Between the chilling audacity of the terrorists who fell upon the Kuje Correctional Center on Tuesday July 5, 2022, and the sophisticated weapons they bore, Nigerians do not know what to make of an attack which let loose hundreds of inmates into a society already convulsed by terror, including 64 Boko Haram members.
A question of ‘when’ and not ‘if’.
Nigerians are increasingly coming to the inevitable conclusion that their beloved country, that has held fast through more than sixty years of a turbulent independence may finally give under the debilitating and devastating force of insecurity that is ominously proving uncontrollable and uncontainable.
This conclusion as painful as it is does not come from a place of carelessness or complicity, for in a country shocked into submission by a siege of terror, even the blind can see, and the deaf can hear that all is not well with the Giant of Africa.
Rapiers of ruin
These days, Nigerians who live in the rural areas do not only have to count how many days before they are out of food, or consider how long before they get to the nearest primary healthcare center to get proper medical attention. No. They now also have to count the number of their dead. They now must also take stock of the number of their abducted. They must also look into the smoldering ruins of their razed buildings and decide how to begin again. Nigeria`s failure to provide security to its poorest citizens is proving immeasurably deadly and costly.
A keg of gunpowder.
Where next and who next? That is the question on the lips of many after the devastating attack on the Medium Security Custodial Center Kuje during which the attackers broke in using explosive devices through the main entrance and the fence of the facility respectively. Islamic State-West Africa Province (ISWAP) has since claimed responsibility for the attacks which cost about half a dozen lives and left more than a dozen injured.
That a terrorist group can organize and so brazenly breach the security of one of the country`s more popular prisons right in the Federal Capital Territory is shocking beyond description, and immediately puts in issue the positions of those who should take responsibility for these things that continue to happen.
A hail of misplaced questions
In the aftermath of the attack, President Muhammadu Buhari visited the Medium Facility Prison in Kuje to personally assess the level of the damage done.
While at the facility, President Muhammadu Buhari was quick to raise questions about the intelligence gathering system at the prison. In the thirty minutes spent in the prison, the President wondered aloud why the prison defences failed to work and immediately requested a comprehensive report on the incident.
In the President`s own words, the questions flowed thickly thus: “How did the defences at the prison fail to prevent the attack? How many inmates were in the facility? How many of them can you account for? How many personnel did you have on duty? How many of them were armed? Were there guards on the watch tower? What did they do? Does the CCTV work?”
On the heels of the questions, disappointment thickly coated with defeat was expressed by the President thus: “How can terrorists organize,have weapons, attack a security installation and run away with it?”
If the President himself is sending such a volley of questions the way of Nigerians who already have a litany of unanswered questions to contend with, who will answer the President?
A bitter vindication
With Nigeria having apparently come to its day of doom, there appears to be some vindication for those who predicted long ago that such a day would come, but were branded prophets of doom for their predictions.
Many of those who in the last decade raised the alarm that insecurity was slowly taking over the country were swiftly silenced. Today, like an unerring prophecy, their words are coming through and all the President can do is to come up with questions no one can really answer.
As things stand, all manner of questions are being asked the Giant of Africa.If things do not change and change fast, Nigeria will soon come to a point where those questions can no longer be avoided.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
