As a reporter on the foreign beat over the years, whenever there is any bomb blast in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan or Iraq, this never takes the lead position in the arrangement of my stories. Why you may ask? There is a 90 percent probability that a bomb would be detonated in the aforementioned countries on a daily basis given the restiveness and the well sophisticated network of al-Qaeda in this region.
The situation at hand is one that shouldn’t be treated with levity; it is either our security forces sit up to take decisive control or their ineptitude would allow fanatics to successfully plant fear in the mind of every Nigerian.
The worst that can happen to any society is when people walk on the streets or sleep in their houses with frights; not knowing when the next bomb would detonate. Every sector in the country would definitely suffer. Not only would foreign investors be scared to bring in their investments; their local counterparts would be forced to relocate in order to protect their investments. Also, public and private infrastructure would be at the mercies of these bombers, even as human lives, which are irreplaceable, mean nothing to them.
Does Nigeria have any proactive counterterrorist force? If the answer to this question is in the affirmative, then one may be tempted to say the force is not alive to its duties; just a group of untrained Nigerians waiting for each month’s pay slips. If there is none, then there is the need to train intelligence personnel to be abreast of tactics in handling the twenty-first century vices, as it is obtainable in countries with organised counter-terrorist teams like the United States, Israel, and United Kingdom.
In August 2009, then visiting US Secretary Of State, Hillary Clinton, warned Nigeria of the infiltration of al Qaeda network into the country. In her words “There is no doubt in our mind that al Qaeda and like organisations that are part of the syndicate of terror would seek a foothold anywhere they could find one, and whether that is the case here (Nigeria) or whether this is a home-grown example of fundamentalist extremism that’s up to the Nigerians to determine.” We would have saved ourselves these national embarrassments and lugubrious situations if adequate measures were put in place to curb the excesses of Boko Haram sect. While we don’t pray for any subsequent attacks like the one witnessed last week, it is the duties of our security operatives to be proactive and equip its intelligence departments on how to get information of this group before their evil designs are perpetuated. Being proactive is not chasing after perpetrators after the deeds and destructions have already occurred; it is obstructing and nipping in the bud any nursed attempts. Maybe there is a need to train our security personnel on how to manage intelligence information. Many of our past criminal confrontation with government and murders remain unresolved and the mockery keeps staring us in the face when at press briefings security forces announce “investigations are ongoing to track perpetrators”. We all know how such investigatory exercises usually end.
There have been news reports that The Movement for the Actualization of the Soveriegn State of Biafra (MASSOB) is planning to take to the same strategy of bombing attacks like Boko Haram. If there is any truth in these reports, then conciliatory approach to Boko Haram won’t be a solution. How many of such devilish inclinations would government continue to appease? It is either they are annihilated and chased out of the country or every one of us takes to our fate and continues to bear more of such deadly onslaughts.
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