By Farooq Kperogi Twitter: @farooqkperogi It has just been reported that least 11 soldiers have been murdered by terrorists in Kaduna, a fe...
By Farooq Kperogi
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
It has just been reported that least 11 soldiers have been murdered by terrorists in Kaduna, a few days after the same terrorists bombed two Kaduna-bound trains in quick succession, murdered and kidnapped scores of passengers, and gunned down soldiers sent to rescue passengers.
And there was no consequence for this. Passions were inflamed, government officials traded blames, and the presidency issued its predictable press release.
So far, the only person who has paid a price for it is Sheikh Nuru Khalid who was fired from his imamship for speaking up against it and asking for accountability.
Recall, too, that some months backs, terrorists invaded the Nigerian Defense Academy in Kaduna, killed some soldiers and abducted others without the slightest resistance.
Why is Kaduna such a sitting duck for terrorists even though it has more military formations than any city in Nigeria? It is, for all practical purposes, Nigeria's military headquarters.
From the outside looking in, it seems to me like terrorists are more powerful than the Nigerian military, which is another way of saying we're in deeper trouble than we realize. If Kaduna, with all its military bases, has become the epicenter of terrorist attacks, one can only imagine how vulnerable other less "fortified" cities are.
What sort of military becomes reliably powerless, helpless, unresisting, and subdued before terrorists?
Something is definitely amiss!
the only logical explanation for the seeming helplessness of the military as it were is that, there's a high level of both military & civilian sabotage against the Nigerian state as well as the possibility of a 'hidden agenda'@ play here...it's same reason I sympatize with those that av practically lost faith in the resourcefulness& wisdom of 1 Nigeria and see a southern Nigeria president as d only available remedy to the shenanigans at play
ReplyDeleteI don't think a southern president is the solution. A southern president is likely to come in plain-faced, unaware, even if he unearths the ploy for this escapades, he isn't likely to truncate it against the backdrop of the deeply ingrained Northern salve of manipulation - Religion & Regional sentiments - which engenders trepidation & elusive approach to bull-eye attack of knotty national problems. So, I don't see that as an antidote. I have said, what we need today,is the painful nostalgic loss, unfashionable though - the military styled brutal arrest of destroyers of Nigeria - faulted key players of contemporary Nigeria spanning about two & a half decades of roll-call & making them account for stolen funds, aiding & abettment of violence that have plundered Nigeria. That leader can't come from the south, he has to fit into the salve, dousing the ingredience of manipulation, thus emboldened with a moral high ground to act ruthlessly to resuscitate what is left of a syncopic Nigeria!
ReplyDeleteI think it is partly because Kaduna is the largest, most forested and second most populated state in the North West. It has large swathes of forests that provide cover for the terrorist. It has many sparsely populated communities that are vulnerable. It has more ethnic and religious diversity than all other North West states combined. It is also highly cosmopolitan. All these factors, which ordinarily should be sources of strength have also become fault lines because the government at the federal level, which is in charge of security have failed to take proper actions to tame the terrorists.
ReplyDeleteThis madness could never have happened under an Obasanjo presidency...
ReplyDeleteThe federal government is clearly sympathetic to the cause of these terrorists.
Buhari has truly failed.
Meanwhile, lol at the first comment above. I barely understood him.