigeria.

But Gen. Buratai has trudged this path a long way and still tireless. He has come enduringly on the turf of battle. Only those in their comfort zones, who have never felt the pinch of terror in their lives take Gen. Buratai for a mincemeat derisively. However, those who encounter his heroic acts knows and bows before him anytime he is sighted on the battlefield. So, his exploits are relieving to the rescuers in more nuances than imagined by outsiders, far ostracized from the pangs of war.

Excitingly, Gen. Buratai has faced the fire of insurgencies and sustained it over the last five years. More beguiling about his heroism, Gen. Buratai deflected the fires of insurgents who ambushed his person and convoy. It was in August 2015, barely two months after he assumed office as COAS. Boko Haram insurgents tested Gen. Buratai’s might around Mafa village in Northeastern Borno, while on tour of troops locations.

Impressively, instead of bidding an effeminate retreat from the ambush and hastening back to Maiduguri, under the protective cover of troops, Gen. Buratai demonstrated his valour and bravery by personally leading troops to clear the ambush. And in the ensuing clash with the terrorists, at least five terrorists were neutralized.

In a media interview years later, Gen. Buratai recounted that “I was with them and my convoy was ambushed by Boko Haram. Instead of withdrawing back to Maiduguri, I said, ‘No! We are in this together, I can’t go back. We must all go together to clear the ambush.”

Recounting this experience further, Gen. Buratai stated that, “So I advanced with them and that was how we cleared the ambush. If the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) does not turn back, who would turn and run from such an ambush? I advanced with the troops and it paid off.”

It was his close shave with death in the hands of insurgents. Boko Haram insurgents would have sniffed life out of him in the ambush. But Gen. Buratai was not scared by this possibility as he went after the insurgents.

Additionally, Nigerians can establish the extent Niger Delta militancy in the South-South region caused nightmares to foreign oil workers and the locals. Constant blowing-up of oil installations and facilities as well as kidnaps by militants dislocated the social and economic lives of the people. It imposed fear, uncertainty and gloom on the lives of Niger Deltans, exacerbated by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) which plotted to declare a republic of the Niger Delta. But Gen. Buratai heroically led troops to blight the armed violence and restiveness in the region.

Similarly, the Southeast region came under the satanic grip of secession agitators, from the outlawed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kanu. It was an assemblage of miscreants, hoodlums, and other criminals who adopted IPOB as a platform to terrorize the Southeast region and destabilize Nigeria. They committed heinous crimes, including extra-judicial killings through slitting of the throats of their victims and dumping their corpses in the river. They were dreaded by other security agents, which the sect also murdered in cold blood frequently.

Like the Niger Delta Avengers, IPOB also fixed a date to illegally declare a republic of Biafra; intimidated, harassed and coerced people in almost all parts of the region to compulsorily associate with them or risk death. Again, it was Gen. Buratai who placed a wedge on the progression of this aberration and restored peace and security to law abiding and innocent citizens of the South eastern part of Nigeria.

The Northeast region became a dreaded warfront since Boko Haram terrorists established its stronghold in the area. While not spiting any officer, but truth be told that Gen. Buratai’s predecessors feared even mere tour of troops deployed to the region to battle insurgents. They remained in the confines of their offices in Abuja and churned out directives. But Buratai broke the jinx by making the warzone his permanent residential abode.

The Army Chief had on a number of occasions laced his boots and joined troops in the trenches to battle terrorists to a standstill. He personally led the operation of the invasion and demystification of the dreaded Sambisa forest in 2016 by Nigerian troops. It was a success by very measure.

As mark of his heroic exploits, Gen. Buratai has again, currently relocated to the Northeast battlefield, coordinating and directing troops clearance operations in the region to finally rout out residues of Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists. Rewardingly, hundreds of terrorists have been neutralized within the few weeks he is in the frontlines directing the counter-insurgency operations.

Flowing from his courageous and heroic exploits, Gen. Buratai is for the umpteenth time leading troops to quench the fire of armed bandits, cattle rustlers and other criminals in the Northwest region with the staging of “Operation Sahel Sanity.” The intervention of the Army within a week has witnessed the neutralization of over 100 bandits, release of scores of kidnapped victims, and arrests of several accomplices to the acts of criminalities, troubling the region.

Those arrested include, bandits’ informants, logistics suppliers and, those who shield or shelter armed bandits. A large quantum of arms and ammunitions have also been seized at various locations from bandits. It is an indication that at last, hope of exculpation from bandits is extremely high and succor has finally come for entrapped people in the Northwest. #

Odoma wrote this piece from Abuja.

By Ibrahim Gwandu

To make good the order of President Muhammadu Buhari to Security Chiefs to redouble their efforts to rid the Northwest region of armed banditry and all forms of criminalities terrorizing rural communities, the Nigerian Army has launched the “Operation Sahel Sanity” (OSS). It was launched end of June 2020 in Faskari, Katsina State and, the success of the military operations in a very short while narrates itself evidently.

While launching “Operation Sahel Sanity,” (OSS), the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and punch man of the counter-insurgency operations, Lt. Gen. TY Buratai explained the gamut of the current operations to concentrate heavily in the states of Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kaduna and Niger, with intertwined thick forests. These forests provide shield and shelter to the armed bandits, who stage out recurrently to raid markets, communities, and in the rage, massively kill, kidnap, commit acts of arson and rustle cows.

The pandemic of armed banditry and cattle rustling in the Northwest undisguisedly is a problem which preceded the administration of President Buhari. In 2015, the President in due adherence to his oath of office to protect the lives and property of Nigerians, ordered the Nigerian Army to conduct special military operations in these areas to purge the communities of armed bandits and other criminal elements.

Gen. Buratai responded instantaneously by launching the “Operation Sharan Daji,” “Operation MESA,” among others at different times. These special military operations by the Army, cleansed the communities of bandits, allied criminals, restored sanity and security besieged people. What is happening today in the Northwest region is a resurgence of the same experience, encountered by the people prior to 2015, but were liberated in the post-2015 era.

Its worthy of mention that in the last five years, the Nigerian Army has proved its mettle as equal to the task of neutralizing armed bandits and other criminals in the region. And this task has been seamlessly possible because President Buhari has fulfilled his side of the bargain by motivating the Army and providing the necessary weapons for these security combats. Gen. Buratai also properly decoded his Commander-In-Chief’s message and appropriately delivered on the assignment timely.

But it is quite sad and very disturbing that bandits and other criminal gangs have kept resurfacing in the Northwest to disrupt the peace and security of communities and villages in the region. However, a massage the resentful development has passed to active minds is that some critical stakeholders in the afflicted places are failing to play their roles to permanently end banditry and associated criminalities.

It is discernible that some persons have clearly, shirked, bolstered, overlooked or abandoned their responsibilities as leaders or opinion moulders or influencers over the menace of armed banditry. It is dreamy and absolutely thoughtless for anyone to think military reconnaissance and raids alone will impose an enduring panacea to the scourge of armed banditry and cattle rustling or associated vices in the region.

Gen. Buratai and soldiers alone cannot ensure the permanence of peace and security in the Northwest. It is beyond the sounds of guns and the matching sounds of boots. And this has to be discerned from different dimensions for obvious reasons.

First, in spite of all pretensions, but there is no Nigerian, including people of the Northwest who is unaware that ardent and unrepentant opponents of the President Buhari and enemies of Nigeria have activated their acts again. They are propelled by envy, so schemes and works veiled shadows every day to blur the laudable achievements the Buhari administration is showcasing in varied sectors of the country.

These fifth columnists and enemies of Nigeria hate to hear President Buhari has earned credit and accolades in sectors previous leaders failed to deposit a lasting impression. It inspires anger in them.

Therefore, part of their evil machinations is the sponsorship of terrorism, ethno-religious crisis, communal clashes, pastoralists and farmers conflagrations and other violent conflicts to destabilize the nation and discredit the government. The spate of resurgent armed banditry and cattle rustling troubling the Northwest now is part of the contrivances of these evil doers. Nigerians must wake-up to this incontestable reality and truth.

Unfortunately, the painful truth is that the enemies of Nigeria; the evil doers and satanic forces have found dependable allies in the communities under the affliction of terrorism or armed banditry or wherever these acts of violence are perpetrated. The internal allies assist them in the execution of this evil against their own people. This may sound forlorn to some minds, but it is the effervescent reality. In the long run, both the guilty and the innocent suffer the same plaque of terror.

Imagine to understand that two years back, security agents apprehended a traditional ruler in one of the Northwestern states, who shamefully served as informants to bandits and cattle rustlers terrorizing the community he presides over as their king. There is nothing more astounding than this reality. And there are many of such people in communities and villages under siege of armed bandits in the Northwest or terrorists in the Northeast. It is one of the many mysteries or wonders in Nigeria. Who can beat this?

Sometime this year, Gen. Buratai drummed a point, which sounded simple, but very weighty and instructive concerning the insecurities assailing Nigeria. While speaking in Lagos at the 2020 Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Security Meets Business Dialogue, the Army Chief declared and asked rhetorically that “We are fighting the mind. So, can the Military fight the mind of the people? This is not the job of the Military.”

This is a hard truth, which can only be reversed by the people through concerted actions to fight a common evil against them. There is the nagging and subsisting problem of demonic indoctrination and psychological brainwash of youths into imbibing proclivities or acts of violence, armed banditry and terrorism to levels of masochism. Their minds are colonized and galvanized towards evil and a pull back is only possible when leaders step up the game of their counselling, which is now completely abandoned to the dictates of force of the Military.

Military actions alone are not enough to end this menace. It goes beyond it. This is where inevitably, Nigerians particularly leaders of thought, traditional rulers, political leaders, religious leaders and the local communities must also scale-up the game of collaboration with the Nigerian Army to end the reign of armed banditry in the Northwest or terror elsewhere in the country.

Each of the special operations launched by the Army in the past to contain the fury of armed banditry and other criminalities in the Northwest or elsewhere has been resoundingly successful. But how long does the respite lasts before the same insecurity threats buds again and explodes in greater dimensions? The Army cannot be in these communities permanently and once they pullout, the same criminals resurface after a while. So, who is failing to fulfil his part of the bargain? The leaders of different shades in these communities have a moral obligation to do the needful.

And because these community leaders have abdicated on their basic responsibilities to their people; it has placed numerous hurdles on the path of the Nigerian Army in securing total and sustained victory against bandits, as in the case of the Northwest. Why do some leaders horde information about the presence of bandits, shield, shelter and protect them in these localities, from the eagle eyes of security agents?

Generally, Northern leaders regardless of political or religious affinities must wake-up to the reality now. In a federation under democracy like Nigeria, numerical strength is an important and potent tool of political bargain. It is senseless for these leaders to keep allowing the sustained depopulation of their communities and villages through acts of banditry and terrorism.

The time to team up with the Army to extricate them from these insecurities is now. In the current operations, the Army requires the support of the communities for sharing of vital information on activities of bandits; exposure of those who shield, protect, shelter and support the atrocities of bandits and cattle rulers. If Nigeria must win the war against banditry, it implies that these artificial obstacles community members have infused into the military operations should be cleared.

Gen. Buratai and soldiers have done a lot. And now in Northwest again, with “Operation Sahel Sanity,” troops as usual will coercively berth the peace, with the adoption of Super Camp Concept IV. It is good news that within a week of the Army’s “Operation Sahel Sanity,” in the Northwest, the success it has recorded is attested in neutralization of over 100 armed bandits, rescue of several kidnap victims, recovery of arms and ammunitions, in addition to recovery of l700 herds of rustled cattle and similar number of sheep. Also, the Army has arrested scores of bandits’ informants and logistics suppliers.

The performance tracking of the Army on this assignment has excited the Arewa Youth Security Network (AYSN) which has publicly eulogized Gen. Buratai and the soldiers, as they branded it an outstanding success. The leader of the counter-insurgency operations does not disappoint. This is highly commendable.

And soon, the Army will deliver the Northwest, cleansed of armed bandits and sanitized to normalcy, back to its owners. They have a choice either to preserve this security sanity or abuse it. But let it be known that President Buhari has played his part by ordering the Army for special operations and the, troops have done the needful by neutralizing these armed bandits. The community leaders now have the inescapable burden of sustaining it. #

Gwandu is a peace-building facilitator based in Gusau.

By Enemali Ajibili

The wave of renewed rural armed banditry, cattle rustling and inter-connected crimes, which is the bane of security in Nigeria’s Northwest zone has spurred fresh concerns to inhabitants of this geographical zone. It is not only the people directly at the receiving end of these organized crimes by armed criminals that are worried, but every Nigerian is having sleepless nights over this unacceptable development.

At the beginning of the present political dispensation, some State Chief Executives in the Northwest region, like the Zamfara state Governor, Alhaji Bello Mohammad Matawalle and his Katsina state counterpart, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari and so forth, played their hands on the option of peace talks with the bandits and their representatives.

Interestingly, other leaders and stakeholders were involved in the dialogue to find lasting solutions to the horrendous acts of armed bandits and their collaborators. Armed banditry in the region generally started in Zamfara, like Borno state also bears the infamous badge of importing Boko Haram terrorism into Nigeria

Initially, the criminals agreed to armistice or a ceasefire; pledging to allow peace reign. Precisely, Zamfara’s Gov. Matawalle was widely hailed and celebrated beyond the shores of the Northwest, and nationwide for achieving peace and security in the troubled state within his first 100 days in office. He recorded this feat in just 57 days of his administration.

Good and relieving as it sounded, the consensus reached with armed bandits soon ran into muddy waters. And the signs came plainly pointing to the sponsors and veiled actors. And what followed needed no interpretation of a soothsayer to understand.

The incumbent Governor Matawalle had disagreements on political and governance issues in the state with his predecessor, Alhaji Abdullaziz Yari. The face-off between the duo simmered explosively and dramatically saw the revival and return of bandits, who had downed weapons. It marked the end of the peace pact with bandits.

The experience of Zamfara is similar to virtually all the states where armed banditry has become a torn in the flesh in the Northwest. And bad blood stimulated by politics of leadership, control of state resources and the battle of supremacy among stakeholders and leaders in these states have fertilized, greased and nourished armed banditry.

Of course, there could be other factors favourable to the bludgeoning of banditry in the region, but the refusal of these criminal acts to abate despite several seemingly fortified interventions voices a failure somewhere within. Therefore, the Northwest region has continued to be assailed, burdened and caged by these criminal armed gangs. And in a region with a predominantly forested terrain smooth for their operations, rural dwellers have been subjected to avoidable pains, sorrows and hardships for the heartlessness and insensitivity of others.

But those worst hit by the atrocities of bandits are innocent citizens and, so, it has elicited the concern of Nigeria, and Nigerians. The world is concerned and humanity is upset by it. It is confounding that some Nigerians have pleasured in sowing a different version of Boko Haram insurgency in Northwest. It is more painful that those responsible for arresting these acts of criminality at the embryonic stage have preferred to be onlookers, promoters and sponsors of the death sentence on their people.

It is one of the costly mistakes Nigerians made by failing to descend the sledge hammer on Boko Haram at its infantile stage, until it developed a thick skin. In the Northwest too, there is a conscious imitation of the indifference and lacunas which created conducive atmosphere for the consolidation and thriving of Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast region.

Many can still remember that leaders of different shades under the auspices of Borno Elders Forum (BEF), where Boko Haram sprouted were indifferent to the brewing and potentially explosive and dangerous insurgency in their enclaves. But unconscionably, they rushed to assemble, deliberate and issue a public statement, stating their position and condemnation of the administration of President Buhari for clampdown on the extremists religious sect, the Sheik Ibraheem El-Zakzaky’s led aberrant and illegal Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), otherwise known as the Shiites in Nigeria.

To date, BEF has remained aloof to the Boko Haram insurgency, which has entrenched itself and hijacked by external forces and terror sects, as exemplified by ISWAP. For years, Boko Haram has not only been a national security problem, but both Nigerians and the indigenes of the Northeast can bear testimony to its devastative and destructive effects on the once peaceful region. The people of the Northwest are replicating the same culture of silence, endorsement and emboldening of the acts of armed banditry in the Northwest, instead of working against it.

Furthermore, Boko Haram insurgency started as a militant religious sect, with the agenda of imposing an Islamic state on Nigeria, beginning with the Northeast. Ignore its initially defined ideology as religious, but many would agree that Boko Haram insurgency has multiplied into political and economic wings.

Its confirmatory that while the administration of President Buhari has substantially blighted the fires of religious Boko Haramists. The resurgent and festering character now in the country is attributable to its morphed political and economic branches.

It is evident in the concentration of Boko Haram activities in the oil-rich Lake Chad Basin, actively backed by some dubious foreign countries with vast interest in the natural crude oil and mineral resources of the region. The people of the Northwest are making a similar mistake in the case of the armed banditry and cattle rustling crimes committed by cursed criminal gangs in the zone.

So, apart from the other numerous problems contending against the effective tackling of banditry in the Northwest, by the Army, there are also the mischief makers who have successfully re-baptized the acts of armed banditry and other criminalities in the zone with tags unrelated to what is happening in the area. There is a very conspicuous, conscious and misleading politicization of armed banditry in the Northwest by labelling the crimes as ethnic or religious.

Given the explosive nature of religious and ethnicity issues in Nigeria, these are very repulsive attempts to inflame minds and ginger the further rapid spread of armed banditry and cattle rustling to other parts of North. This is completely irrational and satanic. These armed bandits are clearly criminals, further driven by economic motives and to propagate inaccurate identities of the armed banditry activities, even where it resists is erecting conditions conducive for its boundless escalation.

Like BEF, the leaders in Northwest are doing nothing or very little to contain, the hate preachments, indoctrination and massive recruitment of their youths into these terrible and armed criminal sects terrorizing and oppressing their people. The implication is that these Northwest leaders have not learnt the lessons abound from insurgency in the Northeast. Therefore, one can notice a discomforting repetition of the mistakes which landed the Northeast into the trouble and security quagmire it faces today. Northern Nigeria; no lessons learnt yet?

But it must be stated definitely that members of every criminal sect are first and foremost from an ethnic or religious group. Nonetheless, once a man decides to take to criminal enterprise, especially of the kind that savours bloodletting of his kith and kin and other Nigerians, he becomes unpardonably an enemy of all.

The earlier we realize that the bandits are enemies of humanity and not of any particular ethnic stock or religious sect, the better it is for natives of the region and Nigeria as a nation. This is a wake -up call for all men and women of goodwill to see armed banditry, the terror sects operating in Nigeria now and allied criminalities in the regions as an evil or threats to all humanity irrespective of their religious or ethnic affiliations.

Once a security problem is allowed to entrench deeply, it becomes difficult to uproot it. It took the decisive and focused leadership of the Nigerian Army under Lt. Gen TY Buratai, the COAS and leader of counter-insurgency operations to unveil Boko Haram and their sponsors as enemies of humanity.

The Army Chief took the battle to Boko Haram’s strongest havens in Sambisa forest and vicinities, as evident in the hatred of him by Shekau and his men. Shekau has shown it lamentingly in videos and all manner of public messages, even during the last Ramadan fasting, in which they trumpeted that Buratai and the Nigerian Army are against them. But it has been a tough confrontation, with its attendant waste of precious lives and public resources at great cost to the Nigerian state.

Gen. Buratai has stepped into the furnace once again, with “Operation Sahel Sanity,” to offer arrest the situation and offer respite to the people trapped by armed bandits. It behooves on the natives to evolve ways to consummate the respite and bliss permanently, as failure to do it, is incontestably to their detriment exclusively.

There is every need for Nigerians and in particular, people of the Northwest to learn that bitter lesson from the Northeast. And every other person that seeks to divide the country through such divisive campaigns, instead of identifying the actual problem accurately and standing together to bring an end to the issue of banditry in the Northwest should first consider himself doomed before others. Peace and security are the only antidotes to development and prosperity. #

Ajibili wrote this piece from Abuja.