Quick one on “Yet not war”
This is Senator Ibrahim Gobir (APC, Sokoto East). Yesterday, there was a motion on the floor of the Senate by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Niger North) on the need to expand the military onslaught against bandits. Senator Gobir, contributing to Senator Abdullahi’s motion dropped a bombshell.
“The situation is so bad that we only get help from Niger Republic,” he was quoted as saying by Daily Trust.
Also yesterday, the NewsWire Nigeria website had this report. In part it reads, “In-country however, community theft has gone up, armed robbery cases have become rampant, and increased police brutality is being seen across the country.”
“Local vigilante’s notified of the incident just after it occurred did a stop and search and found a car suspected to have been used by the robbers.”
“In Kubwa, Abuja, local community policing is replacing the government. Residents continue to fear increases in crime will overwhelm the police stations and are setting up vigilante groups street by street.”
These two taken together are particularly scary. First, the military is deployed pretty much all over the country, and we have police posts everywhere including Kubwa. Yet, citizens have to resort to self-help.
Consider the implications of the statement by a sitting Senator, on the floor of the Senate. It means that Senator Gobir’s statement is a matter of public record. What Senator Gobir said in effect is, “The Nigerian Army cannot protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria, thus Nigerians have to turn to help from our neighbouring Niger Republic.”
Who gave the Nigerien soldiers the right to be on Nigerian soil in the first place? Was it a matter of expediency? Sokoto East shares a border with Niger. Were the Nigerien soldiers 5km away on Nigerien soil, and because the Nigerian Army failed to respond to Nigerian calls for help, they breached Nigeria’s territorial integrity in order to help Nigerian citizens?
In Kubwa who gave the local vigilante the right to start doing stop and search?
These things are linked and let me tell you how…
Both of them show diminishing confidence in the ability of Nigeria’s security services to protect the country’s people, so naturally, people will turn to where they logically believe that they can get help, in the case of Kubwa, to local vigilante, in the case of Sokoto East, to foreigners. Both the same outcome — the weakening of the Nigerian state.
Heck, even the police can’t protect themselves, as this chart from a report by SBM Intelligence shows. These are incidents where the police was attacked, and weapons taken away.
But hey, let’s be enjoying the theatrics by paid hacks while the state burns under our feet.
I’ll be doing an examination of violence Nigeria, “Yet not at war” along with the erudite Chris Kwaja, on behalf of Global Rights. 2pm this afternoon (20 May 2020) on Zoom.
