Is Fencing Nigeria The Solution?

By Sunny Awhefeada

Nigeria is at war! Make no mistake about it. The nation has become a sprawling killing field irrigated by the blood of compatriots. And it appears as if the armed forces are overwhelmed. War induces trauma in a number of ways. The fighting troops faced with the stark reality of death before a maniacal opponent could buckle and collapse even without the latter firing a shot. Soldiers are human and they dread mortality. Soldiers are the first victims of trauma in war situations. The thought of going to the battlefront and of not returning is enough to undo the most gallant of men. And when a war becomes intractable the fighters think of options, some of which could be ridiculous. At such a point the fighter, no matter how valiant, neither thinks about altruism nor patriotism. He just wants a way out, just any way out even if it is a placebo. Since the intensification of the insurgency in the last ten or so years the Nigerian armed forces have not been able score the bull’s eyes in bringing the crisis to an end. Each time service chiefs are appointed they speak to the issues in a manner that one thinks the war would be over in a matter of months if not weeks. But this has not been so. When Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general, campaigned for the presidency in 2014 he told Nigerians that he would wipe out insurgency in no time. Nigerians believed him because of their perception of him as a no-nonsense army general. Sadly and tragically, insurgency got worse under Buhari’s watch. Rampaging terrorists shot at his convoy near his home state of Katsina, they also attacked a section of the guards brigade that protects the presidency in Abuja. They got away with the unprecedented affronts. All that Buhari accomplished in eight years was to “technically defeat” Boko Haram. Whatever that means!

In the wake of President Bola Tinubu’s presidency not much thought was given to the capacity of the new administration to defeat terrorism. Like every other regime before it, the new one appointed new service chiefs with a charge to eradicate the menace that had become cancerous. Among the new military chiefs was General Christopher Musa, brilliant, eloquent, confident and self-assured. Musa’s perch as Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) puts him in charge of the nation’s armed forces which are the army, navy and air force. Like his predecessors, Musa also gave the impression that he was cut out for the job and promised to defeat terrorism. Weeks and months down the line, General Musa is offering the nation an unmilitary strategy in modern times. He is asking that the nation’s borders should be fenced as an antidote to insecurity. His argument was that are borders are porous and long and as such terrorists from other African countries easily come into Nigeria. Many Nigerians who have not laughed in recent times experienced a fleeting moment of mirthfulness at the thought of the CDS’s proposal. The CDS like every general with his troops in the theatre of war must be experiencing trauma and mental fatigue.

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In an age when technology is deployed to monitor movements and halt same a defence chief is taking us back to an ancient strategy. And for how long did fences or walls last in protecting those nations and kingdoms that built them for protection? Did Kano not fall to conquerors despite its ancient walls? Did the Benin Empire not fall despite its great moats? What makes Musa think that the fences he is proposing will be impregnable? What is playing out is a tacit admission of inability to secure Nigeria. This has been on long before the insurgency. Growing up, fencing of homesteads was not a vogue we experienced. However, as the police that are responsible for security failed to live up to their responsibility of protecting the people the latter resorted to erecting high fences with barbed wire to secure their homes. This is simply what Musa is proposing. Did the fencing of residences with barbed wire and in many cases with more sophisticated devices stop armed robbers and kidnappers from invading homes and carrying out their nefarious activities? Certainly, not! When the fences could no longer protect the people, they contrived the idea of civil defence and vigilante which brought reprieve. But this is for only people who can afford them because they are not free.

The insecurity problem in Nigeria has become intractable due to official complicity and only a strong dose of altruism and patriotism will undo it and not the fencing of the nation’s borders. The rampaging criminals are gaining the upper hand not because of porous borders. They are enjoying a field day because Nigeria happened to all of us and our institutions. The inability of the security forces to contain insecurity reflects in the nation’s general failure in all ramifications. Is there any sector of our national lives, health, education, energy, roads, that has succeeded as a collective? The answer is no! This is also the reason why we have not been able to vanquish insecurity. The armed forces, like Nigeria, must of necessity reinvent itself in order to defeat insecurity. The Nigerian Army fought and won a grueling civil war. It was the same army that chased Chadian rebels right into N’djamena the capital of Chad a little more than forty years ago! The same army restored peace to Liberia, Sierra Leone and other parts of the world when Nigeria was really Nigeria. Nigeria boasts of military academies such as the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Command and Staff College and National Defence College as well as the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies. These institutions embody strategies that will unravel insecurity. Yet, the terrorists were daring enough to invade the NDA premises a few years ago. At the core of why the war against terrorism is unwinnable right now are indiscipline, corruption, laxity and weak leadership. These are also the reasons why a private firm is protecting the nation’s most important national assets when we have an army, a navy and an air force! Is this not absurd?

General Musa unknowingly added a frightening dimension to his fencing theory when he said that his soldiers were calling him that they will accept salary cuts as their contribution to the cost of fencing Nigeria! Did he not sense abdication in that submission? It means his soldiers have given up. After fencing Nigeria, we will move on to fence the thirty states, then fence the seven hundred and seventy four local councils, then fence the wards and fence the units and then we would defeat insecurity forever and ever! So simplistic! Contractors, most of whom are conflict entrepreneurs, are likely going to drum support for Musa’s proposal. They will hustle and jostle for contracts that they will abandon and like the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation who awarded a contract of two hundred million naira to himself to cut grass in a small IDP camp nothing will happen to them. The man merely got away with the sobriquet of “Mr. Grass-cutter”. Nigeria is merely going round in circles. This must stop. By the time we fence our borders and insecurity remains unvanquished more military chiefs will throw more harebrained suggestions at us. Let us be serious for once! Fencing is not the solution!