POLITICS TODAY

By Yakubu Ahmed-BK

Is this not purely delusional and foolhardy? How can you send a combined team of just thirty armed soldiers and policemen to accompany a Deputy Governor to an epicenter of mindless blood shedding and wanton destruction of property?
We are talking about an area where armed bandits – in their hundreds, if not thousands are holding sway.

Is it not reckless and unfortunate that we cannot decipher what awaits us when we apply the wrong antidotes to a problem we all well know requires superior firepower? As it is, we are just sending innocent young soldiers and policemen to their early deaths when we cajole them into the bush to be waylaid, ambushed and gruesomely decapitated by a group of bloodthirsty and mindless outlaws.

If we are serious about fighting this war and winning it, we very well know that the way we lackadaisically approach it, is damn wrong. It’s like asking a platoon of boys scouts to, armed with catapults, face a group of armed robbers, who lay in wait for them in a thick forest.

Until we see it as it really is, we are not likely to win this war comprehensively and decisively. We know what to do to prevail and until we do that, we will continue to needlessly lose our men in uniform to rag tag thugs who take advantage of our lack of seriousness to test our will.

The right weapons, the right intelligence, the right motivation, the right numbers and the right local area knowledge will win this war. The only other requirement is civilian cooperation and willingness to provide the information and even participation – and I am sure our people who are currently under siege are ever willing to provide that angle of support, so that this war can be won quickly, decisively and with very few casualties.

If we continue to footdrag and handle it with levity, we are only quickening the process of emboldening these hoodlums to take this banditry to our doorsteps and in our cities as well. Then, nobody will ever be safe. A stitch in time, as they say.