Boko Haram’s Sitting Ducks

I went walkabout this morning through Yabatech, Unilag and the Bruce family’s E-Center (Ozone) on Commercial Avenue and back home. I checked out the two Nigerian Army barracks on Commercial Avenue and at the T Junction that welds Commercial Avenue to Murtala Muhammed Way (MMW). I came back home ruminating that we, the Nigerian state and Nigerians, cannot win the war against the Godless viral epidemic called Boko Haram (BH) as long as we continue to do things the way we do them now.

At the WAEC gate of Yabatech I saw a fellow with a metal detecting wand manning the pedestrian path. I was abreast two apparent students, young men, with the usual backbreaking backpacks. The guard approached one of them but was brushed off with a ‘Don’t you know who I am?’. This in a school community approaching 50,000. It is great to see our youngsters picking up the typical naija bigman hubris so early even when it might just result in fatal own goals. The guard fell back and didn’t even bother to go near the other chap. I, in my sneakers, trousers and shirt with rolled sleeves but carrying nothing obvious, was not even looked at. I looked across at the guards manning the vehicular path and didn’t notice them using even the silly mirror device we often see our security people check the underside of vehicles with. I have often wondered how those mirrors detect the bombs carried in the boots and passenger compartments of bombers’ vehicles.

At Unilag’s University Road gate I did not notice any checks on pedestrians or vehicles. It was an enticing open door policy all the way.

From Unilag I went to Ozone, a mall and multiplex cinema opposite an Army barrack, and noticed two guards with wands – a male and a female guard. Even lady’s handbags I know get wanded at Ozone and beyond the gate you have the usual coterie of intimidating bouncers. Motor vehicles of patrons aren’t allowed into the premises.

Business done at Ozone I took a look at the barrack opposite and noted that the gate and vehicle barriers hadn’t been upgraded from the flimsy affair I had noticed when the BH mayhem first started. I realized though that this was basically an outfit that produces uniforms for the rest of the Army so maybe it is a low profile target in their view. Hopefully BH has a similarly dim view of the value of ‘bloody army tailors’. The barrack at the T Junction is a different affair though for it is an ordnance depot and not just any ordnance depot but one that is used for stockpiling UN materiel. This much is obvious from the white shipping containers labeled ‘UN’ in bold black stacked two high close to the MMW wall of the barrack. This materiel I presume is meant to service the UN mission deployed in Mali and other parts of West Africa.

From the very first time I noticed this significant fact three years back I have kept tabs on the security of the barrack. Yes the walls are at least 10 feet high and look well made. There are sentry towers dotted around the perimeter and more armed men at the gate and beyond. But the gate itself. And the vehicle barrier. If I lived in a robber threatened compound I wouldn’t feel particularly safe behind that gate and barrier. The barrier pole is slimmer than my arm and I am no Schwarzenegger. It wouldn’t stop a tricycle much less a bomb laden Golf (BH’s favourite kamikaze wagon) or the sort of heavy vehicle BH might just decide to deploy against its enemy number one. We all remember the extreme prejudice which with it took out the UN’s country HQ in Abuja in 2011. Back then the suicide bombers went through TWO barriers to kill 21 and injure 60. If BH decides to send a bomb laden vehicle barreling down Commercial Avenue against that silly excuse for a barrier nothing will stop it penetrating deep into the barrack before detonating and reprising the Ikeja Cantonment disaster of a decade ago for there is a good chance the ordnance laden in the UN containers and in the Quonset buildings could be set off by the primary explosion.

Maybe my self interest in not having a missile from such a disaster coming through my nearby roof finally got me to write this piece. On a more serious note though, our government must begin to spend the N1 trillion annual security budget on something more reassuring than ‘pepper soup’ for the big boys in and out of uniform. It isn’t rocket science or inaccessible military wisdom to know you simply don’t situate the gate into ANY military barrack at the top of a T junction. It is trite to note that vehicle barriers at the gates of military barracks must be made of something stiffer than recycled three inch metal pipes. It might make sense to not advertise the UN materiel at the Yaba Ordnance Depot to the whole world by stacking the UN labeled containers two high right along the fence. You don’t need the stars of a general to realize that a pedestrian bridge shouldn’t be built against the fence of the same depot. Yes, a pedestrian bridge was started across MMW and it would have ended right against the fence of the depot with all comers given a great view of what should ordinarily have been one of the most secure places in Nigeria. The project appears to have been stopped after too many millions had been wasted but I was almost having nightmares while it continued. I kept imagining a BH team armed with rocket launchers and machine guns simply sauntering to the top of the bridge and taking out the whole barrack without suffering a single casualty itself. It was almost a gift from the gods of hell. I believe the civil and military authorities who came up with the idea of that bridge at that particular point and who allowed it to progress so far before it was stopped should answer a few questions and be made to refund the resources wasted.

We must begin to carry out proper threat assessments at all our military and government facilities. We must rank their sensitivity and harden them appropriately. During the cold war era the gates at the Berlin Wall had tank busters built right into the road and I believe major military facilities in more serious nations still have such robust defenses. With the number of barracks and police stations BH has obliterated with next to zero resistance when are we going to start valuing the lives of our men and officers enough to provide them with a fighting chance in this increasingly unequal war? When are the generals going to stop pocketing the multi million naira budgets meant for these defenses and start erecting structures with the stamina to do the job? And not just the generals: when are the Vice Chancellors, Rectors and similar heads of educational and other institutions going to realize that they are some of the most attractive targets for BH? Have they forgotten the multiple attacks on schools in several states across the North of the country? Why are they ignoring the fact that what is forbidden by BH is the boko they claim to teach? As citadels of higher boko when are they going to put the needed resources in place to at least stand a fighting chance if BH ever assaults them or to even deter BH as, like all terrorist organizations, it prefers soft to hard targets?

My kids attend a school where beyond the security men at the gates I have to swipe a card to access the school premises. I work in an office where cars are sniffed for explosives by a device and all parcels including phones are passed through xray machines while staff themselves must pass through metal detectors each time they come into the premises. As for the crash barriers at my office; even an 18 wheeler would be hardpressed crashing through them especially as it must approach them at snail’s speed since they are parallel to the street and not at the end of a race track as we have at the Yaba Army depot. These are private enterprises that seem to better appreciate the times we are in. They lack trillion naira security budgets and have to be conscious of the bottom line yet they use judiciously what they have and attain a significant hardening of their establishments. BH might still assault them but it wouldn’t be a walkover as it has been at so many so called military and para military installations across Nigeria.

We must stop doing BH’s dirty work for it by making our critical facilities such tempting targets. Each time we are tempted to share the budget for guns, drugs, schools or roads we should remember that the naira we are sharing is equivalent to the blood of citizens that will be shed from unbuilt roads, comatose hospitals, easy BH targets etc. When the official wife of the President cried plaintively about the blood she and others are sharing I bet it didn’t occur to her and her handlers that each time 10% or 100% is stolen from official funds they are indeed sharing the blood of Nigerian citizens. You will note that I avoid using the word ‘innocent’ to characterize Nigerian victims. This is deliberate as the unfortunate reality is that more than 90% of the victims of every form of official and private evil in Nigeria would happily carry out the very acts that victimize them given the chance and most cannot even bring themselves to condemn the evil that stalks the land in various forms. Thus there are very few ‘innocent’ Nigerians and I shall not speak a lie but enough said about this as it is itself enough grist for many essays.

For now permit me to stick to a main thesis of this essay which is: the corruption that pervades our land has turned us all to sitting ducks to the mindless anarchy levied by BH against our country. I refuse to accept that the generals, professors in charge of universities etc are too dimwitted or unaware of the threat from BH to do the needful. I am convinced instead that, as always, the necessary funds have been allocated and have been shared among the ‘stakeholders’ with a token deployed to the actual task of securing those establishments. In sharing those funds I accuse all stakeholders of sharing the blood of those that will potentially be slaughtered by BH whenever it decides to cast its baleful glance in the direction of the prostrate institutions. Even as BH and the budget eating potentates share the blood of Nigerians the populace must not tire in pointing out that BH has unparalleled enablement from those who began sharing our blood the minute they decided to share our trillions.

Abraham Maborukoje Idowu

[b]On a more serious note though, our government must begin to spend the N1 trillion annual security budget on something more reassuring than ‘pepper soup’ for the big boys in and out of uniform. It isn’t rocket science or inaccessible military wisdom to know you simply don’t situate the gate into ANY military barrack at the top of a T junction. It is trite to note that vehicle barriers at the gates of military barracks must be made of something stiffer than recycled three inch metal pipes. It might make sense to not advertise the UN materiel at the Yaba Ordnance Depot to the whole world by stacking the UN labeled containers two high right along the fence. You don’t need the stars of a general to realize that a pedestrian bridge shouldn’t be built against the fence of the same depot. Yes, a pedestrian bridge was started across MMW and it would have ended right against the fence of the depot with all comers given a great view of what should ordinarily have been one of the most secure places in Nigeria. The project appears to have been stopped after too many millions had been wasted but I was almost having nightmares while it continued. I kept imagining a BH team armed with rocket launchers and machine guns simply sauntering to the top of the bridge and taking out the whole barrack without suffering a single casualty itself. It was almost a gift from the gods of hell. [/b]

BH keeps exposing the lack of imagination in our defenses.
Vehicles are blocked?
Send unaccompanied luggage!
A suicide bomber would stay with it till it blows.

We nned your type at Jaji.
Not the usual beer and nono guzzlers

Update: https://www.nairaland.com/1837790/boko-harams-sitting-ducks-2#25129871