Unending Security Challenges

Since the killing of Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram, some years ago, the country’s security challenges have obviously taken a dive for the worse. While it is a fact that there is no country without security challenges, Nigeria’s effort at curbing her own has been strewn with many twists


From independence in 1960, the country has been grappling with different security challenges ranging from political to pure armed robbery and banditry. At every twists and turns, it has always meandered from the challenge. It is often said that civil wars usually give rise to proliferation of arms. It is said that the war in Libya and other crisis in the region helped to fester the security challenges that the country is presently battling to win.

In Nigeria, the security challenges have leap frogged from high way armed robbery to militancy, banditry, terrorism and others. The Boko Haram terrorists operating in the north east of Nigeria were very formidable before President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015 with a promise to rout them. Shortly after he ascended the throne, the Nigerian military fought them with vigour and recaptured most of the occupied territories. The federal government gleefully announced it had decimated and degraded the terrorists. But no sooner would the government announce its triumph over the terrorists than they staged a comeback with abductions, ambush and other tactics that would set back the gains and force government to retool and re-strategize.

In addition to the Boko Haram menace, the government is grappling with armed banditry that threaten to overrun some states in the North West. Here, rather than government living up to its billing in securing the lives and property of its citizenry, government and security agencies after a long period of suffering casualties in Zamfara, Katsina and others, began negotiations with the bandits in what can be termed ‘amnesty’, as if the bandits were involved in freedom fight or even engaging the state on legitimate demands. Apart from banditry, kidnapping and freeing hostages for money has also become a norm and lucrative business. The Abuja-Kaduna highway has become a death trap as kidnappers have taken over the expressway as they can block the road and whisk their targets away into the bushes almost unchallenged.

Most commuters of that road now resort to the use of train services that are always accompanied by helicopter hovering over it as it moves. Herdsmen clashes with farmers have also become almost intractable as government has failed to solve the problem. Most of the federal government action to solve the problem has always been viewed with bias. Nigerians, especially the southerners and middle belters, have viewed the federal government response as territorial expansionist. The vexed Ruga policy which is aimed at providing settlements for Fulani herders have stiffly been opposed even as the federal government have also adopted hard stance on the matter.

Ritual killers are also on the prowl. At every twists and turns, there are tales of woes of different kind of killers. In addition to these is the regular armed robbers that don’t allow citizens sleep with their eyes closed. There are also tales of hijacking of full loads of buses with passengers and taken to unknown places for money making. While the security agencies are doing their best to combat these menace, many feel and for good reasons too, that their best are not good enough. The situation is frightening as hunger, unemployment, child trafficking and prostitution are all in astronomical rise. They all combine to over stretch the security agents. In confronting the security challenges, a lot of deaths have been recorded, apart from unarmed citizens who have suffered abductions, kidnapped, maimed, raped and other atrocities. The military have also suffered several unpalatable fates, even death. Several gallant officers and men have paid supreme price in this campaign. The latest being the death of Colonel Bako who died after a battle with the Boko Haram last week.

Colonel DC Bako was said to have died after surviving Boko Haram Ambush in Damboa. He is in charge of the 25 Task Force Brigade of the Operation Lafiya Dole Theater Command before his death. He died in the hospital after he survived an ambush by suspected Boko Haram insurgents while on patrol along Damboa- Sabongari axis in southern part of Borno state. The deceased officer was in the company of other soldiers when their vehicle were ambushed. The spokesman of the 7 Division Nigerian Army, Colonel Ado Isa, confirmed the sad incident in a press statement he issued to the media. Col. Isa conveyed the condolence of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, to the family of the deceased officer, who was described as one of the best in the Army.

The statement reads in full:” Operation LAFIYA DOLE wishes to intimate the general public of the demise of one of our gallant and finest war heroes Col D.C Bako. It could be recalled that the professional, gallant senior officer who always led from the front and a patriotic Nigerian, led a patrol to clear Boko Haram terrorists from Sabon Gari-Wajiroko axis near Damboa when his patrol team entered an ambush at about 10 a.m. Sunday 20, September 2020. Under his able leadership, the troops cleared the ambush resulting to the killing of scores of terrorists and recovery of weapons and equipment. “Sadly however, he was wounded in action and immediately evacuated by the Air Task Force Operation LAFIYA DOLE to the 7 Division Hospital at Maimalari Cantonment. The late senior officer was recuperating well after successful operation at the hospital, in good spirit and also said his prayers in the early hours of the before his sad passing on at the hospital. May Almighty Allah grant his soul eternal rest. Ameen.

“The Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen TY Buratai on behalf of himself, gallant troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE and indeed well-meaning Nigerians hereby express his heartfelt condolences to his esteemed family. We are most grateful for his contributions and sacrifices to the mother land. May God grant eternal rest to the gentle soul of Col DC Bako and the souls of all Nigerian Army officers and soldiers who paid the supreme price in the defence of our father land.”