Many
Nigerians literarily went into shock following President Muhammadu Buhari’s
announcement early this year that soldiers would be withdrawn from some parts
of the countries, where the war against insurgency had been raging on the
belief that peace and normalcy have been restored to those areas.
The big idea
is to withdraw the soldiers from the communities believed to have been captured
from the Boko Haram insurgents and replaced them with policemen and Nigeria
Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) officials, who would be expected to secure
the internal security.
According to
Buhari, the federal government, with effect from this year, will begin the
process of withdrawing military from some parts of Nigeria that had been facing
insurgency. This, he said, would enable civil authorities to take over the job
of protecting lives and property in those areas.
While the
statement sent shockwaves down the spins of many people, especially among victims
in the war torn states, some other Nigerians had simply laughed at the
decision, describing it as an attempt to send policemen and NSCDC officials on suicide missions.
Indeed, the
outrage against the idea has been so much that Buhari had quickly came out to
state, that the plan to withdraw the soldiers from some parts of the country
would be gradual and wouldn’t cause any problem.
The
President said: "The withdrawal of the soldiers will not be sudden. It
will not happen in a way that will expose any part of Nigeria to harm or
danger. The withdrawal is to allow the military to focus on their primary duty,
which is defending the nation against external aggression. It is the duty of
the police to handle internal security since Nigeria is not at war.”
The plan,
naturally caused anxieties among security stakeholders, who strongly believed
that the war against Boko Haram members should be won completely and not,
‘technically.’
Although
Buhari has assured Nigerians that there was no cause for alarm since the
withdrawal process would be gradual, many are not buying his latter statement,
as the first continued to lie supreme in their minds.
Some of
them, who spoke with our reporter, described the plan as, “sending policemen
and NSCDC officials on suicide missions.”
The Executive
Director of Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Mr. Okechukwu
Nwanguma, while reacting on the FG plan, said that this was not the first time that
the FG would be muting its intention to commence the withdrawal of the military
from the Northeast.
He said: “It
first muted this idea between January and February 2019. In response to that
announcement,
a team of
independent experts was dispatched to Borno State to conduct an assessment of
the preparedness of the Police to resume full charge of internal security in
so-called liberated areas in the Northeast. I was in that team and we spoke to
the military, the police, NSCDC and other relevant security stakeholders.
“In summary,
our finding was that nothing has changed with regards to the conditions of
service of the police to prepare them for taking over security in the terror-stricken
zone. Whether in terms of manpower and personnel strength, training, equipment
or motivation, the situation of the police has been deteriorating rather than
improving. The police officers deployed to the zone are themselves endangered
species. It would be expected that considering the special security challenges
Borno State is confronted with, Borno State Police Command would get additional
or special funding to match the needs and demands of the problem. But we were
shocked to find that Borno and other state commands confronted by insurgency
still get the same level of budgetary funding as other state commands. In fact,
many state commands without the level of security challenges as Borno, are
relatively better equipped and better manned.”
Nwanguma, a
human activist, who often acts as a watchdog over the activities of the police,
noted that Police divisions in many localities in Borno State had been attacked
and dislodged.
His words: “We
found many displaced police officers from such attacked and dislodged divisions
taking refuge at the state command headquarters. At night, you see them lying
on mats within the headquarters premises, battling with mosquitoes. The
premises look more like a refugee camp than a Police headquarters. It's a pitiable
site to behold. We went to police barracks around Maiduguri and saw many police
officers with various degrees of injuries and deformity from attacks by Boko
Haram left uncared for. They take full responsibility for their treatment. The
families of those who died are abandoned to their tragic fate. No help from any
quarters despite their outcries. We were told that many officers serving in
Borno deserted while those newly posted refused to report or even resigned or
went on awol. Is this the condition under which the Police will take over from
the military? Even for the military,
which is better equipped and provided with special funding to tackle
insurgency, many of the personnel have been killed or injured with some
resigning, voluntarily retiring or simply walking away. How much more the far
less equipped police!”
He argued
that before the Police can take over internal security in the Northeast, a lot
of transformation needed to happen. Itemizing
the needed changes that must be put in place, Nwanguma said that adequate
number of police officers must be recruited, special and appropriate trainings
on dealing with new security threats have to happen.
He further discussed:
“Police need to be adequately equipped with modern crime fighting equipment to match
the sophistication of the violent criminals and the welfare conditions of the
police must be improved to enhance morale and dedication. The Police must be
humanized and corruption tackled. Efforts must be made to restore or rebuild
public trust and confidence. Without the community trusting and willing to
cooperate with the police, the Police cannot effectively deal with crime and
social disorder. Timely and reliable intelligence is even more important than
hundred armored carriers and thousands of AK47.”
Nwanguma,
while stating that the military couldn’t continue to perform the statutory
functions of the police, added: “It is an anomaly that comes with dire
consequences. The military's training does not equip them or make them suitable
to handle internal security. The Police must be transformed, prepared and
equipped to eventually assume primacy for internal security. But even when that
happens, military withdrawal has to be gradual. Withdrawing the military and
returning the Police at this time would be like sending our police officers on
a suicide mission. I see many of them resigning.”
According to
him, the claim by the FG that it has technically degraded Boko Haram was
nothing more than a deluded, empty grandstanding. He held: “The answer to whether that claim is
credible can be easily gleaned from the fact that there has been a spike in the
activities and attacks by the insurgents and terrorists. The federal
government's woeful failure to rescue many victims of Boko Haram abductions,
including Leah Sharibu and several social workers, the continued attacks even
on military facilities, the beheading of 10 abductees in Nigeria on Christmas
day in retaliation to the killing of their members, the fact that thousands of
displaced persons are yet to return to their destroyed and yet to be liberated
and rebuilt communities are enough examples.”
The activist
continued: “We have heard from - as well as watched videos of - aggrieved and
disgruntled military officers complaining about their being shortchanged by
corrupt commanders who divert and convert funds meant to equip and pay for the
risky job of fighting dangerously armed terrorists. The increase in the
daredevilry of the terrorists indicates either increase in their capabilities
or decrease in military capabilities. Either way, the claim by the FG is
dishonest or downright stupid.”
President
Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shettima, said: “The situation
has become so bad it could have been the best decision, but it has to be
systematic and tactical because the fact of the matter is that the problem has
been there over time. I’m not saying that all the army are corrupt and bad, but
it can also be assured that in any society, you’ll have the good and bad ones, and
oftentimes, most of these bombs are not only coming from Boko Haram. Some of
the bad eggs within the organisations go far to do their evil in order to raise
unnecessary tension, making it seems as if there is a serious thing going on. So
for me, as government begins to think of withdrawing the army to replace
them with the police, of course they should be prepared for more casualties. I
don't want the government to be in a hurry to withdraw the army. It has to be
tactical and diplomatic. It's not going to be a thing that will be done
at a go. The army is trying, but even within them, we still have bad ones who
are making it bad for the image of the country. So, FG they should be tactical
and diplomatic about how they’ll remove the army and replace them with the
police. It will be a collateral damage if they are in a hurry.”
Major-General David Jemibewon (rtd), a
former Military Governor of the defunct Western State and later governor of Oyo
State between August 1975 and July 1978, and later Minister of Police Affairs
during President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration, also has something to say.
His words: “ The Police are in charge of
the security of the area before the insurgency which necessitated soldiers
being drafted to the trouble areas to address the insecurity problem. And now
that FG feels that the security situation could be handled by the Police, there
is nothing wrong in withdrawing soldiers from the areas and allowing Police to
be in charge of security in the areas, otherwise we will find soldiers doing
Police jobs and nobody to do soldiers’ jobs. So, it is difficult to say it is
correct or not correct, but I want to believe it is correct. The only situation
you can say, it is not correct, is if the situation there shows that the area
is not peaceful to say Police should come. That is an argument anyone can put
forward. I think the decision is normal because you don't expect that soldiers
would be there perpetually except if they say there has never been an improvement.
If the government decides to do that, it would be assumed that the military
must have, to a considerable extent, degraded the military prowess of the terrorists.”
A retired Assistant-Inspector General of
Police, Donald Iroham said: “If you would recall, at the onset of the
Maitatsine religious riots in Kano in the 1980, it was the Police that
continually engaged the group until the situation deteriorated and the police
could no longer cope. The military was now invited to help the Police. One may
therefore assume that government must have done their homework very well to
contemplate such a move.”
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