The Politics of Insecurity in Kaduna State -By Aliyu Yau

Kaduna, one of the coolest states in Nigeria has suffered several ethnoreligious crises, the Kapanchan’s 1980s, Zango’s 1990s, Sharia triggered of 2000s, the politically motivated of 2010s upward and many more that fall within this range. This is no surprise, considering the ethnic diversity, coupled with the dominance of two religions in the state, Islam, and Christianity; and more importantly, lack of good governance which led to structural violence. Johan Galtun opined that diversity is much likely to cause disunity than uniformity; however, some exceptional places devoid of all the differences, experience relative peace, as in India, China, Israel, Ghana, Iran, or Nigerian states like Kogi, Niger, and Gombe etc. Even though Nigeria is as heterogeneous as Africa itself, most of the communal clashes occur in the north, the home to most of the ethnic groups in the country.

The polarization of Kaduna city into theirs and ours (ethno-religious lines, south, and north) is very unfortunate, baffling, and it has reduced the inter-ethnoreligious coexistence which is supposed to promote peace and order across the city. I was once at Kakuri/Barnawa axis (I couldn’t recall the name of the area correctly) for an election ad-hoc work in 2011, when violence erupted, we, the Muslims had to take refuge in the nearest police station, because mob might lynch us. When we were smuggled back to the northern part of the city, I learned that, the Muslim youths/gang attack or block roads linking to the southern part. Tit for tat, they called it. The reality is, when an opposite faith or tribe is locked in a strange environment during a conflict in the city or elsewhere, his survival would be in the hand of God. So many petty traders from both sides fall victim for no reason. The questions to ask are: have those killings change the status quo of the society? Did the killings stop the political office holders from mismanaging public funds or dining together? What’re the benefits, the lost ones have gone forever, the vendetta continue. You’ the ordinary have always been the victims, not even worth the headlines.

When I came across the news of CCTV installation in some areas of Southern Kaduna, I submerged into the thought of how and where? Of course, to mitigate threats, halt crimes, or for information hunting purposes, the state must sacrifice a lot for reconnaissance, surveillance, tracking, and target acquisition. But the question to ask is, what type of crimes? Who are the targets? What technology or approach is/are to be adopted? How and Where? Undoubtedly, CCTV is a good surveillance technology, but the context of its application matter a lot, hence its application to tame banditry seems very un-calculated.

The crimes meant to be halt by the cctv in this scenario is/are quite well unpredictable of where, when and how it’ll/they’ll happen, except if the surveillance gadgets would be fixed in all the remote areas of Southern Kaduna, feeder roads, federal highways and state’s roads within/across the state. Strategically, cctv would be of less relevance especially when mobile nature of the perpetration is considered. However, even with the sophisticated night vision, solar powered or rechargeable batteries, a fixed gadget, with short range of motion-image coverage solving the problem of non-fixed targets that operate randomly at will? Doubted.

For surveillance of such crimes, participant intelligence observation, infiltration, chumming, or technologically, information dominance through phone calls interception, unmanned aerial vehicles deployment, and many more are to be brought into the light (read: action), and eying on the target’s center of gravity. If really the government is serious, there are more than enough experts to help get the cat out of the bag. There were several allegations of some higher-table hands in the insecurity ravaging the north, we’ve heard enough, even thou, public/masses have no access to such information, probably because of the high-sensitivity of the issues or classified due to security concern. No amount of reversal or apology by the elite whistleblowers can clear the doubt instilled in the heart/minds of Nigerians.

For instance, there are a number of speculations of heli-landings in some areas dominated by the bandits. The daily-trust of 22nd August, 2019 reported the story of the bandit in Katsina who alleged weapons are supplied to them by unknown sponsors, arms dealers or illegal miners, whose identities he couldnt relate; prior to Mai-lafiya’s claim of an unknown northern governor arming bandits, Jonathan was also blamed for not having much interest towards ending Boko-haram crisis, where we’re today? Nothing has stopped. In similar vein, the “if I talk about Nigeria, nobody’ll sleep again” of T.Y Danjuma still extant in the heart/mind of Nigerians, if not for anything, because of his access to plethora of defence/security information as a retired General and former defence minister. What’s more, such allegations wouldnt allow the minds of heterogeneous Nigerians to settle in peace, especially when they are from public figures.

The politicization of CCTV installation in Southern Kaduna detected are (if we are to go by SK peoples narrative), why has the state government refuses to mention the Birnin-Gwari axis, Giwa, and other affected local governments in the northern and western part of the state? When the killings, kidnappings, destruction of properties, and rural-urban migration occurs every blessed day, tripling the Southern Kaduna. Didn’t they deserve the CCTV and drones too? Was there difference in strategic and tactical operation of the atrocities in the two different parts of the state?

God knows, Southern Kaduna is one of the areas I detest shuttling around, until when necessary, not only there, Plateau local government areas too, out of bounding. I am as serious as a heart attack on this, not out of prejudice or ethnic myopia, not as well taking anything personal. I cannot be too careful with my life, especially when stories of road blockading(s) that consumed the lives of passengers occur frequently in those areas; General Alkalis incidents still fresh in memory.

Some years back, a good sister and friend of mine got married around such areas, she seriously wanted my presence, amidst looming tensions of ethno-religious crises; all I did was to apologized. Those places have a bitter test for Hausa and most especially Fulani’s, I personally, look like a typical Fulani boy, even though, and I couldn’t remember being one, in the lineage. I can’t be too careful, these are areas where even Generals and top-top security officers are killed on roads.

Evidently, there is hardly a state with no record of communal or ethno-religious crises in Nigeria, what many complaints about Plateau state and Southern Kaduna axis are road blocking, a general vendetta on motorists or travelers. No society can live as an island, even if southern Kaduna becomes a state, other religions and tribes must live within or passes through it. Muslims, Christians, all tribes are first human before they got separated. Everyone needs one another.

Inasmuch I detest the attitudes of some Southern Kaduna youths and elders, similarly not okay with how governor El-rufai is taking the issue too personal. A leader is for everyone, those that elected him and those that didn’t, on whatever ground, regardless, he should against emotional tendencies onboard those that could be on-boarded, be cautious about what he says, because he’s no longer ordinary. This is what Mai lafiya lack as well, he’s a public figure too, just like Elrufai, and they’re both not considering the repercussions, before spewing those dangerous claims and lame-games.

The better Nigerians understand that their problem is that of bad governance, not one another, the better for national development. The country moves to nowhere when upheaval fills the front pages of the national dailies.

Aliyu Yau is a public policy and defence analyst.