The authorities must demonstrate the capacity to secure the lives and property of Nigerians.

Terrorists are increasingly consolidating their grips on Kaduna, Nigeria’s most fortified state and political capital of the North. In a recent leaked memo to President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Nasir El-Rufai wrote that these criminals have formed a parallel governing authority over many communities and are exercising control over social and economic activities. And Last Thursday, while receiving the 2022 First Quarter Security Report, the Governor expressed similar concern over the heavy presence of Boko Haram and the Ansaru terrorists in two local government areas of Birnin Gwari and Giwa in the state. From the pathetic picture painted by the governor for the president, terrorists, bandits and criminals of all stripes have more or less seized control of many areas, extracting taxes, conducting marriage ceremonies and dispensing their own brand of justice.

In many communities, these violent criminals also impose all kinds of “protection” levies on farmers in return for permission to cultivate the land, similar to their activities in neigbouring Niger, another state under terrorists’ siege. Besides, they have enacted a law banning all forms of political activity or campaign ahead of the 2023 general election in areas that are now practically under their control. Citing a series of intelligence report, El-Rufai informed the president that terrorists had advanced plans to make Kaduna forest areas their “permanent operational base” for the Northwest region. “Observed movement patterns and intercepted communications of migrating terrorists have shown a clear interest in setting up a base with the stretches of forest area between Kaduna and Niger States strongly considered,” he wrote. It is indeed worrisome that Kaduna State is increasingly becoming a converging point for armed gangs involved in kidnapping for ransom, arms dealing, cattle rustling, and highway robbery. In the last few years, the state has been witnessing all variants of terrorists – from Boko Haram, splinter groups and affiliates – Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Ansaru – which reportedly pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2020 and claimed responsibility for the many high-profile abductions in the state.

With the increasing presence of these terror groups and bandits in Kaduna and other states like Katsina, Zamfara, the problem of insecurity has moved from the Northeast to the Northwest which the governor noted is potentially “more dangerous” as it will have grave implications for the entire area. Over the last few years, Kaduna has perhaps recorded the highest number of violence in northern Nigeria, except perhaps Borno State—home of the Boko Haram insurgency. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, some 220 violent events have resulted in nearly a thousand fatalities. Moreover, there have been about 400 persons abducted for ransom and hundreds of communities destroyed leading to the displacement of many people. Only last week, the Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, in his security report, said 360 persons were killed either by bandits, terrorists or communal violent clash between January and March 2022.

In response to Kaduna’s worsening security, the federal government has established a special Joint Military Task Force under the mandate of Operation Accord. But the growing instability in Kaduna suggests that it is largely ineffectual. The governor has suggested in the past that the security forces needed to do more, while also asking for more boots on the ground. It is time to take the war to the criminals. Kaduna is in real and present danger.

The Nigerian State is under siege on all fronts, with more frontiers opening at every turn. But the state of lawlessness that pervades Kaduna cannot be allowed to continue. It is incumbent on the authorities to demonstrate the capacity to secure the lives and property of Nigerians.

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