Still on national security

One of the thorniest issues on the front burner of any discourse or assemblage in recent times is national security. The reason is simple: Nigeria has been held on the groin, for a long time, by the inglorious activities of robbers, kidnappers, rapists, cultists and other social misfits.

As if these vices were not enough, another perilous dimension has been added by terrorists – who have virtually turned our once-peaceful country into something like a war-zone. Before now the operations of the various security agencies centred on weeding out armed robbers who operated mainly on highways and residential quarters.

That was what informed the establishment of the Federal Highway Patrol (FHP) and the Special Armed Robbery Squad (SARS) with a special mandate to root out these daredevil armed robbers that made life miserable for residents and travelers. Before the establishment of SARS and FHP armed robbers had a field day – raiding houses and waylaying motorists (especially those on nocturnal journeys) on the ever-busy expressways.

There was no day that passed without about two or three reported cases of highway robbery involving huge loss of lives and materials. On one occasion, along the notorious Benin-Ore Highway, a gang of armed robbers, dressed in police uniforms, flagged down a fully-loaded luxury bus coming from Onitsha.

The driver, thinking it was a team of policemen, stopped only to be confronted by gun-totting, fierce-looking armed robbers. Before he could regain his composure they had already released a volley of bullets, killing him (the driver) and his conductor instantly. They commanded everybody in the bus to disembark and lie face down.

They hopped into the bus and took away all money and valuables. Not satisfied, and like a scene from a Sean Connery movie, they bounced on the female passengers and raped them one after another. One particular man did not live to tell the story as he was shot and killed by one of the robbers for having the audacity to stop his wife from being raped. For the period the operation lasted, there was no help from anywhere.

From where would help have come – in the middle of a deserted expressway surrounded by thick forests, and no telephone? Mission accomplished, the robbers jumped into their car and hurriedly drove away, leaving behind blood and tears. Who would forget easily the exploits of two notorious robbers – Oyenusi and Anini? Oyenusi was the ‘commander-general’ of armed robbery operations along the same Benin-Ore Expressway.

This was in the mid and late 70s when the most popular mode of transportation among travellers was by bus. He operated with such clinical fineness and brutality that even even the security operatives feared him. He killed both policemen and passengers without any scruples. He was conscienceless. The same for Anini and his gang: Theirs was a national and regional malaise. They snatched exotic cars and killed their occupants in most cases. They trotted the firmament like colossuses. All efforts by the police to track them down were futile. One fable had it that they were invincible and invisible. And so the news spread like wild fire.

Benin, where the gang had its base, was like a theatre of absurdities. Residents slept with trepidation and so did security men who, often, removed their uniforms while going to or returning from work. Anini had a sly and bloodthirsty partner called Monday Osubor. He was the marksman of the gang, while Anini himself was the expert driver and schemer. With these dangerous profiles they held the nation hostage momentarily. In recent times, particularly in Abia State, kidnappers plied their trade with some gusto.

They cared no hoot about whose ox was gored. People, especially prominent citizens, were abducted and taken into ‘evil’ forests from where they contacted their families for ransom. Millions of naira was paid by loved ones to secure the freedom of their abducted family members. The operations of the gang became so deadly that many people migrated from Aba to other cities. Some of those that left are yet to return despite the restoration of law and order to the city. And so the kidnappers had a field way – running their devious ring round the five southeast states and beyond.

The kingpin of these wicked operations was one ‘Osisikankwu’. Many strange and incredible tales were woven around him – how he could disappear at the sight of police or any danger. Expectedly, many believed the tales and lived in fear and hopelessness. The state government was almost helpless. They mustered support for the police to deal with the dicey situation. I must give it to the Abia State government: it did its best to bring the situation under control. However, there was news making the rounds then that the state government was sponsoring these kidnappings to get at its perceived enemies. How true the story was, I do not know.

Even the Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, launched an operation against kidnappers. On a few occasions, he was reported to have led security operations to demolish the mansions of kingpins of kidnap-gangs. He took the war to the kidnappers. And today the effort has yielded some dividend as cases of kidnapping have reduced drastically. Now, let us go to the Niger Delta Region. We are witnesses to the restiveness that pervaded the region during the Obasanjo civilian regime, up until the early days of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

The entire region was embroiled in persistent and fierce insurgency. Oil pipelines were vandalized and oil company workers abducted. The situation was cascading into a state of anarchy. The nation was losing revenue steadily. Government was spending more protecting the pipelines than it was making from the sale of oil. This was affecting national development. It was in the wake of these dangerous developments that then President Musa Yar’Adua summoned courage to confront the problem headon.

After wide consultations, the Amnesty deal for the Niger Delta militants was struck. And since then, the region has been enjoying relative peace, while many of its rampaging youths have been rehabilitated, thereby cutting off an essential incendiary material that fuels the insurgency. Now let us go back to Anini, Oyenusi and Osisikankwu. How did they end? A national manhunt was declared on them: capture them alive or dead. Anini and his gang members were arrested when they were exchanging fire with the police in an operation that signposted the demise of the gang.

Anini was shot in the leg and fatally wounded, while Osunbor (who killed at the slightest prompting) was captured without any injury. During further investigation, it was discovered that the brain behind the dangerous escapades of the gang was actually a serving Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) – one Iyamu – attached to the then Bendel State Police Command. He supplied guns and vital information that aided the gang in its ruthless operations.

The confession by DSP Iyamu sent cold jitters down the spines of the hierarchy of the police. Anini, Osunbor and other members of the gang were tried by the Armed Robbery and Firearms Tribunal and condemned to death. The public execution of Anini and co. was like a carnival. People came from all over the country to the Bar Beach in Lagos, where they were executed by firing squad, to witness it. Anini was the last to be brought out from the van that brought him directly from the hospital where he was receiving treatment for the injury he sustained during their last operation.

He was visibly shaking, begging his executioners to temper justice with mercy as if they had the power to do so. Their lawyer must have entered alocutus (plea for mercy) during their trial. So, making such plea at the foot of the wood on which he was tied was a vain exercise. His partner-in-crime, Osunbor, was a spectacle to behold: he was sweating profusely and appeared marooned and lost in a deep thought. Probably, all the atrocities he committed came flooding into his subconscious mind. Naturally, that is the course such circumstances take.

When asked by the priest sent to bless them, before the waiting soldiers released volley of bullets that silenced them, if he had anything to say, all he could mutter was, “E be like I want mental.” Yes, who wouldn’t be mental? When he was killing and maiming innocent people and threatening the peace and security of the nation he was not mental! Tell it to the marines jo! As for Oyenusi, the same fate befell him as it did to Anini and co. His own public execution (at the same Bar Beach) attracted more spectators, because of his national notoriety.

His death liberated the Benin-Ore Expressway from the clutches of armed robbers for some time. Osisikankwu died like a chicken. He was captured by a combined team of army and police in a thick forest somewhere in Ukwa East Local Government of Abia State where he was hiding from the long arm of the law. How he died, maybe in the hands of his captors, remained hazy. All I know is he is no more. Both the security agents and the citizenry celebrated his capture and death, as he was a thorn in their flesh.

Since his death, Abia State and its environs have enjoyed some respite. Though there are still occasional cases of kidnapping in the state, the situation has been considerably calm since the year started. The only major incident is the upswing in the number of baby factories in the state, particularly in Aba. That is a matter for another day. Now, let us look at terrorism. This is the deadliest of all the social ills plaguing our nation. From where did these terrorists come? Surely, they did not come from the moon.

They are people living among us. Their sponsors are also people who also live among us. They could have a few other funders based abroad. But the key issue is: why should terrorism flourish in Nigeria with all its diversities and secularities? We had lived in relative peace and cohesion until 2009 when the roaring lion was let loose to feast on the blood of innocent citizens. When the first bomb went off, it was like a joke. Nobody ever thought we would be in the quagmire in which we have found ourselves today. It was truly so, because Nigeria had never had a history of terrorism.

All we had had were occasional religious riots that occurred mainly in the northern part of the country. These riots were put down as soon as they started. And so, nobody expected the magnitude of security problems we are confronted with currently. Our journey to gradually becoming a globally acclaimed terrorist country began when politicians started amassing assault weapons to prosecute elections. It was an innocuous act that has today burgeoned into a national calamity.

The violence that prevails in our electoral system is such that, if care is not taken, it may destroy the very foundation on which our nationhood was founded. I am serious. Why should people who are morally and mentally unfit occupy places of honour in our nation’s political life? Instead of subjecting themselves to the rules guiding elections, they prefer to smuggle in thugs to assist them rig and win elections. After the elections, what do you think would happen to the army of thugs and miscreants recruited for these elections? Naturally, they will rehabilitate themselves. And that is when they think of other means of livelihood.

They easily become pawns on the chessboard of drug barons, trans-border criminals, assassins, armed robbers, kidnappers, and, now, terrorists. Again, poverty and destitution have contributed significantly to the upsurge in crimes in recent times. It is generally believed that most of the suicide bombers that work for the dreaded Boko Haram Islamist sect are recruited from among the almajiri. They are heavily brainwashed and indoctrinated to such a level that they are ready to do anything in return.

What sense does it make for somebody to take his or her own life in a suicide operation for one form of gratification or another after death? Painfully, terrorism has cast Nigeria in a bad light globally. Even internally, it has set us on edge, making life unbearable for many Nigerians, especially those that live in the north. Virtually, there is no state in the North that has not experienced the evil of terrorism. But the hotbeds remain Borno, Kano, Kebbi, Plateau, and Kaduna.

The situation in Kaduna is almost normalized, particularly since the new governor took over the saddle. In my thinking, terrorism is worse than all the other ills that beset Nigeria combined. This is why we must do everything possible to uproot it from our national life. It is not the intention of this piece to dwell on the atrocities committed by Boko Haram. The major objective is to sensitize our leaders to the urgent need to bring the confusing situation under control.

There is no way we can continue to live this way. It is a very big gamble to make. The news flying all over the place is Nigeria will disintegrate in 2015. On what do those peddling this wicked rumour place their stake? Probably, they envisage by fuelling the Boko Haram insurgency, they would bring the government to its knees. I doubt if that option will work. I say this, because government has the capacity to deal with the situation if it has the will.

By working to extend amnesty to the group, government has demonstrated sufficient goodwill and benevolence to deal with the menace. What Boko Haram should do is to lay down their arms and key into the deal. They should understand that those they are killing have done nothing against them. By bombing and killing innocent worshippers and travellers, have they achieved anything? The real ‘enemies’ you are targeting cannot be reached easily, because they have fortified themselves with security agents and air-conditioned bunkers.

It is the hapless, defenceless citizens you cut down when you carry out your attacks. The amnesty deal is a very popular option among the leaders of the North. It must be given a chance to work. Let those who engage in acts capable of destroying the unity, peace and progress of Nigeria bear in mind that we have no other country. The wars in Rwanda, Somalia, Congo, Cote D’Ivoire and Mali should serve as a big lesson to all of us.

There is nothing comparable to peace. In peace, we achieve more. The government, on its part, must be committed to the security of lives and properties, which is its statutory duty. As for the security agencies, it behoves them to evolve new strategies to address the embarrassing security problems in the country. One of the surest ways it can achieve that is by looking inwards and weeding out the bad eggs in their folds.