Insecurity appears to be tightening its noose around the Giant of Africa and it appears only a matter of little time before the final blow is dealt to a country that has been teetering on the brink for so many years.
A harrowing reality
For many Nigerian communities, families and their children, insecurity has become a daily serving of gore, grief and ghosts. The reality of these communities which before the addition of insecurity to their menu of maladies were already haunted by the impoverishment that is a unique feature of rural areas in Nigeria has become one of horror and unfailingly, of the limitless distance terror can travel in trampling communities under its bootheels.
Children have seen their parents and other family members slaughtered and their fragile lives turned upside down. Families have seen their livelihoods wiped out, people have been cruelly uprooted from their daily lives as terrorist attacks have increased, reducing villages to rubble in the process.
A singed psyche
If those who continue to commit acts of terror against the Nigerian state and its citizens intends to sow fear by their actions as it increasingly appears to be the case, they are very well succeeding because as things stand today, many Nigerians can barely go about their normal lives as they used to. Those who try to do so,do so under an atmosphere of great trepidation that always requires them to bring all the steel that goes into making them Nigerians to the table.
A tepid response
There was always the danger that Nigeria`s many failed experiments with leadership were always going to haunt the country at some point. That point appears to be now as many years of incompetence and ineptitude in the corridors of power have combined to brew a toxic brew that Nigeria has now been forced to sip from.
Election cycle after election cycle has come and gone since 1999 with the country only succeeding to swap incompetence with even more incompetence. The consequences have been devastating. The Giant of Africa has utterly failed to muster a befitting response to the forbidding firepower of criminals who are showing both depth and heft in the case they are menacingly marshalling out for the control of Africa`s most populous country.
Doom on the way to Daura
On Tuesday July 5, 2022, gunmen suspected to be bandits opened fire on a convoy of President Muhammadu Buhari near Dutsinma in Katsina State.The President was not in his convoy which had his security operatives, protocol and media officers, heading for Daura ahead of Sallah. Two persons were injured during the attack which was successfully repelled by security operatives.
What really strikes many Nigerians is the audacity of the terrorists in going after the President. The question is how much more indignity will the Giant of Africa suffer before it stirs itself and summons the devastating response it is capable of in the face of relentless assaults by ruthless terrorists.
In many ways, the attack on the president`s convoy was not at all an isolated incident. The attack was meant as a defiant signal to the President that those who have been attacking Nigeria at will have him in their sights.
In many ways, Katsina, the President`s home state appears to be under siege. The Executive Secretary of the Katsina State Primary Health Care Agency Dr. Shamsudeen Yahaya recently told newsmen that incessant attacks had caused the shutting down of no fewer than sixty-nine primary health care facilities.
On the same day the President`s convoy was attacked, gunmen also attacked and killed an Assistant Commissioner of ACP, Aminu Umar Dayi, who was in charge of Dutsinma Area Command in Katsina State.
For Nigeria, insecurity has become an existential problem. As things stand, the ability or inability of the Giant of Africa to muster the appropriate response will go a long way in determining if the country survives or disintegrates.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
