As Nigeria continues to grapple with worsening security challenges, particularly in the northern part of the country, recent moves by some northern governors to initiate negotiations with terrorists and bandits have been described as a national sabotage of the fight against insecurity.
The development was viewed as an indictment of some leaders in Northern Nigeria, who are alleged to be culpable, either by action or inaction, in the persistent killings and violence currently ravaging the region. Expressing strong disapproval, a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ozo Celestine Okoye, said that he was deeply disappointed by the stance of the northern governors on negotiations with criminal elements.
Similarly, a security expert and former Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr Mike Ejiofor, warned that engaging bandits in negotiations, if confirmed, would only embolden the criminals, undermine law enforcement authority, and further complicate ongoing security operations.
Okoye noted that it is either the northern governors are sponsors of banditry, or they are under intense pressure from some forces who are leaders in the area to abandon the fight against terror and go into negotiations. “This is really disappointing, and this is what can be termed as national sabotage on the fight against insecurity in the country, and it doesn’t speak well of our country.
“Why would they go into negotiations with these bandits who have been perpetrating Christian killings in Northern Nigeria? “Of course, we know those who brought the terrorists into the country because they did not suddenly come to Nigeria.
“They were brought in to play specific roles, and today they have taken over the entire place, and the monster that they created is now bigger than them, such that it cannot be controlled or stopped,” Okoye stated.
Okoye, however, posited that if the military wants to stop the deadly acts of killings and kidnappings, they have the capacity to achieve it, but regretted that even security operatives had been compromised and the system infiltrated, and that there may be terrorists among them.
He said, “I know the Nigerian military and their capacity to protect the territorial integrity of our country; if they want to fight insecurity, they can do it, but it appears that the ranks of our security architecture have been infiltrated, and some operatives seem to be members of these bandits.
“It is indeed sad and disappointing that it has got to the stage where Governors who swore to protect lives and property as their first line charge have abdicated their constitutional duties, leaving the masses to their own fate.” Okoye urged the Governors to review their initial plans of negotiating with terrorists and take the bull by the horns and tackle insecurity in their respective states.
“They were not elected to negotiate with criminals or treat them with kid gloves but to exterminate them, and this means that people of Northern Nigeria have been left at the mercy of these terrorists, and one wonders what becomes of them in this circumstance.”
On his part, Ejiofor said further that no sensible person would negotiate with people who have no cause they are fighting and are busy killing everybody. He said: “As for me, you can’t negotiate with people who have no cause they are fighting, and are busy killing everybody.
“Do you know how many generals we’ve lost? Do you know how much Nigeria has put into it, and yet they’re killing, and you say you want to negotiate with them? I think people negotiating with them should be executed, whether they are governors or whoever.
“Before you start negotiating with someone, what is the person’s cause? What are they asking for? “You don’t wake up, and start killing people, and then you say you are negotiating with them. The ones we have negotiated with and given amnesty to, has it reduced what is happening now?
It has not. So, for me, it’s a nogo area.” Ejiofor, however, said that the way forward is for the government to sustain the fight against terrorism. “The president has directed that it is time, but how far that has been implemented, I don’t know.
There are many measures to take, like having more forest guards on the ground. Our collaboration with the United States is another. We can work together to get closer to winning the war. There is no society without crime. But let us reduce it to a minimal level. I think that’s what the government should do,” he added.
