President Muhammadu Buhari recently declared that his government has succeeded in combating terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and separatist tendencies in Nigeria.
Development Diaries reports that Buhari made this known on Tuesday in Abuja while inaugurating the new Office of the National Security Advisor (ONSA) and National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC).
The president said, ‘I can confidently state here today that we have achieved significant milestones in degrading the major threat and restoring normalcy to most of the hitherto securitised areas in the northeast.
‘These areas previously occupied by terrorists have been freed and internally displaced persons are voluntarily returning to their homes’.
According to International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), although Boko Haram is considered Nigeria’s biggest security threat, the group is not the only threat that citizens in the north face on a day-to-day basis as other insurgent groups have started operating there.
The president’s statement should be called to question given the security challenges Nigeria is grappling with.
Recently, the people of Tumburkai, a community in Katsina State (Buhari’s home state), decried the rising level of attacks ravaging the community.
According to reports, many people in the area have been displaced and several women have been made widows due to several attacks by bandits.
The president ought to be reminded that in parts of Kaduna State and Zamfara State, northwest Nigeria, farmers now pay taxes to terrorists.
In fact, in February 2023, over 100 persons were killed in Kankara local government area of Katsina State after a terrorist attack in Yargoje forest.
The incident, it was gathered, happened after several cows were rustled the previous day by the terrorists.
Many persons reportedly abandoned their various communities due to the incident, even as fears of further violence spread.
In Kaduna State, the Birnin-Gwari Emirate Progressive Union (BEPU), in December 2022, said that over 30 basic schools were attacked in the Birnin Gwari local government area.
Previously, Boko Haram was Nigeria’s biggest security headache; but now, many other non-state armed groups are spreading the violence all over Nigeria.
In as much as it seems insurgency attacks have reduced in the northeast compared to the situation before, the insurgents have not been eliminated, instead, they have broken out into different units to carry out various forms of terrorist attacks.
Maybe those around President Buhari do not really present to him the true nature of things in the country, but it is important that the security situation of Nigeria is not one to make political statements with.
Development Diaries calls on the police and the armed forces to step up their game in ensuring terrorism, banditry and kidnapping are completely halted in Nigeria.
Photo source: Paul Kagame
