El Rufai’s memoire to Buhari: Terrorists creating parallel government in Kaduna

The recent SOS by Governor El Rufai to President Muhammadu Buhari on the dire insecurity in Kaduna State is neither new nor unexpected given the vicariously of the problem, particularly in the northern part of the country.

In retrospect, Kaduna State has now taken over from Boronu as the epic center of banditry in the country. And aligning with semblance to what happened in Boronu State in 2014 and 15, a substantial portion of Kaduna particularly the southern axis is under the control of the terrorists and bandits who have established administrative structures, tax systems, dispute resolution mechanisms, providing security et cetera in Birnin Gwari and other communities. This is the premise upon which El Rufai’s helpless call is hinged.

The federal government which controls the military and other security outfits in the country has failed in its responsibility to protect Nigerians which is why citizens prefer to interface with bandits paying arm-twisting ransoms as well as doing whatever they can on their demands as appeasement to buy their freedom. The Benue State government it could be recalled had lat month inaugurated the State-owned security outfit codenamed Community Volunteer Guard with a view to stemming the tides of insecurity in the State.

It then begs the question about the level of sincerity and proactiveness of the Federal Government whose responsibility it is to provide security to Nigerians seeing non-state actors have usurped political power in some communities in geo-political Nigeria akin to running a parallel government.

The commentary and messaging of the President whenever this infraction occurs is bland and void of inspiring hope, particularly on the part of the victim’s families. Actions and timelines aside other key elementals in addressing the micro and macro aspect of the security flaws by the government is conspicuously absent.

Our earlier editorial on the same subject matter where Zamfara Governor, Bello Matawalle asked citizens to carry arms proffered some practical and doable suggestions that the government could do to checkmate the problem.

Insecurity especially at this level of spread should be tackled on multiple fronts and critical synergies harnessed to aggregate capacity in order to effectively fight insurgency to the point of disseminating it in the country.

First, a comprehensive security strategy comprising national and local components driven by technology should be put in place. The deployment of suitable armaments including vehicles fitted with security gadgets and precision communication gadgets to provide salient information on the locations of bandits in a given location.

The communities on the frontline of bandits’ siege should be the priority in the allocation of hard and soft wares. And aside from national security personnel drafted to these communities who should play complementary roles, local security outfits like vigilantes, volunteers, hunters et cetera should be in the first line to drive the onslaught because these criminals live in their midst. And because of the peculiar terrain sometimes with difficult topographies, motorbikes and bicycles should be provided to enable these footsoldiers to access the hinterlands to nap these hoodlums.

And in addition, drones fitted with security gadgets should hover around these communities 24/7 to generate and send vital information on their moves and locations aside unsettling and driving them to shift camps to neighbouring countries.

Again, as rightly pointed out by Senator Ahmed Sani who was a guest on a private television talk show programme recently, Kano and Jigawa States are the only two States in the northwest out of seven that record near zero infraction of banditry. Why? The bottom line is that they are doing what the other five states in the region are not doing.

LENS’s position is that in addition to the myriad of plausible suggestions Kaduna and other fractured states in the region should interface with the duo with the intent to adopt their templates wholly or partly to end insurgency in their domains.