Reorganize counterterrorism officials to prevent the formation of criminal alliances, experts advise Buhari

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

A security policy think tank, Nextier SPD, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to let officials of the center stay too long on their beat in order to disallow them the opportunity to form criminal alliances, a mere 24 hours after the President announced the appointment of Rear Admiral Yaminu Ehinomen Musa, retd, as the pioneer coordinator of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, NCTC.

Additionally, the group advocated for improved counterterrorism screening and training, effective intelligence-driven police to prevent and respond to attacks, and the prosecution of anyone found guilty of supporting terrorism or banditry in order to dissuade others.

Dr. Iro Aghedo, an Associate Consultant at Nextier SPD and Senior Lecturer in the Political Science Department at the University of Benin in Edo State, and Dr. Ndu Nwokolo, Managing Partner and Chief Executive at Nextier SPD and an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Government and Society at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, noted that banditry in Zamfara State was riding the waves of collusion.

The experts stated: “Several actors profit from the political economy of the war and undermine initiatives to reduce violence. If the lethal violence is to be effectively combated, these violent entrepreneurs must be located, convicted, and given the proper punishment, regardless of their socio-political status.

Better counterterrorism training and screening are required, as are more frequent replacements at the front lines, efficient intelligence-driven police, and the prosecution of individuals found guilty of aiding and abetting bandits in order to dissuade others.

They claimed that due to increased banditry, Zamfara State had been on the verge of collapse in recent years. They also said that the criminal violence had sparked an increase in cattle rustling, raids on communities, ethnic conflicts, and kidnapping for ransom.

Zamfara State recorded 911 cases, the second-highest number in the nation behind Kaduna State, which recorded 1,271 incidents, of the 4,419 people kidnapped in Nigeria between January 2021 and June 2022.

“In response, the government and traditional leadership have unsuccessfully used a combination of vengeful and appeasement tactics. For instance, sending in government soldiers to stop robbers’ illicit operations has only produced mediocre results.

The use of amnesty to appease bandits has also failed. This conflict’s protagonists have been split into two distinct “enemy” groupings, which serves as the foundation for these stabilization attempts.

That is, those who engage in violence (such as bandits) and others who seek to promote peace (e.g. members of state security forces).

This Nextier SPD policy weekly questions the binary understanding of criminal violence by shedding some light on how the so-called ‘enemy’ conspire to advance their economic goal based on the internal dynamics of banditry and other realities on the ground.

On conflict actors and enemy construction, Nextier SPD stated that “the gradual but steady descent of Zamfara State and the broader North-West region into anarchy has mainly been blamed on the Fulani bandits who have resorted to terrorist tactics in their quest for land-based resources like pasture, water and grazing routes for their herds.

“The armed forces, political and traditional elite, and Hausa vigilante militias have only been blamed for using extreme violence to respond to Fulani terrorism. As argued by the Nextier report, this dominant narrative of the violence belies the historical peaceful co-existence of Fulani and Hausa in Zamfara State.

“In addition, both ethnic groups largely adhere to the Islamic faith. Thus, while the narrative of the Fulani Islamisation agenda is dominant in the South, especially under the Buhari administration, the discourse is less so in the North-West region, where Islam has been the main religion for both Fulani and Hausa for centuries.

“Therefore, in coming to grips with the actual drivers of banditry in Zamfara State, one should look beyond ethnic and religious enemy construction and grievance narratives and assess the self-related agendas of the conflict actors – whether bandits, vigilantes, local leaders or state security officials.”

The group also stated that “across Zamfara State, banditry has become a lucrative business chain with many stakeholders aiding and abetting. Even though traditional rulers are saddled with the responsibility of ensuring peace and good governance at the grassroots, several emirs and district heads have been dethroned by the Zamfara State government since 2019 for aiding and abetting terror gangs.

“The Emir of Maru was dethroned in August 2019 after a committee set up by the Zamfara State government and chaired by a former Inspector General of Police found him guilty of “working with terrorists and cattle rustlers in the Maru council area.”

“Similarly, the indictment of the Emir of Zurmi in the attacks on Kadawa village, where 61 persons were killed, made the state government suspend the Emir in June 2021. The Emir of Dansadau was also suspended in June 2021 for aiding the activities of terrorists in his domains. Several district heads were also removed for similar offences, including Kanoma in Maru emirate in 2021.

“But surprisingly, even though the traditional rulers were found culpable for killing, kidnapping, cattle rustling and community raids, they were not prosecuted for wrongdoing by the government, perhaps because of the usefulness of such local leaders in mobilising votes for the political elite during elections.”