For the everyday Nigerian, it is difficult to know what to make of the country`s war against terror. On the one hand, the Federal Government continues to maintain that it is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the terrorists, while on the other hand, terror continues to assume different shapes and forms, tearing Nigerian children, their families and communities apart.
In many states in Nigeria`s North-east and North-west, at the hands of ruthless terrorists, rural communities have lost most of the serenity they once enjoyed.
In states like Kaduna, Niger, Zamfara and Sokoto, wave after wave of attacks have reduced communities to dust. Of course, the response from the Federal government has always been that it is decimating the terror networks active in the country.
Zamfara and the zenith of banditry
As terrorism has continued to rage like wildfire in Nigeria, some states have been more affected than others. Zamfara State has especially been caught in the eye of the storm. Indeed the “Farming is Our Pride” state can be considered the cradle of banditry in Nigeria. Initially, the attraction for the bandits was said to be the gold deposits in the state. It was even said that some traditional rulers in the state were actively colluding with the bandits to destabilize the state.
However, banditry in the state has since gone beyond gold deposits. Now, it is no longer clear what the bandits want. From a recent documentary titled the “Bandit warlords of Zamfara,” which was aired by the BBC on July 25, it appeared that the grouse of banditry in Zamfara State has since gone beyond gold deposits and other economic reasons. From the documentary, it appeared the conflict has now become a tussle between the Hausa and Fulani communities of Zamfara State.
On Friday September 2,2022, terrorists struck a Jumu`at mosque in Zugu, Zamfara State where they abducted an unspecified number of worshippers. Among those snatched was the second imam of the mosque.
According to some residents of the town, the terrorists came on foot with their guns inside their gowns. They fired into the air and when the people were sufficiently terrified, they snatched an unspecified number of people. Most of those snatched had been standing outside the mosque area.
It remains a horror story of the disintegration of Nigeria`s security architecture that people who throng places of worship for prayers cannot feel safe in where they should feel safest. The attacks in Zugu echo similar attacks which have recently rattled places of worship in Nigeria, spreading death and fear among Nigeria`s religious communities.
Those who should bring terrorism to a screeching halt in Nigeria may be doing their best, but it appears that the war requires something out of the ordinary. The question whether those responsible can transcend pettiness and rise to the occasion.
NBC`s fit of conniptions
On July 25 2002,the BBC and some Nigerian television stations aired a documentary titled the ‘Bandit warlords of Zamfara State”. The documentary by Yusuf Anka, a law student and indigene of Zamfara State was a gripping descent into the heart of the darkness eating up Nigeria from within Zamfara State.
Before the BBC documentary, Trust TV, owned by Media Trust Limited which also owns Daily Trust Newspaper, had on July 25,2022 aired a documentary on the monstrous problem of banditry in Zamfara State.
But it took the documentary from the BBC for the government to decide that it was having none of it. The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, bristled at the documentary, describing it as a “naked glorification of terror.” The National Broadcasting Commission was soon deployed to impose a hefty fine of five million naira on each of the broadcast stations deemed culpable in the infraction of the Nigeria Broadcast Code 2020.
However, in the face of the relentless terrorism in Zamfara State, and the government`s seemingly frantic efforts to preclude true transparency about the situation there, it is laughable that not enough is being done to confront what is a clear and present menace.
For things to truly change there, more needs to be done. There is no other way.
Kene Obiezu,
Twitter: @kenobiezu
