By Wole Olaoye
The incursion of terrorists from the northern states to the southwest of Nigeria was all too predictable. We had warmed about that possibility over the years. The crisis is not from lack of warnings but from the failure to convert warnings into interoperable, cross-border security. There has been a steady expansion from border belts into SW corridors: After intensified operations up north, armed groups have exploited forest corridors through Kwara, Kogi, and into Ekiti, Oyo, Ondo, and Osun. They’ve entered Ogun forests through Oyo. Rural dwellers have been warning the nation on social media for a while. Governments at all levels—especially state and local governments—failed their people.
The much-anticipated regional coordination through the Southwest Development Commission is yet to take off, so criminal networks cross state lines faster than intelligence and enforcement do. Individual responses by states in the belt are fragmented and pathetically inadequate. There are vast semi-governed corridors around the Old Oyo National Park which sit on precious metals and are attracting miners of all shapes. As we have seen elsewhere, banditry is a handmaiden of mining in some parts of Nigeria.
UNSPEAKABLE HORROR
Because of the many fronts simultaneously open all over the country, security forces have been spread thin. Therefore, kidnapping economies have blossomed; coordinated abductions and ambushes along transit routes and farmlands are reshaping daily life and commerce. Kidnapping markets which are mature in the North are beginning to take root in the South.
The abduction of teachers, a nursing mother, students and pupils—some of them as young as two years old—from the Ogbomosho axis has globally advertised our reversion to the dark ages. Mr Michael Oyedokun was one of the teachers abducted by bandits from the Community High School, Ahoro-Esinele. Other schools attacked by the bandits include Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yawota, and LA Primary School, Ogbomoso, all in Oriire Local Government. The gruesome recorded decapitation of Mr Oyedokun seems to have roused the larger society and the state authorities from their habitual somnambulance.
A journalist, social activist and politician, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, elegised as follows:
How does a human being place a knife on the neck of another human being and slaughter him like a ram prepared for Ileya?
A harmless man. A law-abiding citizen. A teacher whose only “crime” was going to work to educate the future of our country…
Those eyes.
Those tears streaming helplessly down his face in his final moments.
They pierced my soul….
TERROR CLIP
Nigerians are now tired of reading from our communally authored book of lamentations. Where else in the world do terrorists kidnap people, demand ransom from their victims’ relatives using mobile phones, collect the negotiated ransom and vanish into thin air to go and enjoy their loot? One of the audio clips shared on social media showed our level of helplessness.
Terrorist: Mama, speak to your people. If they don’t bring the ransom, we kill you.
Mama: Hello my son, please hold on and speak to them. They are threatening to slaughter me.
Relative: Hello, my friend.
Terrorist: Hello, Omo Iya (speaks in Yoruba with unmistakable northern inflection). Good morning. Hope you’ve been told how much to pay for the life of your mother?
Relative: Yes. We are working hard. So far, we’ve raised N2.5 million
Terrorist: You’re playing games with me? Your mother will die today!
Relative: Please, have mercy. It is not easy to raise money. In God’s name, please reduce your demand. Now that we have N2.5 million, how much should we add?
Terrorist: If you don’t bring N20 million, consider your mother dead.
Relative: Please, in God’s name. Can we round it up to N3 million?
Terrorist: Three what? I swear by God, I will kill this woman. If you want to see your mother again, find N20 million. Otherwise, I will slaughter her!
Relative: Please, accept N3 million in God’s name so that our mother can return home, please!
Mama: (Background noise. Shouts of agony) Hello, they’re whipping me seriously. Oh God, I’m dead…
The family thereafter released the audio clip to the public and appealed for help in raising the balance of the N20 million demanded.
FIGHT BACK OR DIE
Nigerians want the government to do things differently going forward. We don’t just need to clear the terrorists from the forests of the southern states; we must get rid of the vermin from the source, starting with tactical tweaks. First, isn’t it about time we reinforced the structure of our regional development commissions to make them capable of handling regional security?
The authorities must now deploy long-endurance intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) drones which can stay airborne for over 24 hours, mapping out blind spots. We must also massively deploy thermal imaging sensors that can detect the heat signatures of hidden camps, vehicle movements, and terrorists’ gatherings at night.
We must make use of small, agile tactical drones to patrol known smuggling routes in order to block land and riverine routes for the smuggling of weapons, food, and fuel across Nigeria’s porous 4,000 km borders with Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Benin and also neutralise ISWAP logistics boats and supply drops.
We must intensify the high-precision tactical strikes in conjunction with the Africom forces to take out terrorists without civilian casualties. At the same time, we must intensify the use of suicide (“kamikaze”) drones that can hover over a specific area until a target is identified, then fly directly into it to detonate. Our forces shouldn’t be getting caught in cheap ambushes. Before an infantry unit advances into a high-risk zone, small quadcopters should be deployed to scan the area for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or planned ambushes.
Feeding live drone footage directly to field commanders to ensure that they have total situational awareness is essential. Some states have been advertising their massive command and control centres in recent months. Were all those for the TV cameras only?
The task at hand concerns not only the government but also traditional rulers, retired veterans, local, state and federal governments, hunters, Amotekun and similar security corps, vigilantes and youth groups in all communities. Security is too important to be left to security officers alone.
Elder statesman Sule Lamido was characteristically frank in assessing the situation: “There is nowhere in the world where what is happening in Nigeria is acceptable… This has been happening for almost ten years. A human being, whether a Muslim or your neighbour, has become a commodity for transaction. We are at a critical juncture in the North. We must wake up and do something substantial to address the issue or face the consequences.”
I align myself with the suggestion of the Majeobaje Community Development Initiative, a socio-political group in southwest Nigeria, that communities must be trained and equipped “to lawfully defend themselves so they are not frustrated into taking the law into their own hands”. The organisation also advised political office holders to channel more resources towards grassroots security efforts rather than election-related activities. A free-for-all will be messy and may dismantle Nigeria as presently constituted.
The information out there is that the southwest is effectively surrounded by the terrorists. The demons are only waiting for the necessary command from their headquarters to strike simultaneously on many fronts across the region.
If we don’t promptly meet this challenge with the required ferocity of a tornado, we are toast.