The mass deployment of troops to the relatively calm and thriving south east and the vaunted military success against a handful of violent renegade posturing as ideological separatists there will be seen at best by many Nigerians as a misplaced security priority and at worst an unsettling covert plot to destabilise the region, if such attention and seriousness is not paid to more vicious, virulent and destructive characters elsewhere that are terrorising Nigerians and spilling their blood for sport.
On Sunday, the military announced that it is conducting a sweeping operation against the South East. According to the Nigerian Army spokesperson, troops of Operation Udoka targeted criminal elements of the indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network. He disclosed that the troops arrested over ninety suspects, rescued fourteen kidnapped victims and recovered arms and weapons.
The operation and the sustained military presence in the South East have raised eyebrows among Nigerians wondering why there is a heavy military presence in the region while bandits, terrorists and other criminal elements in other parts of the country, particularly the middle belt and northern states, are perpetrating unspeakable atrocities in these states.
In 2016, the Nigerian Army commenced Operation Python Dance in the southeast, a military campaign aimed at quelling secessionist campaigns of IPOB and rooting out those who were pushing for the actualisation of an independent Biafran state. The following year, troops stormed the home of Nnamdi Kanu, the self-proclaimed leader of IPOB, in Abia state. He escaped death by a whisker and fled to Britain where he continued to agitate for a sovereign Biafra nation through Biafra radio, which he also used to churn out vile, dangerous, divisive ethnoreligious narratives and invidious propaganda. He was eventually arrested in Kenya in 2021 and repatriated to Nigeria. He has been incarcerated since then.
Since the deployment of troops to the southeast and the onslaught on Kanu’s residence the following year, the militarisation of the southeast has become a permanent feature in the lives and daily routines of the region’s residents. There are more roadblocks manned by stone-cold and stern soldiers in the southeast than any other part of the country, making road trips across the region a slow, painstaking and harrowing experience. Many of the roadblocks are seen as inconveniences and disruptions to the movement and activities, especially social and commercial endeavours, of the people of the region.
However, the southeast has enjoyed relative peace in the last couple of years. The restiveness, violence and uncertainty that beset the region at the turn of the last decade have been replaced by orderliness, calm and security. This pleasing and satisfactory security situation in the southeast is what piqued the curiosity of many Nigerians as to why the military needs to deploy troops to the region, instead of states that are reeling from bloody and deadly attacks by terrorists and criminal elements.
The Nigerian army will rightly claim its military presence in the South East is part of deliberate, strategic and comprehensive efforts to ensure the country is safe and put end to the nefarious and destructive activities of those who are hellbent on making the country a place of fear, chaos and terror, but then one cannot disregard or discountenance the concerns of those who are of the view that heavy presence of troops in the region will do more harm than good, especially in the light of deepening security crisis in other part of the country.
Furthermore, one of the worrisome fallout and unintended consequences of what many deemed a needless militarisation of the south east are the unsettling conjectures and conspiracy theories that some Nigerians who are vehemently opposed to it have conjured and whipped up with the conspiracy theorist asserting that heavy presence of troops in the region is not aimed at curtailing the excesses and unconscionable actions of criminal and subversive elements but a calculated and well orchestrated plot to scuttle the progress and development that states like Abia and Enugu are enjoying.
For them, the military activities in the south east are part of elaborate socio-economic and political moves to upend the growth and development of the region and have little or nothing to do with routing and annihilateing a subdued, spent and inconsequential separatist group. This may be seen as an unfounded and extreme position to take but for a people who still bear the scar of a three-year civil war, carry the trauma and believe the Nigerian state is always out to get them and subjugate them, it is only natural to be on the edge and be defensive. It will be insensitive to view their position on military activities in the region as an overreaction, absurd and ludicrous
While many Nigerians are not entirely against the military doing what it has to do to ensure the south-east is safe, many are bemused by the glaring uneven attention the military gives to the insecurity in different parts of the country and the disproportionate force that accompanies its operation in some enclaves. While the military has continued to reel out successes in tackling security challenges in a relatively peaceful southeast, terrorists and bandits have continued to run amok and wreak havoc in other parts of the country.
In the last couple of months, violent attacks and wanton killings have been reported across the Middle Belt region, especially in states like Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa. Even Abuja, where the seat of power is located, has experienced deadly attacks, abductions and killings in recent months. Over the Easter period, residents in the aforementioned states and Kaduna spent the holiday in grief and despair, distraught and despondent from the loss of their loved ones in a spate of violent attacks by terrorists.
Also, coordinated attacks and killings of unarmed and defenceless Nigerians in the middle belt and northern states have been going on for months on end but the military has not used the full might and power to end them and bring the perpetrators to their knees. The mass deployment of troops to the relatively calm and thriving south east and the vaunted military success against a handful of violent renegade posturing as ideological separatists there will be seen at best by many Nigerians as a misplaced security priority and at worst an unsettling covert plot to destabilise the region, if such attention and seriousness is not paid to more vicious, virulent and destructive characters elsewhere that are terrorising Nigerians and spilling their blood for sport.
