A MEMBER of the Christ Apostolic Church, (CAC), Oke Isegun, in Eruku, Ekiti Local Government area of Kwara State, Dare Daniel, usually live-streams the Church’s activities on his Facebook page. According to Daniel, that was his own way of spreading the gospel of Jesus.
Last week Tuesday’s Church service was not an exception, as Daniel positioned his phone in a strategic corner of the Church while the congregation sang and danced. But the service was abruptly terminated when terrorists marched in, guns a’blazing (apologies to Donald Trump). The congregation became alerted to danger when they heard sporadic shooting, which became intense with each shot’s echo close by.
While the young and agile worshippers scampered for safety, the elderly amongst them could not immediately comprehend what was happening until the continuous sounds of sporadic gunshots jolted them to the reality that danger was lurking within the temple of God. I watched the live-streamed video, which has now gone viral, and could not hold back tears as an elderly woman who could not walk properly was trying desperately to escape. The woman, most probably in her 70s struggled to run, but her fibbed legs became her undoing.
For a woman who was seeking God’s salvation at such an advanced age to be subjected to such a harrowing experience was heart wrenching. If the four corners of a Church is no longer safe, then Nigerians have become sitting ducks in their own backyards. We might as well call it a day and pull the curtains on Nigeria. As the harrowing scene unfolded, many of the worshippers ran to hide behind the church’s window curtains, but were of course, discovered by one of the four dare-devils that had gained access into the Church.
While one of them raided the phones and bags of worshippers, another marched those that hid behind the curtains out and into the waiting arms of his criminal comrades. It was later that one of the terrorists discovered that the session was being live-streamed that he hurriedly ended the video recording. When the chaos was over, it was discovered that two of the worshippers and a security guard had been murdered in cold blood and 38 worshippers were kidnapped. Perhaps, not happy with the number of those kidnapped from the Church, the terrorists returned to the town that same night to continue their mayhem despite the existence of a divisional police station in Eruku and a military base near the town. The Nigerian Army has a military base in Egbe, approximately three kilometres from Eruku, where the ugly incident occurred.
It is still not clear if Daniel survived or were among those that were kidnapped, but his video has brought home the grim reality of the horror associated with banditry and kidnapping in Nigeria. Nowhere is safe. That video traumatised me and many Nigerians. We are now a nation at war – with bandits and terrorists who take delight in kidnapping fellow citizens for ransom. That Nigeria is gradually being overrun by terrorists and those in government seem confused and security agents overwhelmed doesn’t portend that this nightmare is ending anytime soon.
In the last one week, the number of casualties recorded as victims of terrorism and kidnapping is alarming. Since the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, declared Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), it seems terrorists are now daring the American President to do his worst. The attack on the CAC Church in Kwara State is not an isolated case. It follows a pattern, with criminals aiming for soft targets across the country. Kwara State that was attacked by the terrorists is less than five hours drive by road to Lagos. Yet, most of our leaders in the South west are still sleeping and snoring, believing that the zone is safe from marauding terrorists. The 38 hapless victims of the CAC, Kwara state incident now have a bounty of N100m each on their heads. What a country! However, on Sunday, they were left off the hook.
Few days earlier, a serving Brigadier General of the Nigerian Army, Musa Uba, was gruesomely murdered by terrorists in Borno State. Uba was reportedly killed by men of the Islamic State West Africa Province, (ISWAP) fighters following an ambush on a convoy of Soldiers and operatives of the Civilian Joint Task Force, (CJTF) in Borno.
On Monday last week, 25 Students of Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town, Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State were also kidnapped by armed terrorists. During the operation, the Vice Principal of the school, Malam Hassan Makuku and a security guard were killed. However, while the girls were being marched into the bush, one of them escaped and has been reunited with her family. Interestingly, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, directed the military to go after the criminals but the movement of the Soldiers on the rescue mission was compromised and those Soldiers were ambushed by the terrorists, with many of them sustaining serious injuries.
Just on Friday, many students of St. Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in the Papiri Community of Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State were abducted, including some staff of the institution. The Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), said that 303 students and 12 members of staff were abducted by the terrorists. The students were taken during a late-night raid on their hostels. Now, the whole of the country is in a panic mode. Nobody knows where or when the dare-devil criminals will strike again. Just last night, 50 of the kidnapped students miraculously return home.
Tinubu, who was scheduled to travel to South Africa for the G-20 meeting and from there to Angola, postponed the trips, but the worsening scenario eventually led to the cancellation of the trips. He has dispatched Vice President Kashim Shettima to lead Nigeria’s delegation to those meetings. Shettima was in Kebbi State as head of the team coordinating the safe return of the kidnapped school girls. The Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, is on ground to coordinate their return. Not sure of how to handle the worsening insecurity in the country, the Federal Government has ordered the closure of all 41 Unity Colleges across the country. The Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq has also ordered the immediate closure of over 50 Schools in five Kwara State local government areas due to the activities of the bandits. Those five local governments are effectively under the control of bandits in the state.
His counterpart, the Plateau State Governor, Caleb Muftwang, has also ordered the immediate closure of all public Primary and Secondary Schools across the state. The Katsina State Governor, Dikko Radda, has also taken a cue by announcing the closure of public Schools in the state. This is coming despite the fact that 20 out of the 32 local government councils had to sign peace deals with bandits for them to enjoy relative peace in those areas. Like in a war zone, the bandits in Katsina were more interested in prisoners exchange – their detained comrades in exchange for kidnapped citizens. Some local government chairmen were also mandated to pay ‘protection fees’, while farmers will part with some of their crops during harvest. And we say we have a President and Commander-in-chief on seat! Is it by closing public schools across the country that we would solve this problem? Are we not losing the war against bandits and Boko Haram elements who had tagged books as haram (forbidden)?
Presently, Nigeria stands at a crossroads in a difficult season. While the country is trying to repair its economy, steady its currency, and restore confidence in the future, the fresh onslaught by terrorists threatens to undo this fragile progress. A nation that cannot protect its people cannot protect its economy, and a government that cannot guarantee safety is a government whose reforms will collapse under the weight of fear. The duty of the State has never been ambiguous. Section 33(1) of the 1999 Constitution affirms that every person has a right to life and must not be deprived of it intentionally. This is the foundation of governance. Without safety, no right has meaning. No child can learn in peace; no worker can labour with dignity, and no farmer can plant with confidence. When insecurity becomes the daily grammar of national existence, the social contract begins to fail. That is the state we are in, and it is both scary and depressing.
Education, which should be a gateway to national development, is turning into a battleground. When children cannot attend school without the shadow of abduction, the future is placed on hold. No economy can grow when its classrooms are shrinking and its farms are empty.
Across the country, families now live in a rhythm of fear. Parents sleep lightly because the night carries too many stories of villages attacked without warning. Farmers who once worked from sunrise now leave their fields half-harvested because the nearer forests have become a hiding place for armed groups. These are not distant tragedies. They are the daily experiences of ordinary people whose only demand from the government is the chance to live without fear. If we can’t live in peace with ourselves, is it not better we dissolve the marriage? How long are we going to pretend that all is well with our nation?
It is now crystal clear that Trump’s CPC appellation has emboldened those that do not want peace in the country and are ready to bring it down to its knees. There are fifth columnists in government who would be happy that the Tinubu’s administration is brought down. They are there in the military and across the strata of society who are reaping massive gains from the so-called war on terror to fuel their own selfish lifestyles. The Kebbi state Governor, Nasir Idris, is still at a loss as to why Soldiers were withdrawn from his state’s Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, where barely minutes later, terrorists stuck. The Governor is deeply troubled that security personnel pulled out of the school despite prior intelligence alerts provided by the Department of State Services, (DSS). He has the moral right to be. It simply points to the fact that there are moles everywhere.
The recent upsurge in terror activities across the country is not a coincidence and now is the appropriate time for Tinubu to name and shame those behind the dastardly act of its sponsorship. It is when the sponsors of terrorism are named and prosecuted that a semblance of peace will return to the country. Nigerians are no fools. We know it is all about the 2027 general elections. It is sad that we have become tools in the hands of our so-called power-hungry leaders. We would like to remind them that it is when we have a country that we would be talking of who leads and who follows, and there is a Day of Accountability.
See you next week.
- Akintunde is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Glittersonline newspaper. His syndicated column, Monday Discourse, appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Monday.