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As a country, we hardly pay attention to the most important things. On the contrary, we are often occupied with trivial, age-long divisions and matters of that nature which as mindset are not very different from fiddling while Rome burns. That is why, for instance, the nation’s cash cow, the oil sector, can be in dire peril with Nigerians cruelly shortchanged in terms of earnings, and most of what we hear are lamentations and wailings devoid of decisive actions. It is the same mental software that explains, at least to a large extent, how Nigerians can be besieged, their occupations in jeopardy, their movement drastically curtailed by terrorists, their future rendered uncertain and life goes on as usual.
A few months back, this columnist warned about the growing terrorism in Yorubaland and asked the question whether Yorubaland is becoming the new battleground for another terrorist-offensive. As far as I can remember, characteristic official silence, even from those who are supposed to care, was the response to that warning. Life continued as usual. So, if the bandits were test-running a strategy to invade Yorubaland or turn it into a war zone as they had done to the North-West and the Middle Belt, they had learnt enough from us to conclude that an escalated attack would be met with little or no resistance. Mark you, the politicians are still campaigning and saying very little about the enveloping and dangerous miasma.
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A fortnight ago, The PUNCH, carried the ominous headline “Bandits return to the South-West.” This was in the immediate aftermath of the capture on his way from work of well known Political Science scholar and former Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Adigun Agbaje, who escaped death by a whisker, with the windscreen of his car penetrated by bullets which were partially shielded by his cap. He was to be in the kidnappers’ den for another two nights before he was released. Some others were captured along with him in an intensive raid on the outskirts of Ibadan. It is remarkable that the incident sent shockwaves around the country and within the global community.
Please note, no politician or public intellectual of note has written to berate this happening which occurred along with others on the Abeokuta-Lagos Road and several portions of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. On Tuesday this week, to cite another example, commuters were running helter-skelter in the vicinity of Sapade, Ogun State as bandits seized the highway shortly before dusk and drivers were reversing in panic, several of them allegedly aborting their journey to escape the hammer of the terrorists. All of these are taking place in the sequel to the alerts issued by Western governments that the Nigerian state itself was about to be decisively confronted by terrorists.
As this writer has often noted, reactions to this kind of happenings are often too little and too late. What you typically get are tepid assurances that all will be well, with some officials interested more in debating with Western sources of intelligence rather than using them as template to plan resistance and counter-terrorism. As far as Yorubaland is concerned and given the skewed nature of our federalism, security is the purview of the central government, with every effort to amend this constitutional howler in a federal state frustrated. As we speak, the silence of those who should be in charge, notwithstanding; that part of the country is up for grabs unless there is a drastic revision of strategy and political will. The stark question on every lip is how long Nigerians will endure this nightmare while citizens are being sent to their early graves by terrorists.
The focus on Yorubaland is warranted in view of its location and pedigree as the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria harbouring a good deal of the billionaires and wealthy people in the country. It has always been a coveted prize for terrorists, with the famed expression of some of them that they would “dip the Koran into the sea.” That unfortunate statement was re-echoed not long ago by the former Prelate of the Methodist Church Nigeria, His Eminence Samuel Kanu-Uche, who in the course of his captivity by terrorists claimed to have heard them discussing the imminent possibility of a seminal attack on the southern part of the country, including especially the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Tragically, not a few in high positions dismissed the Prelate’s claim as false, exaggerated or sensational. Is this sad narrative not itself an example of how low we have come in the recent past, considering that leaders can, out of hand, dismiss claims from senior citizens they have not investigated?
I recall quoting a colleague at the time, saying, if someone pointed a gun at your head, would you prepare for an attack or for a counter-attack, run for dear life or wait to find out if it was a toy gun? Time will tell how Nigeria got trapped in this insecurity miasma with precious citizens being kidnapped for ransom, outrightly decapitated, schools and colleges invaded, with far from adequate resistance by security institutions. Recall too that concerned Yoruba patriots fought the battle of their lives to establish Amotekun in the face of official opposition to it, and the withering away of their military capability by confining their weaponry to the most elementary. Time will also tell how much of the resistance is calculatedly feeble, and to what extent those who ought to be in charge prefer to snooze only to wake up when matters have gone terribly awry and lives have been lost.
Of course, the chloroforming of leadership does not apply to the entire spectrum. There are a few who care, who articulate the griefs and dangers, who see beyond their private comforts, who articulate that Nigeria ought not to go down the drain or become the butt of acid jokes globally. Regrettably, however, they are few and far between; and sadly, have done little to prevent the country slipping into the dragon’s net.
In the wake of recent operations in Yorubaland, a distinguished Professor based in the United States sent me a terse note that the victims could have been any of us. In other words, no matter how educated, influential or renowned, the kidnappers’ ever dangling weaponry has become an equal opportunity destroyer of the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians. For those who hide behind party politics to defend, apologise for or justify raging atrocities, the question goes out, How many more victims will the terrorists secure before spirited official actions are taken to end the dangerous nonsense? Is anyone thinking at all about what our children and grandchildren will say when they weigh the gravity of the moment against the flabby character of the resistance?
It is not too late, perhaps, to make a turnaround. But this must come as a holistic effort, not just of officialdom, but by the civil society and the masses, energised by a patriotic duty to save the fatherland from demystification and calibrated disaster. This may even be more important or just as important as the elections; for what are elections if the beneficiaries are too serially traumatised with several already dead?
It is time to put on our thinking caps.
Ayo Olukotun
