Even before the series of violent attacks and killings that characterised the purported peace talks, the government’s practice of cosying up and condoning the excesses of these armed lunatics is dangerously absurd and despicably unfathomable.
Insecurity in Nigeria has become a part of everyday life of the citizens. It has become a feature rather than a bug that should be addressed once and for all. A normalised abnormality. So acute and perennial is the security crisis that many Nigerians have become indifferent and desensitised to the daily reports of wanton killings and violence that occasioned it. For many Nigerians, it is not the over-decade-long activities of the myriad of violent and armed non-state actors that they find perplexing and confounding but what appears to be the seemingly lack of willingness among government at all levels to put an end to the atrocities of these heinous criminals who are holding the country to ransom and undermining its growth and development.
On Monday, news filtered through that some notorious bandits terrorising and wreaking havoc in Katsina and Zamfara States had a peace talk in Faskari local government area on Sunday. Among the bandits present at the peace talk is the fearsome bandit leader, Isiya Kwashen Garwa, who is on the wanted list of the Nigerian military. According to a security expert, Zagazola Makama, Garwa is among the 19 most-wanted terrorists and bandits in Nigeria and has been alleged to be behind the numerous killings and attacks in the Northwest and Middle Belt region of the country.
Also present at Sunday’s armistice dialogue was another bandit Leader, Babaro. He was said to have orchestrated the recent early morning attack on Mantua in Malumfashi Local Government Area of Katsina State that left at least 32 worshippers dead and many others injured. He has also been fingered for many deadly invasions in the Kankara and Malumfashi areas.
The meeting has sparked outrage among Nigerians, and rightly so. The meeting only reinforced the widespread notion that the government is not particularly interested in or has not shown convincing political will to address the nation’s security crisis. If anything, it has only emboldened the violent and rampaging non-state actors it should be annihilating. Its actions and inactions have only served to create an atmosphere that rewards violence and taking up arms against the state. It is almost as if they are saying that being a peaceful, respectful and law-abiding citizen is foolhardy and engaging in destructive and nefarious activities that erode the peace and stability of the nation is wise and acceptable.
Recently, the former Kaduna State governor disclosed that the incumbent state, in collaboration with the office of the National Security Adviser, is paying bandits to stop them from killing unarmed and defenceless Nigerians. It was once when the federal government and the Nigerian Army made the rehabilitation of terrorists a national policy. These terrorists, after their rehabilitation programmes, were integrated back into the very society where they had committed unspeakable and horrific crimes. Suppose there is anything we’ve learned from the supposed non-kinetic approach to tackle insecurity. In that case, it is that the government’s purported re-education, placating and appeasing of these vile and monstrous creatures do not always achieve the intended results. These people tend to return to their lives of crime and violence. Stories of how so-called repentant bandits and terrorists returned to their ways of evil and darkness.
The peace talk also shows that the security forces’ declaration of some bandits wanted as performative. The security operatives and intelligence agencies cannot claim not to have any intel about the meeting. If they truly don’t have it, then we are in a perilous situation, and if they did have intel about the peace talk and chose not to act on it, then we are in a far more precarious situation, we are heavily screwed in both circumstances.
Since Sunday’s reported peace dialogue, a series of abhorrent incidents and escalation of violence across the North West have been reported, further underscoring the futility of treating the bandits with kid gloves and trying to relate with them like reasonable and sensible humans, which they clearly are not. On Monday, barely a day after the commencement of the peace talks, a gang led by Ado Allero, a top Bandit Kingpin spearheading the ongoing Peace Dialogue, brutally murdered a traditional ruler, the Hakimi of Dogon Dawa, in Keta village, Tsafe Local Government Area, Zamfara State. According to Zagazola Makama, the incident happened on September 15 at about 4pm. The gang also kidnapped over 40 civilians from a mosque in the area.
Sources familiar with the development disclosed that the bandits have intensified their campaign of terror. Four farmers were killed in Barikin Daji, Ruwan Gizo, Zamfara State, and two Customs officers were murdered in Fingilla village, Dandi Local Government Area of Kebbi State.
“A convoy of the Commanding Officer of 382 Army Regiment at Ruwan Godiya crossing point was also ambushed along Sheme- Kankara Road in Katsina while the peace talks were taking place, but the attack was successfully foiled. The same day, the troops of 17 Brigade ambushed some bandits near Gatawa village in Kankara LGA, recovering a motorcycle and a mobile phone. Again, troops repel bandits’ attack at Sabon Massallaci village, Katera ward of Kankara LGA, they later move toward Gidan Dufe village in the same LGA, kill one woman, injuring several and rustling livestock,” Zagazola reports.
On the same day, bandits reportedly ambushed NSCDC personnel along Dafa village, Yantumaki- Danmusa road, killing one and injuring four other officers. In the same vein, the bandits struck and abducted 12 people in Godai village in Bukuyum, in Zamfara state. They abducted another four in Tudun Moriki. In Kebbi State, another armed gang, known as the Lakurawa group, killed two Customs officers in Fingilla village, Dandi Local Government Area. Further, four civilians were reportedly shot dead while harvesting crops in Barikin Daji around Ruwan Gizo, Zamfara State.
Even before the series of violent attacks and killings that characterised the purported peace talks, the government’s practice of cosying up and condoning the excesses of these armed lunatics is dangerously absurd and despicably unfathomable. What peaceful and cordial existence can exist between a man who led the brutal massacre of worshippers in a mosque and the family of his victims? This conciliatory approach to dealing with people who have pillaged, plundered and mindlessly killed hundreds of thousands of their compatriots in an Unjustifiable orgy of violence is why the problem of insecurity has not gone away.
Conspiracy theorists, who are rarely wrong by the way, have repeatedly opined that Nigeria’s insecurity is by design and the designers are in the corridors of power. Seeing the illogical and disconcerting handling of the nation’s security crisis and treatment of those behind it by those managing the affairs of our nation, one is tempted to believe the conspiracy theorists.
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