The Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to treat Nigeria’s insecurity as war and recall all necessary retired military personnel and seek foreign help in order to defeat Boko Haram/Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists and bandits whose activities has unleashed unprecedented killings, kidnappings and destructions on Nigerians.
Saying it is time to stop treating bandits and terrorists with kid gloves, Afenifere, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Jare Ajayi, noted that there was no more time to waste “in confronting the security situation if the country is to be prevented from going under.”
According to the statement, “apart from the bomb blast that happened in Maiduguri on the day President Buhari visited that city on Thursday, the Nigerian Immigration Services, also revealed in a letter to its border posts dated December 23, 2021, that terrorists from Mali had planned to attack Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.
“The above are aside kidnapping, killing, arson and burning of vehicles conveying people from one place to another as it happened on Kaduna highway and in Borno and Katsina States recently. The near daily occurrence of kidnapping in Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Imo States among others is intolerable.
“The President must come out openly to give an ultimatum of two weeks to those carrying arms illegally to lay down their arms. Within the period, retired intelligent officers should be encouraged to report at the military formations nearest to them with a view to reintegrating them back into the system.
“Needed weapons and incentives must be provided just as the intelligence units within the security organs be rejigged to weed out the fifth columnists in the army. Overtures be made to certain powers that have control over our neighbouring countries from where terrorists infiltrate our country.
“Among such super powers that need to be consulted are France, United Kingdom, China, Russia, Germany, Israel and the United States of America. The rationale behind this is to seek direct assistance in terms of logistics as well as for some of them, particularly France, to work on French-speaking neighbouring countries to help curtail insurgents using their territories to infiltrate Nigeria.
“Beyond seeking foreign help, however, the Federal Government must be ready to be more genuinely committed to removing insurgency and related criminality from our land. This, it can do successfully, by stopping to treat bandits and terrorists with kid gloves, by genuinely providing needed equipment to the army and other security agencies, by truly engaging the youths into ventures that would earn them a livelihood.
“By no longer treating some bandits and terrorists as sacred cows and by liberalizing the economy in such a way that the cost of commodities and services in the country would come down considerably. Above all, states and local governments that are willing should be allowed to have their own policing system up to the level of investigation and prosecution without let or hindrance.”
Afenifere added that “it is disheartening that terrorists had the temerity to launch attacks near Maiduguri on Thursday, December 23, 2021 around the time the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, was visiting Maiduguri and parts of Borno State.
“Reports also have it that the Nigeria Immigration Service has put its officers at various border posts on red alert of a looming terrorist attack on the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“If steps suggested above are taken, the vow made by the Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya last week Thursday would be easy to fulfil. It was not the first time such declaration would be made either by President Buhari or the security chiefs. But rather than the insecurity being checkmated, the situation has been going from bad to worse.
“It is high time President Buhari heeded the advice being given from various quarters including the ones by the Eminent Nigerians led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the one that emanated from the Inclusive Security Dialogue Retreat which held in Abuja a few weeks ago and attended by the same Chief Obasanjo, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto, Reverend Samson Supo Ayokunle, CAN President, Chief Edwin Clark and many other leaders from ethnic nationalities.
“They had called on the president to urgently convene a national conciliatory conference to address the underlying issues of our challenges that successive governments have ignored.”
