Beneficiaries of terrorism

By Gabriel Amalu

The lamentations of the governor of Benue State, Fr. Hyacinth Alia, and that of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang, must have reached the ears of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT), who was recently in Katsina State on a state visit. The president had promised to reclaim the communities now occupied by terrorists, who invade and then occupy communities when they think the coast is clear. PBAT made the promise while addressing elders and leaders of Katsina State at a dinner held in his honour.

While the forests of Katsina and other north-western states are in the throes of attacks and occupation by terrorists and armed bandits, their experience is slightly different from Benue and Plateau states. There, the nation is on war footing with the bandits who are holding up in the vast forests as the war rages on. The bandits remain legitimate targets to be neutralised, anytime they come in contact with our gallant soldiers, and they cannot under any guise become legitimate occupiers of the forests they are fighting from.

But there is a difference from the situation in Benue and Plateau states, where after the attackers have wreaked havoc with their AK47 and AK49 rifles, the beneficiaries saunter in with their cows and packs, and sooner than later become legitimised occupiers. This writer urges the Federal Government to treat all those who are illegitimately occupying the communities of other people, whether as bandits, terrorists or armed herders, as the same. Those who are seeking to occupy, or are occupying communities, after their surrogates had done the fighting, should all be flushed out, for peace to reign.

This writer was excited when PBAT promised to use technology to flush out these occupiers, who have turned Nigerians into internally displaced persons in their country. It is absurd that while the owners of the land are living as IDPs, herders are living in the abandoned communities, on the pretence that they are different from the invaders who chased the owners of the land away from their land. The latter-day beneficiaries may be the recruiters of the terrorists.

PBAT was on point when, according to his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, he said: “investment is cowardly, and it will not go where there is banditry and terrorism.” I urge the affected governors to join hands with the president to deliver on the promise: “we will invest more in technology and take over the forests. Security is a national issue, not just at the local or regional levels. If we need investment in Nigeria, we must address insecurity.”

The governors of Benue and Plateau must gird their loins, and stop lamenting like the biblical Rachael. The claim by Governor Alia that the invaders may have come from Mali does not disavow the fact that the beneficiaries are localised. Has the governor never heard of hired mercenaries? Governor Alia had said: “But these folks (the attackers) are coming in fully armed with AK-47s and 49s. They do not bear the Nigerian look. They don’t speak like we do. Even the Hausa they speak is one sort of Hausa.” He continued: “It’s not the normal Hausa we Nigerians speak. So it is with the Fulani they speak. There is a trend in the language they speak, and some of our people who understand what they speak give it names. They say they are Malians and different from our people. But they are not Nigerians—believe it.”

While the governor may be correct in his analysis of the invaders who are terrorising Benue, clearly the local herdsmen benefit from the fallout of the attacks. In neighbouring Plateau State, Governor Caleb Mutfwang said of the terrorist attacks: “We have not less than 64 communities that have been displaced and their lands have been taken over by these terrorists.” And these shenanigans had been going on well before PBAT took over from former President Muhammadu Buhari. Without hesitation, those who are now on the land should be sent back to where they came from so that the owners of the land can return to their homes.

Mutfwang described the modus operandi of the terrorists thus: “When people are dislocated from their villages and they have to run for shelter, now we are struggling to provide shelter for these people that have been displaced and dislocated from their communities.” He went on: “If they stay away from those communities for a sustained period of time, the terrorists would come in. As I am talking to you today, in Riyom Local Government Area, in Barikin Ladi Local Government Area, schools have been occupied by these terrorists for almost a number of years now.”

It is strange that while the national army fights to displace the bandits and terrorists who have forcefully occupied the forests, those who have taken over the communities of our compatriots in the middle-belt states seem to be treated with kid gloves. They should be treated as accomplices to the mayhem and ethnic cleansing perpetrated by these terrorist invaders. The longer they are allowed to stay in the communities, the more complicated the situation becomes, and before long, the claim that they have become indigenous to the area will gain traction.

The nation cannot have peace if the same disease with the same symptoms is treated differently. PBAT should be encouraged by all well-meaning Nigerians, despite the distraction by political opponents, to hearken to the cry of Rev. Alia that his state is under siege. The governor said: “These terrorists are everywhere. We are under a siege. These people just come and hit and kill and run back. Where are they running to?” He provided an answer: “The terrorists have their own havens in Taraba, Nasarawa, and in border regions of Cameroon.”

He said the attacks are well coordinated and the communities that share borders with Cameroon are very porous. Clearly, the nation’s army is getting more stretched. New frontiers of war are opening by the day. To further compound the challenges facing our country, and other poor nations, US President Donald Trump is doing every unreasonable thing within his power to precipitate another round of economic recession in the world, even as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expansionist agenda is stoking world economic distemper.

If Nigeria’s political elite could come to their senses, they would join forces to stem rising terrorism across the country that can upend our democratic journey. Governor Mutfwang ironically captures the need for collaboration. He had said: “Under the last regime, the feeling among people in Plateau State, particularly the victims of these terrorist attacks, is that it looks as if the terrorists were given official government backing to be able to terrorise them because little or nothing was done to repel these attacks.” So, what about now?

Source: The Nation

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