EDITORIAL: Benue, Plateau killings, Boko Haram resurgence deserve new strategic response

This month has been horrific for Benue and Plateau states. In Plateau alone, over 100 people were massacred in less than two weeks by mass murderers. Houses were burnt, and as a result, thousands of citizens now live in internally displaced make-shift homes.

Most disturbing is the fact that this form of tragedy has become too common in many communities in the state and the adjourning Benue State, as if the Nigerian State no longer exists to protect the lives and property of its citizens. Since these evil incidents, condemnations and avowals of “enough is enough” have not been in short supply, with this coming first from the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, when he visited the macabre theatre. President Bola Tinubu reportedly echoed similar splenetic outbursts at a meeting he held last week with security chiefs on the crisis.

These egregious killings of innocent citizens by armed militias, which follow the same pattern on a regular basis, are heinous, senseless and the worst form of savagery. First, in mid-April, gunmen on motorcycles, reportedly bearing AK 47 rifles, invaded five Plateau communities – Hurti, Pyakmal, Manguna, Daffo and Ruwi – in Bokkos Local Government Area, and killed 52 people, burnt 300 houses, and displaced 1,800 persons from their homes.

This left the country’s security high command bewildered, including President Tinubu, who was then in France on a two-week visit. From there, he asked Governor Caleb Muftwang of Plateau State to face the challenge by addressing the root causes of this age-long crisis. Pointedly, he charged, “We can no longer ignore the underlying issues.” Attempts in the past to deal with this conundrum climaxed in the setting up of at least six investigative panels by federal and state authorities, alongside the House of Representatives, in 1994, 2001, 2004, 2008 and 2009. They include the Emmanuel Abisoye, Niki Tobi and Bola Ajibola panels. Strangely, all their reports ended up on the shelves and none of the recommendations was implemented.

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As expected, the NSA; the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun; and military chiefs visited Bokkos LGA of Plateau State to offer assurances to the people that the heinous act would not be allowed to repeat. But they were all dead wrong. In less than 10 days, it was the turn of Zike-Kimakpa, a community in the Kwali area of Bassa LGA. The siege left 56 citizens killed.

Governor Muftwang, in his lamentation over the two barbaric events, described them as genocidal orchestrations. According to him, 64 communities in the state have been taken over and renamed, with their original inhabitants pushed away. He is of the view that the attacks were sponsored. However, the governor has vowed to bring the culprits to book, especially the suspects so far arrested in connection with the horrid happenings. Nothing less is expected of him!

Now, the president is back. Action, not rhetoric, is needed from him as the Commander-in-Chief of the country’s armed forces. He should put into effect those “suggestions for lasting peace,” which he said he had repeatedly conveyed to the Plateau governor. Harmony or peaceful co-existence is what everybody wants to prevail in the state. Mr President, the magnitude of the challenge is beyond the ken of the governor. The structure of the country, as presently constituted, vests in the president the powers and responsibility of maintaining law and order. It is next-to-impossible to see a governor truly perform the role of the chief security officer of his state, within the purview of Nigeria’s queer form of federalism.

Mr Ribadu said something critical but which is often overlooked by the Nigerian State due to the official deception and political correctness that underpin statecraft here. “While the crisis is not new, lasting solution can only come from (understanding) its history.” He is absolutely right! Nothing in the horizon shows that this course of action will be heeded. History, as it is often said, teaches only those who are prepared to learn from it. The fact is: the predilection for playing the ostrich each time this implosion occurs, explains why it has become an incubus, with the postponement of the day of Armageddon.

This level of insecurity should not be allowed to thrive without end. Areas with a phalanx of heavy military presence, engaged in Operation Safe Haven – that is, a special security task force; the 3rd Armoured Division of the Nigerian Army, domiciled in Rukuba Barracks in Jos, the Plateau State capital; State Security Service (SSS) operatives; and State Police Command – should not be regular victims of annihilation by non-state actors. Apparently, they make security agencies appear most incompetent, or complicit.

Therefore, we dare say that the regular failure of intelligence, which logically gives fillip to this butchery of human lives, is questionable, unacceptable and should be thoroughly investigated. The immediate deployment of tactical security assets – Armoured Personnel Carriers, drones and helicopters – to the areas, as the Inspector General of Police ordered, is a kind of medicine after death. Only a hands-on strategy that deals with the “root and branch” issues involved will suffice.

As it is in Plateau State, so it is in Borno State, where Boko Haram’s resurgence has compelled Governor Babagana Zulum to squall. Reports that military formations in Wajirko, Sabon Gari in Damboa, Wulgo in Gamboru Ngala and Izge in Gwazo LGA had wilted under attacks from terrorists, is most frightening.

If soldiers are at the mercy of these evil elements, what then becomes of the fate of hapless citizens in the area? When the Wulgo military formation buckled in March, 12 soldiers were reportedly killed. Four soldiers lost their lives in Wajiroko, near Sabon Gari, in January, just as 40 farmers were killed in Baga. Explosions that claim lives are now back.

READ ALSO: ‘Every community must defend itself’, Plateau governor says after mass killings

Mr Zulum’s recent lamentation that, “the renewed Boko Haram attacks and kidnappings in many communities almost on a daily basis without confrontation…signalled that Borno is losing ground,” needs the serious attention of the authorities, for the redoubling of efforts to avoid the situation getting worse.

These terror attacks in Benue, Borno and Plateau states, at this present onset of the farming season, are red flags for food security. The military, it should be noted, have done tremendous work in fighting terrorists to the point in which they were pushed to the fringes or border towns with our foreign neighbours. But they should not drop the ball now. The war has certainly not been won yet.

Keeping terror groups and other criminal actors in check should be the relentless task of the intelligence community, especially in monitoring our extensive Sahelian border with Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Border stretches of hundreds of kilometres serve as safe haven for these terrorists to retreat to when under superior fire power from Nigerian soldiers. More so, proactive measures are essential in stemming the heavy influx of illegal arms and ammunition from the Sahel region – which is a notorious channel of evil in this regard – into the country.

Eternal vigilance, as the aphorism points out, remains the price of liberty. The Nigerian State and its security agencies really need to heed this.