By Prof. Abdussamad Umar Jibia
Southern Kaduna (popularly known as Southern Zaria because of its history of being part of the Zaria emirate) is a place I feel connected to whenever it is mentioned. At the age of 12, when I went to a boarding secondary school, a large percentage of those who became my classmates were from that area. Although GSS Musawa was located in the heart of what is now Katsina state, one can say without any fear of contradiction that nearly half of its students were from Southern Kaduna.
With this background, I can accurately claim to have grown up with people from Southern Kaduna, many of whom remain my friends. Religious and communal crises that set us against one another are unfortunate. With those many crises, it would be a lie to claim that there is no mutual suspicion between the people of that area, who are mainly Christians and the Northern part of Kaduna state made of mostly Muslims and the greater old Kaduna/North-central state to which I belong.
Of course, like any other people, there are good and bad people in Southern Kaduna. To verify to which category a particular person belongs, you find out. Since the announcement of Major-General Christopher Musa as the new Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), I set out to investigate the kind of person he is. After contacting my sources, I was left thankful to President Bola Tinubu for choosing such a detribalised professional soldier to head our military, especially when professionalism is required to deal with the many security challenges across the country.
The choice of Christopher Musa is timely not just because he is a thoroughbred General but also because he is a victim of the banditry scourge that has bedevilled the Northwestern part of Nigeria. To be a Nigerian, one must first belong to one of the 774 local governments in one of the 36 states or FCT. Like the case with many other places in the North West, the state and local government area of General Musa have been attacked.
But, contrary to what the Southern press would want us to believe, although Southern Kaduna has its share of banditry, it is not the worst hit. Killing, kidnapping and other heinous crimes committed by bandits are daily occurrences in Zamfara, parts of Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi and Niger, in addition to both Northern and Southern Kaduna state.
To succeed in his task, General Musa has to dispel the incorrect notion that bandits are coming from outside Nigeria. I believe the security reports are at his disposal, but there are things that we, the victims, expect from him that his predecessors failed to achieve.
Most of the operations hitherto carried out involve bandits at the bottom of the bandits’ hierarchy. The most dreadful bandits’ leaders are lurking safely in the North West. Only recently, one of them released the last batch of students of FGC Yauri whom he kidnapped and kept on Nigerian soil for more than two years, during which he extorted their parents through the nose. He is still living unscathed despite the billions of Naira the Government spends on security.
He is not alone. In a widely condemned show of irresponsibility, another criminal who killed more than 100 villagers in Katsina state and was declared wanted by the Nigerian Police was given a traditional title in Zamfara state last year. He lives peacefully while the orphans and widows his crime generated are left on their own.
Another criminal who burned a passenger bus with 30 people in it days after opening fire on a village market that claimed 60 lives is also enjoying himself in Zamfara state. He is said to be moving around like a king in his locality.
Yet, another criminal who publicly claimed to have killed many Nigerian and Nigerian soldiers and abducted 40 Nigerian children days after he killed 53 farmers in Zamfara state is living there like a king. He also moves around unscathed.
A bandits’ kingpin who ambushed Nigerian soldiers and killed many of them in 2020 is now enslaving villagers in Katsina state. Villagers under his jurisdiction work on his farm whenever he invites them to do so.
These are some of the most well-known bandits’ Generals with bases in the North West. The list is not exhaustive. That they were accessed by international and local media to which they gave video interviews leaves our security forces with no room to claim that the criminals are at large.
Of course, arresting/killing the above-mentioned bandits’ ring leaders and others in their category is not as easy as mentioned. In addition to sophisticated weapons and trained fighters, they have powerful sympathisers. We cannot rule out mischievous claims of genocide when the military goes all out to deal with them. Ordinary people like me expect that General Musa and Mr President should ignore any noise resulting from securing the North West and North Central geopolitical regions of Nigeria. May Allah help them, amin.
The question begging for an answer is whether General Musa and his team are willing to take up the challenge and uproot banditry by attacking its leadership, or they will just scratch the surface, make their money and go into partisan politics like we saw some of their colleagues did.
Prof Abdussamad Umar Jibia wrote from Kano, Nigeria. He can be reached via aujibia@gmail.com.