New Leaders Cite Link Between Bad Governance and Uptick in Terrorism
By Mike Odeh James
[Abuja] Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, has said that bad governance is one of the factors fueling insecurity in Northern Nigeria.
Shettima made this submission on Wednesday, August 30, when he hosted the Coalition of Northern States’ Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (CONSCCIMA) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. He urged his audience to refocus and strategize in order to wipe out insecurity in the North and Nigeria. https://www.thecable.ng/shettima-poor-governance-responsible-for-banditry-kidnapping-in-north-west
Though Shettima did not lay blame directly on any particular administration, records show that terrorism is fueled by the actions and inactions of successive administrations that came before the current government.
Terror Casualties in Nigeria Top 50,000 deaths during Buhari Administration
Statistics abound pointing to how bad governance has contributed to the worsening insecurity in the country.
According to data from the Nigerian Security Tracker, a project of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, more than 53,418 Nigerians lost their lives to non-state actors between May 29, 2015, and October 15, 2022, an 8-year span during which Muhammadu Buhari was president.
Approximately 23,106 out of the 53,418 deaths were recorded in the North-East region, attributed to Boko Haram and its affiliates. Elsewhere 13,590 people in the North-West region lost their lives, with 2,037 lives lost in Katsina State, the president’s home state.
Within the said period (2015–2022), President Buhari told the nation that his government spent more than $1 billion to buy weapons that would be used in combating insecurity across the country. https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2023/01/18/insecurity-nigeria-has-spent-over-1bn-on-purchase-of-weapons-in-eight-years-buhari-reveals
Despite the huge amounts spent by the Buhari Administration in the last 8 years, the government has failed to defeat Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP) Boko Haram, and other terrorist groups in the North. Many Nigerians have said that former President Buhari had the opportunity to end insecurity but squandered it due to bad governance.
Commodore Kunle Olawunmi, a senior military officer who had spent 35 years working in the intelligence and counterterrorism unit of the Nigerian military, the Navy, on August 25, 2021, said that President Buhari’s government deliberately refused to fight Boko Haram and terrorists because members of the former President’s cabinet, some in the Nigerian Senate and in governors’ statehouses are linked to Boko Haram and terrorists, according to remarks reported by Channels TV.
“You remember this Boko Haram issue started in 2012, and I was in military intelligence at that time. We arrested those people. My organization actually conducted interrogations, and they (the suspects) mentioned names.
“I can’t come on air and start mentioning names of people that are presently in government, but I know that the boys that we arrested mentioned them. Some of them are governors now; some of them are in the government. https://saharareporters.com/2022/05/11/ex-naval-commodore-who-exposed-nigerian-government-knows-boko-haram-sponsors-olawunmi-be
“Religion is one of the tools employed by terrorists to cause carnage in the country,” the retired officer added.
“If you go to the Defense Headquarters, I served there as the Deputy Director, Defense Administration, between 2015 and 2017. Throughout my two years at the Defense Headquarters, I received visitors twice because of the strict security architecture there, but every Friday, the gate of the Defense Headquarters is thrown wide open for everybody to come in and observe Jumat (Friday prayers).
“That is when the terrorists have the time to profile our security environment. It has always been the case. I have served in military intelligence for the past 35 years. Our problems are religious and socio-cultural,” Olawunmi added https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/08/terrorists-named-govs-senators-presidency-officials-as-sponsors-during-interrogation-ex-naval-officer/
Grand Theft by Generals
On March 21, 2021 the then-National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, said that funds running into billions of naira meant for the purchase of arms and ammunition under the past service chiefs were missing. https://www.thecable.ng/monguno-money-for-arms-missing-under-buharis-service-chiefs
Munguno made the revelation shortly after the President relieved the service chiefs of their posts.
His revelation came a few months after then-President Buhari replaced Buratai and other service chiefs.
The relevant service chiefs are Chief of Defense State, General Abayomi Gabriel Olonishakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Yusuf Tukur Buratai; Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Abubakar Sadique; and Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok Ibas.
According to Monguno, neither the money nor the arms were on the ground upon the entrance of the new service chiefs, implying that the former service chiefs or someone else had embezzled the cash.
“Now that he (President Buhari) has brought new people (service chiefs), hopefully, they will devise some ways… I’m not saying the former service chiefs diverted the money, but the money is missing. We don’t know how, and nobody knows for now,” he had said.
“The President will surely probe this matter. As we speak, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum is also wondering where all the money went. I can assure you that the president takes issues of this nature seriously,” according to Monguno.
Despite these allegations, Buhari did not institute any probe against the top military brass until all of them left office.
Despite the warning from the U.S. Africa Command to the Nigerian government in 2019 and 2020 that Al Qaeda and Islam in West Africa Province are moving to the Northwest and North-Central states, the Buhari Administration chose to downplay the warning and to lie to Nigerians that what is happening in the North Central states of Benue, Plateau, and parts of Niger is simply farmers and herders clashing over water and grazing routes.
The Buhari administration has downplayed the state of insecurity in the North-West states by falsely labeling the incidents as “ communal clashes” instead of terrorism.
Oluwole Ojewale, a security expert at the Institute for Security Studies in Senegal, noted that the former president looked away until terrorists became active in the Northwest.
Groups such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS); Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM); Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb; and the Fulani herdsmen of West Africa were once rated the fourth-deadliest terror group in the world and are very active in the northwest, yet Nigerian military reports and Nigerian media refer to them as “bandits” only. The bandit-label is a thin disguise for jihadist terrorist organizations threatening to swamp several governments in the Sahel, according to Ojewale.
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Mike Odeh James has served as a bureau chief for The Desert Herald Newspaper in Kaduna and does political analysis for TruthNigeria.com
