By Polycarp Onwubiko
Sad indeed that Nigeria remains a funny enclave, a continental disaster and shame of African countries. The sad question is that pon the billions of public funds budgeted for defense since the Buhari Administration in 2015 down to president Tinubu in 2023, Nigerians are wondering aloud where the humongous amounts went going by the ever-escalating incidence of Islamic invaders, terrorists masquerading as herdsmen.
These terrorists masquerading as herdsmen have the borders in the northern part of the country thrown open for their easy infiltration while the federal government would have Nigerians believe that the borders in the North are so many that they cannot be manned by the immigration men and officers. Who is fooling who?
The imported terrorists from the Sahel region of West Africa are for territorial expansion as they are occupying the deserted villages and settling with their families while the survived displaced indigenous population, after being mindlessly slaughtered were quartered in makeshift refugee resettlements dying of hunger and malnutrition cum occasional invasion by the terrorists masquerading as herdsmen and kidnapping them.
Serial kidnapping, raping, burning houses and farmhouses and products, eating up farm products by the cows driven by the terrorists masquerading as herdsmen, taking ransom in millions without being arrested by the supposed Nigerian security agents etc during Buhari eight years of the locust is still the same sordid stories in Tinubu’s administration.
In his article captioned: “Now trouble is awake in the neighborhood” By Dare Babarinsa, Guardian March 28 , 2024 enumerated modern technology used in other countries in tracking criminals terrorists and curbing religious insurgencies. Listing the weapons or modern technology , he said:
“In this modern era, a strong investment in science, phone tracking (used by Akinwale and his men), drones, face-reading gadget, voice-print, finger-print, laser weapons and others, would help to protect life and property”.
Before the above listing of modern weapons for tackling terrorists and kidnapping gangs, he wondered aloud by saying:
“How can we say we are living in the modern world and yet kidnappers would make phone calls many times and they would never be tracked?”
***Comment:
Kudos to the author of this eye-opening article, of course, I have read such articles but unfortunately, Nigeria is a study in management and governance disaster. That was why international institutions have described Nigeria leadership as “a continental disaster, a disgrace to Africa”.
The ignoble destination is justified because with the great natural and mineral resources exploited since the country’s independence in 1960, the country has registered development disarticulation and disaster. Today Nigeria is the headquarter of mult-dimensional poverty: a country that has “lost sovereignty”, according to a columnist, because the leadership cannot be in firm control of the territories as non-state actors are controlling vast expanse of its territory and kidnapping, rapping and proving that they are Islamic invaders whose objective is not hidden; that is to establish Islamic state.
Public fund is not a problem for the past and present federal government in terms of making adequate budgetary provisions for the Defense sector. The past and present presidents have whatever it takes to purchase the modern technology listed above to wipe out terrorists and Islamic invaders masquerading as herdsmen occupying villages and effortlessly kidnapping with huge ransom and making phone calls to take the money.
Who is fooling who in the country which some analysts have described as “the already expired Nigeria” ? How much will it cost the federal government in the procurement of modern technology which other countries are using to nail terrorists and religious insurgencies?
The United Arab Emirates, UAE released names of Nigerian sponsoring terrorists yet Nigeria people are being told cock and bull stories on why the kidnappers cannot be tracked and wiped out in the forests and jungles including flushing the terrorists masquerading as herdsmen from the Sahel region of West Africa occupying villages vacated by the indigenous people languishing in makeshift refugee resettlements and dying in droves while the Aso Villa occupants are quaffing drinks of assorted types typical of the saying that “Rome burns while the Pharoah was playing fiddle”.
Actually Nigerians and the international community know that Nigeria leadership past and present has not been seriously committed to wiping out terrorists and kidnapping syndicate. They stridently kicked against Restructuring the lopsided Federation to reinvent the realistic principles of federal system of government with decentralized security architecture as integral part. This will truncate the Islamization agenda. Again, who is fooling whom in the already expired Nigeria?
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Polycarp Onwubiko, media commentator, writes from Awka.
