Redefining Our Security Threats (2) -By Ochereome Nnanna

The Bola Ahmed Tinubu regime has crossed the 40-day mark. So, what has changed, security-wise? We expected that with the coming of a new president, the Fulanisation killings perpetrated by killer herdsmen in the Middle Belt, especially Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and Taraba, would be immediately confronted with full force.

We expected action against the bandits in the North-West and the continuation of mop-up operations against the steadily dwindling Boko Haram threat. We expected the new administration to identify those fomenting insecurity in the South-East, and take them out. All our expectations have been met with a whimper, not a bang, despite the appointment of new military Service Chiefs and a very boastful Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.

The killings by the Fulani herdsmen have intensified under Tinubu. I am shocked. We thought these Janjaweed killers were allowed a free hand under Muhammadu Buhari because they were his kinsmen. Way back on June 14, 2023, Amnesty International reported that “horrific attacks by gunmen” had claimed 123 lives within three weeks of Tinubu’s accession to power. Everyday, we keep getting fresh numbers. The wailings and mass burials in Benue, Plateau and Southern Kaduna have become such everyday affairs that they have started losing their news value.

The fact that Tinubu’s Presidency does not even react to them is spine-chilling. We demand answers, and we demand action! Enough of playing unbothered. Did Tinubu seek power just to go and enjoy the majestic opulence of Aso Villa? He was sworn in to protect law-abiding Nigerians. Let the Commander-in-Chief in Tinubu start work because lives are being wasted.

More astonishing is the role that self-acclaimed creek militant, Dokubo Asari, is playing in our security architecture. We still have not heard the response of Tinubu’s Presidency to the outrageous claims by Dokubo from the deep bowels of Aso Rock, that he has a “Federal Government” contract to provide security. Dokubo accused the Army and Navy of being behind the oil robberies in the Niger Delta.

He accused them of corruption and ineptitude, adding that his “men” were active in the South-East, Rivers State, and parts of the North, providing security. He boasted that his so-called “men” were far mor effective than our armed forces. Dokubo has been trying to provoke 60 million Igbo people in Nigeria and worldwide with threats of violence which he displayed on camera with an AK-47 assault rifle.

Dokubo, who a few months ago, ranted himself in a viral video as a “Biafran”, is now the protector of Nigeria, just because his preferred presidential candidate was declared elected by the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC’s, Prof Mahmood Yakubu. Dokubo, who is on record as claiming that his grandfather emigrated into Kalabari land from Abam, a neighbouring community to my Abiriba hometown in Abia State, has been calling Ndi Igbo “slaves” he would still be selling if not for the British colonialists.

All these are happening, and Tinubu pretends not to hear. The Directorate of State Security Services, DSS, is curiously looking the other way, feigning ignorance of what is happening. People who should intervene and rein-in this cachinnating cockatoo from his barrage of expensive jokes are refusing to act. Silence is consent. Inaction is approval. Are Ndi Igbo being asked, with silent body language, to “do their worst”?

This brings home an Igbo adage which Rochas Okorocha reduced to Engl-Igbo as Ohashierism: “When one man cooks for the community, they will finish the food and ask for more. But when the community cooks for one man, he can’t finish it”. A word is enough for the wise!

So, what should Tinubu do right now as President, Commander-in-Chief, to defeat insecurity and give Nigeria a chance to resume growth?

Nigeria’s insecurity is classified into two: criminality and agitation. Criminality relates to activities such as those of the bandits. There is no point trying to draw them into any “dialogue”. How do you “dialogue” with criminals? When a criminal kingpin, Osisikankwu, arose in Abia State and became so powerful that he started making political demands, Governor T. A. Orji’s government eliminated him and stamped out his rubbish. That is how to treat criminals. Had T. A. Orji embraced cowardly dialogue, he would have been forced to offer “amnesty” and the usual “post-amnesty” pay-outs. This would have enabled Osisikankwu to arm up more and later branch into politics as Dokubo is struggling to do under Tinubu.

The killer herdsmen must be given a deadline to drop their arms, vacate the forests and come for dialogue for the peaceful resettlement of indigenous nomadic herders in their states of origin. Or, they could acquire lands for their businesses through lawful means. Otherwise, they should be treated as insurgents and flushed out. Their “conquest” misadventures must be brought to a speedy end.

The gunmen in the South-East must also be confronted. Anyone who is forcing people with firearms to stay at home, killing or terrorising people, is a terrorist and criminal. Biafra agitation is a peaceful endeavour. Even Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB has made this clear. Anything more than that must be treated as a crime and terrorism. The resort to the Eastern Security Network, ESN, was to protect the people from killer herdsmen grabbing people’s lands in an overpopulated South-East. Protect the people, and ESN will lose its relevance.

Finally, the Dokubo Asari expensive joke must be stopped. Remove the monkey’s hand from the soup before it becomes a human hand. If Dokubo is being armed to destabilise the South-East or provide security for Nigerians in spite of our Armed Forces, Police and other security agencies, Nigeria and Tinubu will live to regret it.

Dokubo is another budding Sudan Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. If you keep giving him security contracts, he will expand his military power. You must continue giving him. Once you stop, he will turn around and fight you.

Enough said.