By joshua The ‘epidemic’ and ‘pandemic’ of bandits, terrorists and their collaborators
By Atekojo Samson Usman
Both words in their medical parlance, metaphorically suits description of the reality of bandits in an ungoverned forest and their collaborators who pretensively behave as good citizens.
Like epidemic deases, banditry is spreading probably on daily basis with different camps, proliferation and multiplication of criminal elements across ungoverned forests in almost the 19 northern States and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. In few years ago, they have spread tentacles in the South Western Nigeria.
When Boko Haram was founded in 2002, nobody envisaged its deadliness, until it metamophorsed into idealogical religious sect of a well armed group against the State in 2009.
Seventeen years after, Nigeria is still grappling with a deepening security crisis that has evolved from isolated criminal acts into what can rightly be described as both an epidemic and a pandemic of terrorism and banditry. This menace, once localized in parts of the North East, has spread to North West and North Central and across multiple regions, threatening national stability, economic growth, and human security.
Within this time, the country has lost huge financial and human resources. Well trained security agents, both rank and file have been lost on war fronts. Communities and villages have gone extinct with farmers who survive attacks abandoning their farm land. In the last seventeen years, one could not recall foreign investors coming into the country to propose establishing investment other than some criminal foreigners in cahoots with local criminals mining mineral resources to advance their criminal enterprises.
The organised violent crimes such as kidnapping, cattle rustling, armed robbery, and attacks on rural communities which is labelled ‘banditry’ later evolved due to the government’s inability to muster courage against terrorism which was well sustained over time with the help of collaborators within the security and government circles.
Over the past decade, these activities have intensified, leading to widespread fear and displacement.
Research shows that banditry has transformed into a major national security threat, causing loss of lives, destruction of property, and disruption of socio-economic activities across affected regions
What began as small-scale criminal operations has now developed into coordinated networks with sophisticated strategies and support systems
Government at all levels cannot exculpate themselves from the endless arson. For political interest of fiefs, elements who have been confirmed complicit in security beaches are often appointed into political offices and it’s no wonder there is no end in sight despite huge financial resources being committed to tackling insurgency.
In the North-Western States like Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, and Niger have become hotspots of recurring attacks. In North Central, Benue, Kogi, Niger and Kwara are actively under siege of bandits and Fulani herders.
In North West, bandits operate freely with evasion because those criminal elements are well known allies of some political chieftains who are currently political appointees. Some of those bandits are indigenes and gangsters who have once worked for politicians before they relocated to the forest for “greener pastures”. That underscores reason some political leaders often calls for negotiation and peace meeting and after offering them money in guise of negotiation, they would go back to the forest, thereby gambling with lives of citizens.
Sadly, informants within local communities,
individuals who supply food, fuel, and weapons,
negotiators and middlemen in ransom transactions,
corrupt officials and compromised security agents have caused the menace to linger.
These collaborators enable bandits to sustain operations, evade security forces, and expand their networks.
Banditry has become a huge money spinning industry that has led to splinter group among of bandits because of interests.
What probably emboldening them the more is the lack of judicial sagacity to prosecute bandits and terrorists who have been arrested as some ‘brain tired’ and corrupt judicial officers keep playing planks. This is not only sickening, but not definitely a moral booster to security agents risking their
lives confronting these evil doers.
Atekojo Samson Usman is the CEO of CAPITAL POST