![Governor Babagana Zulum [PHOTO CREDIT: @ProfZulum]](https://i0.wp.com/media.premiumtimesng.com/wp-content/files/2024/10/FqDC53XXgAIInQs.jpeg?resize=1080%2C720&ssl=1)
There is a surge in insurgency in Nigeria. There has been a ferocious return and dominance of Boko Haram, the terror group in Nigeria linked to Al Qaeda and ISIS at various times, but which has now become so domesticated that the Nigerian government proves helpless to fulfil its obligations to the Nigerian people under Section 14(2) of the 1999 Constitution. The primary duty of the government is to ensure the security and welfare of the people. In April, Professor Babagana Zulum, governor of Borno State, cried out that the Federal Government was not serving this purpose, whereas he as a sub-national leader was doing everything to liaise with the Federal Government to secure peace in Borno State and the North East. Babagana Zulum is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
What was meant as a honest confrontation within the APC family soon turned into an occasion for verbal conflict. The Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, more or less, told Zulum to keep quiet. Idris would later walk back his original statement blaming it on fake news, again confirming how so conveniently politicians readily blame the media for their own omissions and commissions, even if it is true that fake news and charlatanism represent the scourge of the age. On the issue of insecurity in the North-East, other people contributed to the debate, including members of the National Assembly who decried killings, kidnapping, community displacement, armed robbery, disempowerment of persons, internal refugee crisis, and the general descent into a state of anomie, to varying degrees in Borno, Yobe and Gombe states. Borno would seem to be the most affected of the states. The situation in Borno state has worsened since Professor Zulum raised the alarm in April.
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It is worth noting that the Borno State Governor had to raise an urgent appeal for help over the weekend. In an official statement, the State Governor lamented that Marte Local Government Area was about to fall completely into the hands of Boko Haram. Out of about 300 towns and villages in the LGA, the only community still standing is Marte. Over 20,000 residents had already fled to Dikwa, so concerned was the Governor that he had to sleep in Marte with the help of the military. Now he begs the Federal Government to come to the rescue. Zulum may well feel vindicated that what he had forewarned in April, as the man on the ground in Borno state has now come to pass. But he is not triumphant about that, rather he has taken his matter to God, by declaring Monday, May 19, a day of prayers and fasting in Borno State. This is typically Nigerian and hypocritical. When Nigerian leaders fail in discharging their responsibilities, they blame God. When they fail to arrive at a needed understanding of situations, they ask God to collect the baton, and run the race. Please, is it the fasting and the praying in Borno state yesterday that would drive away the insurgents? Religion has become the deus ex machina for Nigerian problems and the failure of leadership. We must stop blaming God. Professor Zulum labelled the day, a day of voluntary praying and fasting, to seek “guidance, healing and peace for our state”. He adds: “Through prayer and reflection, we can strengthen our unity, our resilience, and restore our collective purpose.” Prayers alone cannot do it.
Persons of faith would be quick to quote Christian Bible passages such as Matthew 7: 7 -11, Mark 11:24, Philippians 4:6, Matthew 21: 22, Matthew 6: 9-13, James 5: 15-16, 1 Chronicles 16:11 in affirmation of the power of prayers. Similarly, the Islamic faith emphasizes the salah or salat, an act of worship that brings man in closer contact and communication with God through prayers as in Surah Baqarah 2:45, 2:110, 2:238, and Surah Hud, 13:22. The most annoying fact of the Nigerian reality is that Nigerian leaders remember religious teachings only when they are overwhelmed. It would be difficult to know the number of volunteers who heeded Zulum’s call for fasting and praying, but we can hazard a guess that the people of Borno State who have been killed, maimed, displaced in Marte, Pulka, Gwoza, Nguro Soye and uprooted in all the 27 Local Government Areas of the state, unable to go to the farm, market or schools would readily confess that they have prayed long enough, over the past 17 years. The problem is not with God, it is with the Nigerian government. Government is the people’s god. And the problem is not restricted to the North East. The North West is also insecure. The Middle Belt has become a killing field. Life is short, nasty and brutish in other parts of the country. Nobody should be surprised if there are reports of violent attacks in the North East before this week runs out: the criminals riding roughshod over Nigeria have a way with morbid humour. They may be tempted to respond to prayers offered in their own way. They have turned themselves into tin-gods. While the people are praying and fasting, and Governor Zulum continues to whip up sentiments of faith, the criminals are probably busy working on strategies to overrun the whole of Borno and Yobe states.
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Successive Nigerian governments have continued to live in denial. Alhaji Lai Mohammed, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Minister of Information told us that Boko Haram had been “technically decimated”, government was winning the war, and that Boko Haram has “no caliphate” anywhere in Nigeria. As recently as April, Alhaji Mohammed at a Spokespersons Summit was busy boasting that he changed the narrative about the Boko Haram over-running local governments in Borno state. Which narrative? Has he heard Zulum’s latest cry for help? It is easy to build castles with spittle, until morning dewdrops collapse the entire structure. But it is all in the line of business for Nigerian leaders to lie to the people and deceive them. Why has the Nigerian government failed to secure the land? The same approach has been adopted over the years: security architecture, increased funding for the military, operation this, operation that, kinetic, non-kinetic, revision of national security strategy, statements of assurance, and yet when each tragedy occurs, government issues apologies, and statements of condolence, but the situation remains the same. Obviously, the security of government officials is more important than that of the people. As 2027 approaches, the politicians will feed the people with hope and expectations once again, but the impediments will remain.
The latest in the government’s bag of promises is the report that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the establishment of forest guards to secure about 1, 129 forests in the country. The National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Ministry of Environment have been directed to ensure full implementation. The plan is to recruit 130, 000 armed operatives, about 2,000, or 5,000 per state depending on carrying capacity and together, the states and the Federal Government can secure our forests. The forests have been the main base of insecurity in Nigeria be it the notorious Sambisa Forest, the Old Oyo National Park, Kainji National Park or the many ungoverned spaces in Niger, Benue, Kwara and other parts of the country. The Nigerian Forest Security Service (Establishment) Bill, 2025 is meant to flush out terrorists, bandits and other criminal gangs and enable the country to take back its forests. The intention sounds noble, jobs will be created for many Nigerians, but the true test is to be seen in the implementation. The proposal raises more questions than answers.
To start with, the idea of forest guards is not new. Nigeria has always had a Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS), which was eventually renamed Nigerian Forest Security Service (NFSS) in 2024. Originally set up to protect the country’s forests, wildlife and natural resources, its role was soon expanded to include security to check the menace of criminals who use the forests as hideouts for insurgency, kidnapping, and banditry. How would the proposed establishment of Forest Guards be different from the existing NFSS. Ambassador Dr. Wole Joshua Osatimehin who is the current Commander General of the Nigeria Forest Security Service has since issued a statement praising President Tinubu for the establishment of Forest Guards. The same Osatimehin reports that “we are fully on ground in 36 states of the Federation and the 774 Local Government Areas nationwide and our officers and men have been professionally trained by the Nigeria Police, the DSS, Nigeria Army, NSCDC and other formal security agencies within and outside the country…” If this is truly the case, why the need for a new structure and outfit? It will be recalled that late Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu as Governor of Ondo State had repeatedly called on the Forest Guards, this same NFSS to secure the forest reserves in Ondo state. I am therefore surprised that some commentators have praised President Tinubu’s establishment of what may look like a parallel outfit. If the existing NFSS does not work, what is the guarantee that a new creation would be able to do the job?
The best way to secure Nigeria is not by creating new outfits, it is by strengthening existing structures. Nigeria’s borders are known to be porous. It is widely believed that most of the criminals wreaking havoc in the country are not only home-grown, they also infiltrate the country from the Sahel region. Our borders are so porous any bandit from Niger or Chad can just walk across, or rather ride on the back of a motorcycle into Nigeria, do maximum damage and then vanish across the border. Recruiting 130, 000 forest guards cannot deal with the enormity and complexity of the problem. Rather than create a new outfit, the military can be better equipped to form a special unit whose task will be to comb the forests and flush out all the criminal elements hiding therein. What are the policemen doing? They appear to be underworked. The police force can be expanded and all the pot-belied officers extorting money on the roads can be deployed into the country’s forests to hunt down the insurgents. The NFSS can be expanded too, and its new recruits made to live permanently in the forests, and lay ambush for criminals. The Federal Government cannot keep creating new agencies or new bureaucracies having promised, before now, to implement the Oronsaye Report and run a lean, efficient government.
The security of lives and property is far too important to be left at the level of rhetoric. Government officials have spoken more than enough about the problem, they need to apply concrete solutions. By now Nigerians must be tired of hearing fanciful phrases and expressions of good faith. Or that an MOU has been signed with China to supply military equipment, or that DICON has engaged some contractors, or that a certain fund has been specially set aside. The ineffectuality of these measures explains why there is now an increasing call for self-defence by victims of insurgency and banditry. A resort to self-help can only breed anarchy. It would be a rejection of the state, a vote of no confidence in those who run it. When every Nigerian has to protect himself or herself, because the state has failed, that would be the final violation of the contract with the people. As it is, Nigerians have to worry about electricity, security in their homes, and safety at work and on the streets. Many of the people who travel abroad do so just to get away from it all, this life of strife and perpetual anxiety that the average Nigerian is saddled with. They do not necessarily do well abroad, but there are many who get lucky, and there are others who are just happy to live in an organized society where they can gain access to basic amenities of decent living. Forest guards cannot reassure such persons that Nigeria will become a safe place to live in. Just in case the diversionary talk about forest guards is an excuse to avoid the bigger subject of state police, we miss the point.
The best legacy that President Tinubu can construct on all fronts is to make Nigeria better, safer and more enabling than he met it.
Reuben Abati, a former presidential spokesperson, writes from Lagos.
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