A large swath of Northern Nigeria is now at the mercy of marauding bandits. From Adamawa to Zamfara, the region has become bandits’ killing fields. Images of massacres are too gruesome to watch and the stories from survivors too heartbreaking to hear but, hearing and watching we must, because this is the reality under which our people now live.

These bandits roll into our towns and villages in convoys of motorcycles riding three on each, brandishing AK47 rifles. They spend hours killing, burning, raping, carting away livestock, and abducting women as sex slaves. They put taxes on the people and keep coming back, again and again to attack because of the absence of law enforcement to protect the people. Security personnel oftentimes show up after the carnage to count the bodies.

It is not only tragic but shameful that these bunch of ragtag bandits on motorcycles wielding nothing more than rusty AK47 rifles can roam the land with impunity causing so many deaths and destruction in a nation with a standing Armed Forces and Police force.

Anytime President Muhammadu Buhari talks about the insecurity bedeviling this nation either at home or at his many international outings, he refers only to Boko Haram without even acknowledging banditry and kidnapping as major security problems.

The few times he talks about banditry, he admits he doesn’t “understand why people of the same religion and ethnicity are killing themselves”. Lately, he has jokingly added that he will speak to them “in the language they understand”. He usually concludes his remarks by saying that he has ordered the Military to be “ruthless” in dealing with them.

The things I find most depressing about the President’s pronouncements and body language are: {1}. He seems distant and disconnected from the realities of our people,. {2}. He sees banditry as a Military problem that requires a Military solution, {3}. He does not appear properly briefed on the causes and the existential threat that banditry poses to the nation, {4}. His unwillingness to understand banditry beyond the Military prism {5}. His refusal to widen his cycle of consultations beyond the Military to involve community leaders, traditional rulers, clerics, victims and their families and academics that have done excellent research on banditry.

MEASURES THAT HAVE NOT WORKED

{1}. Border closure: Closure of Nigeria’s land borders for 16 months has not been effective in stemming the flow of illegal weapons into the country.

{2}. “Rejigging the security architecture”: Which included changing the Service Chiefs and the Presidential directive to them to bring peace to the land so that farmers could return to their farms during the rainy season.

{3}. Shoot on sight order: “The president has ordered security forces to go into the bushes and shoot whoever they see with sophisticated weapons like AK-47. He ordered that whoever is seen with terrible weapons at all should be shot immediately.” – – Garba Shehu (Presidential Spokesman) 3, March 2021.

{4}. Ban on mining in Zamfara stare:

“ His Excellency the President has approved, based on our recommendations, the imposition and enforcement of all mining activities in Zamfara state with immediate effect until further notice. – Gen. B. M. Monguno (NSA) 2, March 2021

{5}. Deployment of massive Military and Intelligence assets: “The President has directed the Hon.Minister of Defence and the National Security Adviser to deploy massive Military and Intelligence assets to restore normalcy to that part of the country” – – Gen. B. M. Monguno (NSA) 2, March 2021.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/banditry-things-are-falling-apart-the-centre-is-not-holding/