When you talk about safety and security in today’s Nigeria, the country is a stench. The country is trying to crawl out of the gory gutters of the crippling conundrum of insecurity. Nobody and nowhere is safe. Morality is evanescing. Patriotism is in peremptory interment. And in the hands of brutal bandits, the sacredness of life is gone with the wildest weird wind. Almost everywhere are renditions of lullaby of pain and suffering in the hands of killers who confidently stroll into any home, command the occupants to file like hypnotised zombies and then led into some ugly snake-infested bushes where they demand money or snuff out innocent lives. Readers, whether the government acknowledges this or not, this is a guerrilla war!
A few days ago, unknown gunmen sneaked into a high school in Oyo State in Nigeria’s southwestern region. The killer-squad fired gunshots to announce the arrival of its bloodthirsty platoons. They knew the terrain well and probably had reconnaissance moves over the area. Swiftly, they abducted at least 48 people, including schoolchildren and teachers. They stowed them into the bushes nearby and then laid their path with explosive devices. Security operatives attempting to rescue the victims ran into the mines, and many were wounded in the process. And in the height of their heinousness and abominable brutishness, they beheaded one of the teachers and recorded the swinishness on video! And is this happening in a country that’s home to innumerable sages, an arsenal of intellectuals, a harbour of highbrows, and a human assemblage of geeks and deft double-domes? What Nigeria has on her hands is not just terrorism; it is a guerrilla war!
The rabid rampage of these hoodlums was once restricted to the northern part of Nigeria. But now, it has made its way into the heart of the Southwestern part of Nigeria. For a few years, we had been warned that this was coming. Our governors, who are now preoccupied with winning the next election while their people are being murdered by strangers, aren’t heeding the warning. They had been warned that fifty-five bandit camps are reportedly already dedicated in the South-West region of Nigeria. What this means is that no one family in our region will again sleep with both eyes closed. What it also means is that no highway or byway is safe to travel. Business and leisure travellers are not sure they’ll return home alive. And life in our communities is now under torment because of these satanic strangers. If these current happenings look like hell loosed upon the southwest, you are on point. Bandits now rule the nation by perturbing the proxy. Killers have the upper hand over the Nigerian military. Nigerians are pushed to the brink.
The wicked agenda of terrorising bandits is not just corralling a section of a region but wrapping the entire nation around their blood-blotched fingers. Whether you agree with this or not, terrorism is fully on the ground in Nigeria. Killer-groups with vicious weapons of mass destruction and sharpened logistics have now become like a form of government next to the Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary. They now have their kingdom inside of Nigeria and parallel to the Nigerian government. And unfortunately, the Nigerian military is unable to hedge against these fools despite hundreds of billions of Naira committed to security by the government.
I thought that there was a South-West Security Network Agency, popularly known as Amotekun Corps, which we were told had intensified its efforts to tackle the growing menace of banditry and criminal activities in the region. Where are they? We also heard that the Amotekun outfit once mobilised over 2,000 personnel with recruitment drives ongoing across the states of Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti to strengthen the corps’ operational capacity, where are they? A National Bureau of Statistics survey revealed that between May 2023 and April 2024, Nigerians paid N2.23tn in ransom for kidnappings. The South-West region alone recorded 6.9 million crime incidents during this period.
With about 300,000 enlisted men in the entire Armed Forces of Nigeria, with thinned platoons and fewer boots on the ground designated to put a chokehold on crime and criminals, and a police force that’s stretched to a breaking point, our backs are against the wall. Friends, if the government is unable to help protect lives and property in your community, self-help is a wise move. That was exactly what we did in my hometown a few years ago. The community resorted to self-help when Fulani kidnappers besieged and went on a rampage. We mobilised hunters, retired security fellas, and able-bodied men and silenced their rampage. They were hunted down in the bushes, and we have not heard of their lunacy ever since. We knew that if we had to wait for help from the government to wage an effective war on strangers who war against us, we would wait as we wailed.
We heard that banditry in Nigeria seems like an immortal business enterprise with mean, malevolent mafioso interests standing stout behind it. It was rumoured when Muhammadu Buhari was President that even men in the veranda of power had no desire to see it end for reasons bordering on pecuniary benefits and power control. But Buhari is no longer with us. Bola Tinubu is the president. What in the world is going on now, even with him as president? Friends, this is guerrilla war!
Guerrilla war is an irregular assault where small mobile groups use ambush, sabotage, raids, and hit-and-run tactics against larger, traditional military forces. In the Napoleonic War of 1808-1814, Spanish fighters deployed guerrilla warfare to bleed Napoleon’s Army to death. Guerrilla warriors wear down stronger enemies mentally, financially, and politically.
Is that what is going on with this unending rage against Nigeria? Has Nigeria given up on this war? What really is driving this terrorism wave, and who are the people behind the wickedness? Are they unemployed Nigerians who are tired of hunger and poverty and trying to survive? Are they full-blown Islamic terrorists who are hell-bent on Mohammedanizing Nigeria? Maybe they are Fulani herdsmen going on the rampage under the cover of itinerant herding, but are they? Could it be that politicians of Northern extraction mixed with disgruntled Southern personalities who want power to remain in the North in 2027? Maybe it’s all about 2027, where opposition politicians want Tinubu out of power by all means necessary. Who knows? All these phenomena, meshed in a seething pot of violence, can easily unsettle and destabilise a nation. Whatever this is, when will it stop?
X-@FolaOjotweeta
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