BY KEN UGBECHIE

It has all been said. Nigeria has seen the worst of insecurity under Muhammadu Buhari. From Terror Tuesday of July 5 to Maddening Monday of July 25, 2022. The story drives you crazy. Almost too sordid to be true. But it’s true. Nigeria is under the siege of terror. And all we do is to talk, hold security meetings, and approve more budgets. Individual pockets are padded; national insecurity is pampered. Empty twaddle does not a problem solve. Much more a security challenge that demands decisive action, not weekly drools in the name of security meetings. But it’s the Buhari way. All talk!

Just within a period of 20 days, the orgy of terror has spread so fast from Katsina to Abuja. But all we could do is to treat the matter the Buhari way. The Buhari way is simple. It means talk the talk, hold meetings; pretend that you’re doing something when in reality, you’re actually doing nothing. At the end, nothing happens. The sore festers. The problem persists. And the President fiddles. Again, that’s the Buhari way. All talk, zero action.

The Buhari way is best expressed on matters of insecurity; on issues of terror. And you just wonder why a leader would fold his arms and watch his country overrun by a goon of terrorists from hell. You wonder why a President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces cannot command, let alone defend his constituents from the baying band of bloody terrorists. You wonder why a former military General, a war veteran, would suddenly become yellow-bellied, against a few armed miscreants from Niger Republic, Mali, and wherever. Again, you wonder, is it the same Buhari who promised to silence the terrorists just before he was elected president in 2015? But, he’s the one. The very same Buhari, doing his thing, his own way: All talk, zero action.

And because we have treated insecurity the Buhari way, the goons are gathering both gumption and gravitas. They are getting grittier and gamey. Emboldened by the Buhari way theorem, the terrorists are coming home to roost. Having successfully ravaged the north east and north west, including the President’s home state of Katsina, the terrorists have insidiously, while we were having our talk-talk meeting, nestled into the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). This is to be expected. When a thief knows that your dog can only bark and not bite, he will make your home his resort. We have a Commander-in-Chief that can really talk and talk, hold security meetings in tow, but will never punish his troops for negligence or rebuke them for their incompetence.

Who fears a barking dog? The terrorists have mastered the psychology of the toothless bull dog. It barks with nasal ferocity. But without canines, the dog remains a neighbourhood noise pollutant. That’s what the Buhari government is in the eyes of the terrorists. A tamed, timid Canis. Full of sound and fury. Void of steel and action. Hence, they can dare a Presidential advance security convoy in Katsina, injuring two on Terror Tuesday. Same day, they attacked Kuje Correctional Centre (the elite Kuje prison), freeing all their ilk marooned in that fortress.

And last Monday, Maddening Monday, they hit nearer home: the seat of power. They ran riot in the FCT. This time, the terrorists showed more pluck. They attacked the Presidential Guards and killed three soldiers among the Guards, injured many. They threatened to do more damage, including attacking the Nigerian Law School in Bwari, on the precinct of Abuja metropolis. The previous day, a Sunday, they had released a video in which they threatened to abduct President Buhari, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state and other politicians. Some say it’s all propaganda, the fuel of terrorists. Only a fool will believe this lie. This is not another empty propaganda associated with terror and the terrorists. This threat is real. And, thank goodness, reason has prevailed. Smart decisions had been taken and more should be taken in the coming days. Schools have been shut down. Nasarawa state (FCT’s neighbour) government has directed closure of both primary and secondary schools. Safety first. History has taught us that nothing is beyond the terrorists. They have attacked Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), we handled it the Buhari way. They attacked Presidential security convoy and Presidential Guards, we talked. They downed a military jet; we drooled. They blew up a whole train, abducted passengers on transit and have since turned them to their cash mint: releasing them in piecemeal as they collect ransom. They have abducted students in their hundred from schools, kept them for as long as they wished, married some, released the others as ransom was paid. Some students are still missing, in captivity, held up in evil forests with no whiff of action from the government.  All we did is to handle them the Buhari way. Talk, tattle and twaddle about them at security meetings that are not themselves secure, at Federal Executive Council meeting where known thieves are granted audience to defend their thievery, and at National Council of State where statesmanship is a scarce commodity.

As it is now, no place is safe. No part of the country is guaranteed safety. Not even Lagos. They have attacked all our national fortresses and succeeded. If they can attack both Presidential advance convoy and Guards (those trained soldiers and officers especially skilled to guard the President) and even killed three soldiers, is it a police station, church, mosque, market or office they cannot overrun? Nothing is beyond the goons from the Republic of Hell. And that’s all because we have treated their matter the Buhari way: Talk and twaddle.

But no matter, Abuja must not fall. Our collective national pride must not be surrendered to the terriers of terror. The security apparatchik must rise to the occasion to redeem as many strands of their shredded dignity. The fat budgets of the Army, Airforce and Navy from 2015 to 2022 must be justified with commensurate counter-terrorism onslaught against the rampaging, drug-propelled, ransom-motivated, gun-toting rottweilers from Hades. This is not the time to read the President’s body language. It has not helped our cause.

The National Security Adviser must roll up his sleeves and rally the nation’s security intelligentsia and the military in particular, to defend their name and reputation. How can a people live by the bank of a river and still be starved of water to wash off lather from their eyes? How can a nation that has successfully defended other nations in their moments of siege not able to defend and deliver herself from the hands of armed vagrants? This is not a time to hold empty meetings and engage in vacuous baloney. This is a season for action; a time to destroy the enemy; a time to kill. Even the Holy Writ, the Bible, recommends this. No more vain talks. This terror must be tamed. To act otherwise is to treat it the Buhari way. It’s not a good way. It has caused us more death than one can imagine. The threat from the terror mob must not be allowed to blossom to reality. Otherwise, we’ll be all dead men. God forbid!

First published in Sunday Sun