By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Catholic bishops have asked Muhammadu Buhari to be sincere in the fight against insecurity, saying Nigeria is now one of the world’s most terrorised nations, buffeted by attacks against military targets, more killings and internally displaced persons.
Global Terrorism Index (GTI) ranked Nigeria the fourth most terrorised among the 162 countries in the world in 2014 and it inched up to the third slot in 2015 – behind two Islamic countries, Iraq (first) and Afghanistan (second).
A report published by Statista.com in March 2021 listed Afghanistan as the country with highest global number of deaths by terrorism in 2019 (41 per cent) and Nigeria second (9 per cent).
Buhari refuses to prosecute terrorists, engages in a ‘charade’
Kunle Olawunmi, a former military intelligence chief, exposed Buhari’s hypocrisy about Islamist terrorists on Channels Television on August 25, saying Buhari and all the security agencies have a dossier on the jihadists and their sponsors.
“It [the attack on the NDA] is an aberration; you don’t attack the Nigerian Defence Academy and get away with it. In 2017, I carried out an investigation by the minister of defence that wanted me to check what was going on with the training and the security there [NDA], said Olawunmi, a retired Navy Commodore.
“Why should a government decide to cause this kind of embarrassment and insecurity to the sense of what happened yesterday [Tuesday August 24] at the NDA?”
“I remember I spent about a week in the NDA with the commandant and the staff but something struck me: every Friday, the gate of NDA is thrown open and everybody has access to pray in the mosque.
“On Fridays, you are going to see the same thing happening across all military formations in the country .… If you go to Defence Headquarters, I served at the Defence Headquarters as the Deputy Director, Defence Administration between 2015 and 2017.
“Throughout my two years at Defence Headquarters, I received visitors twice because of the strict security architecture there but every Friday, the gate of the Defence Headquarters is thrown wide open for everybody to come in and observe Jumat.
“That is the time the terrorists profile our security environment. It has always been the case.
“I have served the military intelligence for the past 35 years. Our problem is religion and socio-cultural.”
“You remember this Boko Haram issue started in 2012 and I was in the military intelligence at that time. We arrested those people. My organisation actually conducted interrogation and they (suspects) mentioned names.
“I can’t come on air and start mentioning names of people that are presently in government that I know that the boys that we arrested mentioned. Some of them are governors now, some of them are in the Senate, some of them are in Aso Rock.
“In April this year, the government said they had arrested 400 Bureau De Change (BDCs)-related people that were sponsoring Boko Haram. They told us.
“Why is it that the Buhari government has refused to try them? Why can’t this government bring them to trial if not that they are partisan and part of the charade that is going on?”
Warning against Nigeria becoming Afghanistan
The Taliban took over Afghanistan on August 15 after 20 years of guerrilla warfare against the United States which occupied the country to kill al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden and to decimate the terror network of the Islamist jihadists.
On August 30, the US finally pulled out of its longest war that took the lives of 2,500 American troops and 240,000 Afghans, and cost $2 trillion. The US failed to achieve its aim of wiping out the insurgents and establishing democracy in Afghanistan.
Six years after the GTI ranked Nigeria third on the global terror scale, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) warned that Nigeria is now one of the most terrorised nations in the world, and most take steps to avoid becoming Afghanistan.
The bishops expressed their views in a communique issued by the National Director of Social Communications, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja at the end of the second plenary of the Bishops’ Conference.
The communique was signed by CBCN President Augustine Akubeze and Secretary Camillus Umoh.
The bishops asked the federal government to end insecurity in the interest of the traumatised generation, and said Abuja must be balanced and seen to be so in its response to terrorism, per reporting by Vanguard.
They condemned widespread attacks by terrorists, saying, “life has never been so cheap, nor has Nigeria ever been at the stage we are now.”
Tackling terrorism in national interest
It is in the interest of the federal government and the entire country, the CBCN stressed, to ensure youths nationwide are gainfully employed to reduce unrest.
“Deaths in the hands of kidnappers, killer herdsmen, bandits, terrorist groups have made Nigeria one of the most terrorised countries in the world,” the bishops said.
“The abductions of school children present us with the prospects of a traumatised generation of young people.
“We recognise the efforts being made by the government to fight insecurity in the land.
“However, we stress that the government needs to show more strategic commitment and sincerity in this fight and take full responsibility for the present culture of violence and impunity in the country.
“We urge government at all levels to provide the enabling environment that would make it possible for both the government and the private sector to create job opportunities for our teeming youth population.
“This would surely reduce the danger of insecurity and unrest.
Separatist agitation, electoral reform
“We recognise the rights of peoples to self-determination; yet we emphasise that the exercise of such rights must be within the confines of the rule of law. We urge the government to ensure a just and fair trial of the arrested key players in the struggles.
“To mismanage these cases is to trigger off further avoidable unrest.
“We reiterate that the struggle for the ‘soul’ of Nigeria, that is presently ongoing, will not be won by ethnic cleansing, nepotism, kidnapping and banditry but by love, fairness and equity, common good and patriotism.
“While congratulating the federal government for enacting the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, the Bishops also advised that the federal government should address the genuine concerns of the people regarding some clauses in the Act.”
The CBCN said although the Catholic Church does not support any political party, the CBCN would back any government that prioritises the welfare of the people.
It insisted that there is an urgent need for a fair and credible electoral process in the country and rejected the passage of the new Electoral Act without provision for electronic transmission of results.
“We therefore state loud and clear that the recent voting by the National Assembly against electronic transmission of results of elections will create an opening for further manipulation of electoral votes and lay the foundation for more conflicts in future elections.
“We call on the National Assembly to reconsider its position in the light of world best practices.”