•Three months after, Federal Govt yet to honour its promise to name terrorism sponsors

The primary aim of government is to protect the lives and property of citizens. Once a government fails in this duty, then the trust of citizens drops and it becomes each one for himself and God for us all. Under such a situation, things seem to fall apart as law and order give way to anarchy.

For years now, Nigeria seems to have descended into a Hobbesian state where life is brutish, nasty and short. The rise of Boko Haram terrorists in the North East came with all the evils associated with terrorism – killings, abductions, rape, sacking of villages, insurgency, banditry, mounting of terrorists’ flags, arson and all forms of evil against the citizens. Since the abduction of the Chibok girls in 2014, other abductions of school pupils and students have been carried out, especially in the north. Today, the evil package from the bandits and terrorists has been extended to other parts of the country.

Indeed, the security lexicon of Nigeria has since changed with the spread of terrorist activities. The bottom-line has been the killings and kidnappings without borders; babies are literally snatched from their mothers’ breasts, the old and the young have at various times and places been abducted, and in some cases their houses razed and some communities totally sacked. So, today, there are different adjectives and nouns to describe the faceless criminals. We are now confused about the differences between Boko Haram insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, killer herdsmen and armed robbers.

It’s been tears, sorrow and blood and the people have been helpless. There is confusion as to how cheap and agonising life across the country has been. Many other countries are consistently giving travel alerts on Nigeria to their citizens. To worsen matters, some governors and religious leaders from the North seem to have even gone into negotiations with some terrorists. At several times, the government has been very vague in giving clarity to its plans to arrest the deteriorating security situation.

In May, amidst the outrage over the repeated attacks on villagers, travellers and kidnap of school children amongst other tragedies, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, announced that the government had uncovered a large number (about 400) of suspected terrorism financiers and they were already being profiled for prosecution. Nigerians and the world were a bit relieved and expectant. More than three months after, there is a deafening silence from the Federal Government; not one high or low profile terrorism financier has either been named or arraigned. Expectedly, the anxiety has increased. Not only are the people almost despondent over the state of insecurity, they are also shocked that the government is showing a form of lethargy on a very serious issue that ought to be treated with absolute sense of urgency. The protection of lives and property as a duty of government in no way aligns with the lethargy being shown by government over the exposure of the well-healed financiers of terrorism that has claimed hundreds of thousands, traumatised citizens and displaced millions and put the country on the prime list of terrorist countries in the world.

It is apposite to remind the government that its duty is to protect the people and with that obligation comes some responsibility. If the government, through the office of the chief law officer of the country had declared that such high profile financiers of terrorism had been identified and would soon be prosecuted and almost four months after, mum is the word, the citizens are justified in feeling betrayed and left in the lurch. Trust is the legal tender of leadership. The people want to know how soon is soon. We believe their anxiety is justified. We all wait for sincere answers.

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