Reports that Boko Haram terrorists have once again retaken Damasak, the Headquarters of Mobbar Local Government Area, LGA, of Borno State after reportedly dislodging the Nigerian security forces, is a saddening tale. Damasak, which is a border town with Niger Republic about 160 kilometres north from Maiduguri, the state capital, has had records of suffering severe attacks from the sect.
Reports gathered had revealed that the insurgents had Sunday evening stormed Damasak in a convoy of gun trucks loaded with Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, and Rocket Propelled Grenades used to overwhelm troops at their Base before taking control of the town, as hundreds of residents were trapped and others fled for safety. This came as residents of Khadamari village in Jere LGA in thesame state were reported to have had a sleepless night following Boko Haram attacks to loot foodstuff and livestock. The spread of several unconfirmed reports such as the claim of a United Nations Helicopter shot at by terrorists in the axis and loss of lives of security agencies and scores missing in the Damasak invasion, are morale lowering reports that show irresponsive response system of military formations to security emergencies.
It is saddening that despite the threat by the gruesome Boko haram sect leader, Abubakar Shekau through an audio message recently to heighten attacks, the response of the Military formations to intelligently clampdown such moves have not been concrete. The reflection of the spate of attacks in recent times by the sect despite obvious warnings, is a clear expression of the weakness of the Nigerian military architecture to respond appropriately by intelligence to security threats. It is saddening that the security formations are continually cut unawares despite all signals of dangers.
Such narrative is practically a tingling irritation to hearing sensations. The apparent worsening of insecurity profile with several brewing strings of turbulence, have been coloured with records of acute social outcomes which are unwholesome to a tranquil state of peace and order required for cohabitation to have a resemblance of the definition of an organised society.
The heightening of security threats have been a bane and a thorn in the flesh of the Nigerian government most recently. The troubling state of the strings have grown to become an albatross producing strings of waving storms bewildering the Country. The consequential effects of the off-shooting arms of the menace against the economy and socio-political formations have been largely undesirable. The rise of bandits’ escapades which most recently have constituted another stormy wind of insecurity in the Country has generated strings of circumstances which on records of observation have been generating acute disturbances, debilitating the working fabrics of socio-economic and political formations. The extending tentacles of banditry worsened by the escapades of nomadic herdsmen against farming settlements, have been compounding with several strings to forcefully pull the working patterns of the societal fabrics off the radar of stability.
The apparent characterisation of the Government to be handicapped in addressing the myriad of security challenges in the Country, has found stronger grounds of justification with critical observers, particularly with the moves by government authorities to negotiate with bandits and terror groups. The time for the Government to show stronger reflections of competence by strategic measures to address the waving storms of insecurity threats frustrating peace and order in the Country is no more than now. The necessity before the Government is one demanding overarching modalities that should combine strategic use of both military force with the blend of political and socio-economic instruments to address direct and indirect underlying factors spurring the spread of social vices as instigating forces of insecurity in the Country. It is therefore, imperative that the Government emphatically embrace the appropriate overarching modalities of interfacing instruments essential to dynamically topple the stormy winds of insecurity forces bewildering the Country.