As it stands today, no Nigerian, no matter how young or old, rich or poor, would hear of Sambisa Forest and fail to locate it mentally as well as associate it with what it is known for – sophisticated terrorism.
That forest, a large, once-thriving game reserve in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, was famous for its dense vegetation and wildlife. Today, it strikes fear into the ear. Sambisa, in the last 15 to 20 years, has transformed into a major stronghold for the terrorists’ groups troubling the country.
Inside it is Boko Haram and its affiliate, ISWAP, Islamic fundamentalists driving some noxious religious beliefs, with death and destruction as their major merchandise. Sambisa, once a protected area for animals like elephants and lions, turned tragically into a dangerous hideout used for staging attacks, holding captives, and housing militant camps.
The men who took over the forest from animals became even more dangerous than the animals, stretching our military to its limits and tasking our brains as to who or what motivates them, as well as why and how they get motivated.
For years the terrorists had remained in the north as boko haram, herdsmen and bandits, but latest developments indicate that they are spreading fast into all corners of Nigeria, east and west, far east, far west and south south alike, each with kidnapping, killing and destruction of churches and mosques as a common modus operandi.
Nigeria on the whole has 1,129 forest and game reserves. Trust that the rich rain forests in the south would be veritable fortresses for these agents of death when they finally dig in. If this does not worry us, then we must probe our senses of self-preservation. Very frankly, we must not lose sight of the fact that the entire affair is part of a grand plan by avowed Jihadists to Islamise the nation. Political leaders have lived in denial of a sweeping genocide against Christians, which invariably came to the notice of the American government.
The ones branded bandits, apparently, target money from their kidnapping escapades rather than the propagation of Islam. Basically, all the attackers are Muslims.
In the past, the people we saw as herdsmen lived in our forests and peacefully grazed their cattle in the lush greenery of the south. Of late, gun-wielding terrorists masquerading as pastoralists have appeared all around the southern forests and have made going to our farms a nightmare for farmers. Women are raped in the bushes. Our crops are fed to cows. The men protest and they get bullets pumped into them by the AK 47-bearing bandits.
The terror gradually upgraded to the forest bandits appearing on the highways, kidnapping travellers and taking them into the bush for ransom. Some victims don’t come home alive. Some families pay ransom and still lose their loved ones.
The bandits, according to reports from those who have been in and out of their hideouts, have added a more lethal trade to their existing ones – organ harvesting and trafficking!
Most painful is that the culprits commit the atrocities and none gets arrested. The government issues endless statements condemning the acts, while the police give unrealistic assurances of safety.
The bandits, not deterred by the threats of invasion by US President, Donald Trump, are surging southwards. Shall we fold our hands and watch the nation overrun by the hoodlums? Once they are allowed to take control of the southern forests, we would have created more formidable Sambisa forests and dislodging them would be a herculean task.
In October, this year, the federal Government unveiled a Forest Guard initiative expected to employ more than 130,000 men to watch over our forests. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu went further to declare a national emergency on security across the country when the bandits invaded schools in Kebbi and Niger states, carting away students for either ransom or supposedly for use as human shields should the American government make good its threat to invade them.
Attempts in the past by the southern states to contain the terrorists’ activities had appeared to be a flash in the pan. The Southwestern states teamed up to form the Amotekun as a vigilante group. Amotekun was relatively effective initially. It is yet to be determined whether they are a permanent solution to the rascality. The Eastern equivalent followed. While Amotekun knew what they were assigned to do and went straight to face their job, its eastern counterparts, Ebube Agu, going by reports of people, engaged in fratricides, leaving the forests vulnerable. It turned into a tool for vendetta, hunting down political foes of their paymasters, engaging in extrajudicial killings and going after young men who they label members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), rightly or wrongly.
As the problem loomed larger and larger, spiking in recent times when the problem is in the front burner, some northern governors hitherto averse to state police turned advocates. Interestingly, the new defence Minister, Gen. Christopher Musa, is inclined to community participation in matters of security. It could be a prelude to the desired local policing which, to a great extent, would save the situation. Localised security is best, especially when it is adequately trained and equipped. The locals know the routes in the forests and as it is their home, they are best suited and committed to protect it more than the soldiers and the police.
Among Gen. Musa’s responsibility is the safeguarding of the country’s borders through which the marauders access Nigeria from the Sahel region to cause mayhem. If it means walling off the country from the Sahel, so be it. All arms filtering into the country through the porous borders ought to be mopped up and further inflow stopped drastically.
The forests need thorough combing and policing to rid it of not dangerous animals this time but dangerous men let loose with weapons of death and destruction.
Dr. Odu can be reached through [email protected] or SMS +2347064052031.
