By Paul Arhewe, Online/Foreign Editor
THE HAVOC from the Somali al-Qaeda linked group al-Shabaab is not only growing; the invoking fright from the devilish group’s expansion outside the Mogadishu borders calls for concern to all African governments especially in the area of security fortification and alertness.
In its deadly fashion, this group known for possessing the penchant for killing innocent people for the sake of propagating an extreme Islamic faith, the insurgents turned a joyous ending for viewers of the last football World Cup to a lugubrious one. In twin suicide bombings last Sunday, 74 football lovers in Kampala were dispatched to the great beyond, for having a crime to be in a country that sent 3,000 troops to join the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to help in quelling the rising level of insurgency in the North African country. The world in unison has condemned this dastardly and wanton killing over a cause to propagate a faith that is paradoxically a religion of peace. The group claimed it carried out the terror attack due to Uganda government’s snub to its request to stop sending its troop to Somalia. In its words: “We warned Uganda not to deploy troops to Somalia; they ignored us,” said Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, al-Shabaab’s spokesman. “We warned them to stop massacring our people, and they ignored that. The explosions in Kampala were only a minor message to them. ... We will target them everywhere if Uganda does not withdraw from our land.”
What is African governments doing securitywise to counter threats of more onslaughts from such group? As Ugandan government has vowed to crush their uprising by sending more troops, al-Shabaab is threatening that what happened last week is a tip of the iceberg of what the Ugandan people stand to receive if its government persisted.
Al-Qaeda group in the Middle East has strongholds in Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, and Afghanistan. Their deadly suicide bombings of decades are no more weighty news or front-page banner due to their daily occurrences. In that part of the world, suicide bombings from this extremist group is now in fact a way of life and the people there have come to terms with them.
Back home, is Nigeria government stepping up security to prevent or quell any surprise move of such ‘servants of death.’ Report has it last week that the remaining fashion of the notorious Boko Haram sect group in Northern part of the country posted an Arabic message in al-Qaeda website. When translated, it was a message of solidarity and support for the cause of Iraqi al-Qaeda and commiseration with the group over the demise of its leaders Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi who allegedly were killed during the U.S.-led troop attacks in the country. Imam Abubakar Skekau, a deputy of the Boko Haram, the sect group that killed and maimed scores during last July mayhem, has called for more attack on the Americans and hailing the dead al-Qaeda leaders as Hero of Islam.
The same sect group would definitely be in support with al-Shabaab, especially in lieu of its recent achievement in the Kampala bloodletting.
If this group should infiltrate our borders or pass the act of suicide bombing to their supposedly brotherhood in Nigeria, then the carnage of destruction to lives and property would remain unimaginable; given the poor security network we have and population mass. This indeed, is a call to plan ahead even before any fanatical group would even nurse the idea of suicide bombing in the country. Some may say at present we are not in the red alert or in danger zone, but the Uganda people were caught napping, and couldn’t tell what hit them, not until after the act.
Policing in Nigeria, without mincing word, has become an open disgrace to our society and a bane to economic growth. Checkpoints in every nook and cranny of the country have been converted to ‘toll gate’ where the bounties are not remitted to government coffers. Police stations are now houses for loot collections; after every day’s work you see members of the force go home with a fraction of what they were able to collect from hapless citizenry. In fact, the force men have coined the nomenclature ‘tapping’ for their shameful act. Kidnapping in South East and South-South parts of the country is on the increase simply because the police has lost every sense of professionalism and see their uniform as a means of milking the people they are meant to protect. They are known to abet men of the underworld in their act of criminality. How would such security force be a pillar of hope to the Nigerian society? Surely, a suicide bomber with a vast will elude our security personnel as most times they are preoccupied and distracted with the tapping toll they collect in streets and checkpoints, and lose focus over their primary area of assignment.
Nigerian government and security officers should wake up and brace up for the challenge ahead, and desist from treating with kid gloves the threats from the remnant of the Boko Haram group, especially as it commemorates one year of their leader’s death. It is no news that Boko Haram sect abhors western civilisation, what should be news is their alignment and camaraderie with al-Qaeda. The signal is clear, this group is subscribing to the devilish act of terrorism, even if it has not yet graduated to suicide bombing.
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