The Senate invasion and the worsening security challenges

The invasion of the Senate chambers April 18 qualified as a political horror movie. It left the nation stupefied. And more insecure than ever. Those behind it wanted to – and did – send a powerful message to the effect that none of us is safe anywhere in our country today. Big man, small man, […]

The invasion of the Senate chambers April 18 qualified as a political horror movie. It left the nation stupefied. And more insecure than ever. Those behind it wanted to – and did – send a powerful message to the effect that none of us is safe anywhere in our country today. Big man, small man, big woman, small woman, we are in all for it. There are no hallowed grounds – not our homes, not our offices and, certainly, not our roads. 

 It was a brazen operation. The response of our security forces was so poor and pathetic it is beneath contempt. It could have been worse. Just as they invaded the chambers and were ineffectively challenged by the security forces and took away the mace, the symbol of legislative authority, they could have either taken our senators hostage or even subjected them to mortal injuries and gotten away with it, as they did with the mace. 

Our distinguished senators were unwilling spectators of the horror movie in their own hallowed chambers. Some of them might still be shaken from the possibility that it could have been worse for them. Ironically, this happened only two days after the senate passed a resolution asking the president to sack his security chiefs over the insecurity in the land, particularly the killing spree with impunity by Fulani herdsmen in Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa, Kogi and Kaduna states. 

As of this writing, the identities of the invaders had not been unravelled or disclosed to the public by the police. It makes matter more worrisome if the security forces treat them as phantom criminals. If they were thugs, as the police claimed, then certainly, from what we know of political thugs, they are in the employ of a powerful political figure or figures who resorted to their use to either settle political scores or frighten the senators away from doing what they are doing or plan to do. They came to do someone or some people’s bidding in the dirty ways of Nigerian politics. The invasion added a new dimension to our security challenges and makes a determined response to them by the Buhari administration more urgent than ever. It is time for the administration to stop sitting on its hands. Human challenges have never been tackled with somnolent insouciance.

Things have never been this bad in our country. Everyone knows that. But they could only get worse, as they have progressively shown, if the Buhari administration fails to rise to the challenges and save our country from being consumed by men who have licensed themselves to kill – and kill with a sickening impunity. Some Nigerian families might have been so far saved from the trauma of a direct hit, but I believe we all bear the pain inflicted almost daily on the innocent victims of these killers anywhere and everywhere in our dear country.

In its editorial of April 20, Buhari, security has broken down in Nigeria, The Punch newspaper pointed out that “In the absence of any effective and clear-cut containment strategy, mindless killings of innocent and defenceless Nigerians have continued unabated across the country. It is becoming increasingly dangerous and unreliable for law-abiding citizens of this country to look up to the government to protect their lives and property. In this regard, given the prolific nature of the killings, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has let Nigerians down massively.

“It has been a thoroughly disappointing experience for those who thought security would be Buhari’s forte. As a retired general, it was expected that he would handle it better than his clueless predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan. Unfortunately, what Nigerians have experienced so far has been a gradual descent into anarchy.”

It would be difficult for anyone, including Buhari’s most rabid supporters and defenders, to dispute the assertion by the newspaper without their conscience reminding them, sotto voce, that security is the number one constitutional duty imposed on the government. Its failure to do this duty to the Nigerian state and its people has forced some prominent Nigerians to ask the people to take steps to defend themselves. General T.Y. Danjuma said so, to a chorus of stupid attacks by those who spoke from both sides of their mouths. He told the people of Taraba State: “If are depending on the Armed Forces to stop the killings, you will all die one by one.”

Only the previous week, governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, told the internally displaced persons in IDP camps in the state to go home and defend themselves with stones. If the Palestinians could do so against the superior Israeli forces, so could the people of Benue State.

The danger in this desperate self-help option is, clearly a state of anarchy in the land. The loss of the people’s confidence in the willingness or the capacity of their own government to fully protect them from criminal elements bodes ill for a country still grappling with the challenges of unity. 

I know that whatever we say would make no difference to the politicians. They believe we are all ranting ants totally cut off from the realities they, and only they can, see. They will conveniently refuse to see, in the graphic expression of The Punch editorial, that “Nigeria’s landscape in the past few years has been watered with human blood, the magnitude of which is almost comparable with happenings during the Civil War years of 1967 to 1970.”

Ah, yes, political power blinds and absolute political power blinds absolutely.