By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.

 @ Katsina Times 

Something may be fishy in the high places of our dear Nigeria. Looks like up there, things are not what they appear to us downstairs. Not the British variety though, because it would have read ‘upstairs’. There are some good reasons to suspect so.

Not long ago, the Nigerian Senate passed a bill recommending the extension of the tenure of the Inspector General of the Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun. It was apparently done at the instance of the President of the Federation, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The extension of the IG’s tenure sparked fears among majority of ordinary citizens that it may signal requests for tenure extension from his fellow security chiefs in other services.

Surprisingly however, instead of the request for tenure extension, what Nigerian heard were the voluntary resignations of the Director General of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ahmed Abubakar, and his counterpart at the Directorate of the State Security (DSS), Alhaji Yusuf Magaji Bichi. Both were appointed by the former President, Muhammadu Buhari. If their resignation were actually voluntary, it would mean either their time was up in the services, or the President has no more use for their services in their respective organisations.

The NIA and DSS for the uninformed, were the Nigerian equivalent of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States. The first is supposed to operate outside the country, while the later is supposed to operate only within the borders of the United States. Whether or not they stick to their respective mandate is another thing all together.

That these security chiefs should voluntarily throw in the towel speaks a lot of happenings at the nation’s presidency, coming in quick succession after the swearing in of the new Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Kudirat Motonmori Kekere-Ekun.

Soon after, some bandits made a demand of N50 million ransom from the people of Moriki in Zamfara state, before the release of ten abducted people, ‘or else’. Well, we all can guess what that the ‘else’ stands for.

But it is worthy to ask, probably for the umpteenth time, ‘why are these bunch of non state actors always able to defy the combined forces of the Nigerian state’? What is the secret behind their ‘invincibility’ against the population and fair power of the state actors, and the good will and encouragement of the most Nigerians?

In Nigeria, there are the Nigerian Military (consisting of the Military Intelligence (MI), Army, the Airforce, the Navy and the Coast Guards), the Nigerian Police, whose IG has his tenure just elongated, the DSS, the NIA, the Civil Defence, the Nigerian Customs Service, the Nigerian Immigration Service and the Federal Road Safety Corporation all have security of people and their property as their primary assignment, but still woefully fail to bring an end to the insecurity caused by a bunch of untrained bandits, operating in bushes in the northern part of the country.

In addition, the Minister of Defence, HE Mohammed Badaru Abubakar is a Northerner, the junior Minister of Defence, Honourable Bello Mutawalle is a Northerner, the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu is a Northerner, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Igwabin Musa is a Northerner, the outgoing Director General of the Department of State Security, Alhaji Yusuf Magaji Bichi is a Northerner and the outgoing Director General of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Abubakar is a Northerner. All to no avail as far as protection of the lives of many deceased Northerners and property worth millions of naira were concerned.

Some state governors in the north have created organisations that they thought could contain the banditry and its menace in their state, but the federal government has refused to authorise the use of weapons of modernity by individuals. The bandits on the other hand, wield and use sophisticated weapons that may be the envy of many third world countries’s security agencies.

The government’s denial of the right to individuals to own sophisticated weapons, appears to serve as an impetus for the bandits to be more daring in their raids and boast about their ‘invincibility’ on the social media.

The bandits have the ‘courage’ to call their intended victims or the places they intend to attack in advance without the fear of being tracked and traced. This supports the allegation made by a former minister that his life was threatened with death if he insisted on having all phone lines in the country registered.

A chieftain of the Fulani and a noted northern female politician have separately asserted that the banditry could be addressed by the federal government without the involvement of two security outfits, that were alleged not be too keen about ending the menace.

And the banditry has resulted in the death of tens of people both high and low, the abduction for ransom of hundreds of people, the destruction and theft of millions worth of food stuff and property, prevention of farming in many communities and payment of forced levy on some communities.

Some two notable bandits were seen on a viral video clip alleging the complicity of security officials in the banditry that affects the north. A governor from the north west had made similar allegations. Before the video of the two bandits made an appearance on the  social media, a different kingpin of the bandits alleged the involvement of a former governor, now a ranking official of the administration, in the banditry. The allegation was however, vehemently denied by the accused.

The Arewa Consultative Forum, better known with its acronym of ACF, and the Northern  Elders Forum (NEF) were said to have demanded for ‘full investigation and  overhaul of the National security architecture’ over the murder of Sarkin Gobir of Sabon Birni, Alhaji Isa Muhammad Bawa by bandits.

The foremost northern politicosociocultural organisations, could find their full voice and the courage to make the demands only when a monarch was brutally killed by the bandits. But murder of tens of lesser mortals by the bandits before the emir’s killing, deserved the groups’s serious reaction too.

On the day the Sarkin Gobir was killed, some notable northerners were in the Abuja home of Atiku Abubakar, ostensibly to ‘seek for the hand of one of his daughters’ into marriage. They might argue that the event had been arranged beforehand. That might have been so. But even then, it could have been postponed, since we are talking of the death of a monarch.

That the activity went on as planned says a lot about how much value life is attached in the north to the pursuit of worldly happiness of the upper class. In the north, people are celebrated 

not because of what they contributed to the society, but based on the money they have amassed, regardless of the source.

It is the hope of every patriotic Nigerian that the recent rejig of the leadership of some security outfits would see to the end of not only banditry, but the insecurity in the entire country, so that Nigerians could go to any place at any time without thinking of any danger that might ‘lurk ahead’.

May God protect us from the bandits and their menace, even as it may please Him to expose them and their sponsors whoever they are and wherever they may be on this planet.

Malam Malumfashi wrote from Abuja. For Katsina Times online newspapers and magazine

@ www.katsinatimes.com