Hopefully, we shall not die; we shall live to proclaim the glory of the Lord. But the god of warfare is always on the side of the superior weapon. He who strikes first carries the day. Ask any Ogun worshipper, the god of iron always sides with the faster swordsman. Ask Boko Haram, Ansarul, ISWAP, ISIS, Lakurawa,

Bandit, Unknown Herdsman, Unknown Gunmen, Kidnap kingpins and other messengers of the grim reaper. They would tell you that war is totally different from dambe, the local form of martial arts.
In my younger days, it used to be said that a war foretold shouldn’t take the life of the lame. That was because he would have had all the time to get out of the way or seek assistance to take care of himself. It was scandalous in those days of innocence to expect people to remain sitting ducks waiting to be plucked down by the rifles of raging bands of savages.

Enough Is Enough!

Any politician who continues to preach forbearance to people in the eye of the genocidal storm depredating the country is welcome to go ahead and print his own obituary. He should leave the people to find creative ways of enforcing their right to life. We have gone past platitudes or political correctness now. It is either we do nothing and die, or rise up against the beasts of terror in defence of our lives and heritage.

The other day, Governor Zulum of Borno State cried for help as Boko Haram continued to reverse earlier gains made by the Nigerian military in decimating the ranks of the terror group. Zulum is not a frivolous man.

“While my administration has been very supportive of the military and other security agencies in the fight against Boko Haram, it is disheartening to note the recent attacks and dislodgement of military formations in Wajirko, Sabon Gari in Damboa, Wulgo in Gamboru Ngala, and Izge in Gwoza, along with the killing of innocent civilians and security agents. This calls for serious concern and signals a setback”, he declared.

At the same time, Plateau State was burning. The state government admitted that bandits were in control of 64 indigenous communities in the state. A body count revealed that 58 defenceless people had fallen to the unprovoked attack of the savages.

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) joined in the nationwide outcry against the killings. “The killing spree on the Plateau must be stopped immediately, and peace must return to the state. In the future, ACF calls on the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) to declare a state of security emergency in vulnerable and banditry-prone communities and to initiate effective early warning and early response strategies that incorporate the participation of community members,” said the ACF.

It added that, “The FG should intensify efforts in actionable intelligence gathering, processing and deployment by all relevant security agencies to establish the immediate and remote causes of the latest skirmishes. Investigate, identify, arrest and prosecute perpetrators and enablers of the attacks; fully compensate families for the lives lost and extend relief to those injured.”

Action Required
I’m sorry, many of the statements made by obviously well-meaning but fairly well insulated personalities and groups were too predictable and would do nothing to swing the pendulum of victory to the side of the defenceless people. If we continue in the same tepid way we have been handling these marauders, all we will have on our hands are loads of corpses, additional thousands of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, and a guarantee of asymmetric war from generation to generation between the tribes of the victims and those of the aggressors.
Having written at least 10 articles in the last five years on the matter, I have no intention of boring my readers with a rehash of the details of my well-spelt-out position on how to stem the tide of lawlessness and rein in non-state dispensers of violent death all over the country. But the general principle remains relevant – every security is local!

Our National Assembly members are cowering in Abuja where they are shielded by state-funded security apparatuses instead of promptly passing laws empowering states to establish state police formations and forest guards equipped with adequate armaments commensurate with the level of dangers they will be confronting.

It is intellectually lazy to simply dismiss the idea of state policing with a wave of the hand. Any desperate politician, whether at the federal or state levels, can be inclined to attempt misusing the proposed security formations, so, what’s all the noise about governors hijacking the state police for their own ends.
State policing is not a new idea at all. During the First Republic, apart from the federal police, we had the regional police and local government police in the South. Up North, there was the Native Authority Police. And who says we can’t afford state policing when we can afford unaudited hundreds of billions in opaque security votes in the 36 states and the FCT?

We are in an emergency situation. While putting together the various state formations and training the personnel, we can quickly mop up the forests, hilltops and mountain ranges currently under the control of the terrorists by contracting private military companies (PMCs) to ‘fumigate’ the identified areas taken over by the terrorists and take out their henchmen.

Jonathan’s Initiative

President Jonathan did a similar thing rather quietly before the 2015 elections could be held in the Northeast. He brought in military contractors who fought alongside our armed forces to send Boko Haram packing. If we had seen through that massive exercise, Boko Haram would probably have become history by now. But, as always, continuity is our problem.
The Buhari government cancelled the contract of the South African firm, Executive Outcomes, and the surviving terrorists gladly returned to fill the abandoned spaces.

The foreign soldiers who were part of that exercise came with their own arsenal. They had high praises for Nigerian soldiers, saying they were a professional outfit needing adequate armaments, logistics and political backing. They operated under the overall command of our military chiefs. So, why not, if not?
The rump of the terror herds have found a new sport in the southern states – shooting defenceless motorists and commuters on inter-state highways in the macabre game of kidnapping for ransom. In that department, they have levelled the playing field, kidnapping kings and plebeians, princes and serfs, bloodless civilians and full-blooded generals. We are all sitting ducks.

Need For Arms

Nigerians should now be encouraged to acquire the basic personal light arms for self-defence while the government implements the broader suggestions that require statutory approvals and budget accruals. We ought to have implemented, long ago, the suggestions made by state governors, especially Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of blessed memory, of providing adequate arms and ammunition for the fledgling local security outfits like Amotekun.

Thanks to the social media which never forgets, Akeredolu’s voice still rings out clearly today: “Ondo State government under the doctrine of necessity has decided to fulfil its legal, constitutional and moral duty to the citizens of the state, by acquiring arms to protect them.

“This is more so, given that the bandits have unchecked access to sophisticated weapons. The state government cannot look on while its citizens are being terrorised and murdered with impunity. We will defend our people!”