Banditry still runs deep

A local government chairman in Sokoto State cut a pathetic picture as he narrated the menace of bandits in his area to the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle. In a report on October 11, Sharifu Kamarawa, chairman of Isa Local Government Area, told the minister that bandits had taken over swathes of territory in the state, installing traditional rulers, judges, and tax collectors. Many have fled their villages, he said, summing up the sad reality that banditry in its worst form is still alive and well, and runs deep in the country.

It is a recast of a better-forgotten past in which the terror group, Boko Haram held sway in parts of the North-East, occupying 20 out of 26 local governments in Borno State. Residents fled as the invaders burnt down homes, police stations, courts, schools, and traditional rulers’ palaces. They killed, maimed, raped, and plundered food stocks. The Nigerian flag was torn down and set on fire, replaced with the invaders’ black banner. The structures spared were turned into the living quarters and offices of the extremists, whose ultimate agenda was to establish an Islamic caliphate in the country. They kidnapped people for ransom but their onslaught would peak in 2014 with the abduction of over 270 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, followed up in 2018 with the kidnap of about 110 female students from another school in Dapchi, Yobe State.

The military pushed back the invaders and reclaimed lost territory during the Buhari administration. But it wasn’t the end of Boko Haram. Indeed, the group expanded and strengthened, joining forces with similar organisations like the Islamic State’s West Africa Province. Now, rather than dissipate, the menace has spread to the North-West and North-Central where attacks on farmers and schools, and kidnapping for ransom continue apace despite the efforts of the military. These assaults account for Nigeria’s dwindling food stock as farmers are kept out of their farms. Boko Haram and other insurgency groups are reckoned to have killed tens and thousands of people, and forced over two million from their homes.

“Bandits have taken over parts of my local government area and act as traditional rulers, and judges. Sir, they have become an authority of their own. They even mediate and settle disputes in the communities,” Kamarawa told Matawalle, who was in the area to assess the troops’ performance. “It’s very painful, Sir, that we have no control or authority over our people in that axis, including my village, Kamarawa. Bello Turji, Dan Bokolo, Garso, and many bandits’ kingpins are moving freely and exercising their powers over our people without challenge.”
Kamarawa said parts of his council had “become a haven for bandits and other criminal gangs.” He begged the minister to come to their aid and free their communities, which he said were ‘in shackles.’ The council chief also told Matawalle that the bandits imposed taxes on the communities and ‘collected levies at will.’
Urgent measures are required to put an end to this. It is often said that counterinsurgency is difficult to prosecute because there is no pitched battle. The enemy appears from nowhere, strikes, and disappears. But the scenario the Isa council chairman describes doesn’t fit into the insurgency narrative. The bandits live in the communities and have all the time in the world to select their traditional rulers, judges, and dispute mediators, and set up tax and levy committees. This is not a hit-and-run situation. An occupation army is upon us, a republic within a republic. This is sad and beyond embarrassing to the president and commander-in-chief.

What is the location of the troops Matawalle came to assess? Are they aware of this “republic” the council chairman describes? Are they equipped and motivated? Or are there entrenched forces sabotaging the war effort? The government is losing credibility in the war against insecurity.
The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, made some chilling statements on October 17. He said policemen and soldiers were stealing arms and ammunition and selling them to bandits and other criminal elements. “We have to find a way of putting a stop to this…The worst human being is a policeman or a soldier who will take arms from his own formation and sell them to, or hide them out for, the bad people to come and kill his own colleagues.” A sizable number of arms and ammunition used by bandits and other violent criminals are from security personnel, he added.

 What does Ribadu know? How long has he known it? How many saboteurs have been caught and severely sanctioned? The authorities must redeem their dented reputation. Worsening insecurity suggests that the war strategies are failing, raising questions as to how the troops were able to peg back the insurgents in the past. They must return to that winning strategy. Technology and surveillance infrastructure must be incorporated into the effort. Informants and other saboteurs must be kept in check, and terrorists prevented from establishing a republic in the Republic of Nigeria.