Akwa Ibom: Invaded but not conquered
There is war in the land. The battle has been fierce, intense and unrelenting. From Essien Udim to Ika, Etim Ekpo to Ikono and Ini, it has been a tale of bloodbath, anarchy, sorrow and deaths. Whenever the invaders strikes, fear stalks the land. There is trepidation all over the state. Uncertainty and a sense of an approaching apocalyptic meltdown now grip the citizenry.
Let us no longer quibble about our situation. Akwa Ibom is embroiled in an unusual civil war. We are faced with a grave emergency. The earlier we recognize this fact, the better for everybody. It is no longer possible to sustain Akwa Ibom under the current security configuration and we can’t wait or depend on Abuja for help. Even Aso Rock needs help to help itself.
In Akwa Ibom today, no one is safe. Both rich and poor, APC or PDP, the man living along Ikpa Road or Urua Ekpa, or the super rich residing in the highbrow Ewet Housing, Osongama or Shelter Afrique estates, the government appointee or the ordinary government supporter, the Uniform men or bloody civilians, the unimaginable level of insecurity in Akwa Ibom today affects everybody. We are all vulnerable. We are all at risk.
But who do we blame? The answer is as simple as the question. All of us. Federal, State, Local Governments, PDP, APC, Politicians, Community Leaders, Elders, Youths, Women, Civil Society, Market Women, the Media, Security Agencies, the Church (mostly CAN/ Fathers of Faith), Civil/Public Servants, Retirees, Pensioners, Contractors, Students, critics and praise singers. So let’s keep the blame game aside as there is enough to go round but wear our thinking cap and quickly think our way out of this unfortunate quagmire.
There are times when safety may prove detrimental to progress, for it is easy to confuse safety with caution. It is time to wake up or perish. Already, reactions to the situation have come across sometimes partisan, angry, cynical, emotional and misadvised. These are indeed emotional times for Akwa Ibom. Chambers of reason are frying thin from the embers of passion. Time is running out. Regrettably, some of those who should speak up, who were once upon a time very vocal, proactive and pragmatic are silent.
Where is Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio?
Where is Ati Annang?
Where is Oro Union?
Where our our Youths?
Sadly, it seems our socio cultural groups are in a state of coma at the Intensive Care Unit, ICU, barely surviving on Oxygen. Or how else can we explain the once vibrant Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio suddenly becoming deaf and dumb, the vocal Ati Annang now becoming a semi- Chief Mourner only proficient at visiting IDP camps to donate relief materials while the once vibrant Oro Union seems overwhelmed with only the internal problems and perceived injustices bedeviling the Oro nation when in reality, objective indicators shows that any vulnerability within Oro because of it’s coastal proximity to the many creeks will have serious negative impact on our oil installations and survival as a state.
Why are the youths praying while our enemies are at our doorstep? We pray, they prey. Your house in on fire and you close the eyes, lift up your hands towards Heaven and ask for divine mercy and help. Only a mad person does that. The Iwaudofia led Akwa Ibom Youth monthly prayer summit may have to be modified to ensure the youth recognize their strategic role in defending the State. You can’t be paid to pray monthly and neglect protecting the state against being preyed by invaders while you keep praying.
We keep deceiving ourselves by closing our eyes and pray to God as if we’re the only people He created and be asking Him to help us solve problems He has already given us powers to do by our refusal, not inability, to activate our brain, courage, determination and patriotic zeal.
There are some countries or state terrorists will have to think twice before attacking because they project the deterrence, that implacable force and power that would make it unattractive for anyone or group to think of attacking. While 9/11 for instance brought the US to it’s knees, it however emerged from the ashes, formed the Department of Homeland Security, which has made it more difficult for terrorist to attack the Homeland easily. This makes terrorists to have a rethink of strategy, turning to US formations abroad, mostly in the Middle East and her allies as soft targets.
Intelligence gathering is a proactive business rather than a reactive affair. Development of the nations security architecture should not become hostage to political debate. Instead of shaping the security architecture to accord with a prior political notion of federalism, we should first discern the most pragmatic, effective security apparatus. Then, we adjust the federal structure accordingly so as to enable this more efficacious system.
Right from the outset of the security crisis, the federal government has never fundamentally addressed the major issues. More importantly, it has failed to put in place a viable and working intelligence network to root out the vermin at the bottom of the crisis. All these while, one would have expected the presidency to ensure a working intelligence team. We cannot wage a successful war without intelligence. No war ever succeeds without intelligence. In fact, superior intelligence beats superior weapons.
The few attempts at Intervention were exercises in sustained brutal duplicity unleavened by neither redeeming vision nor intellectual sagacity. In all honesty, security is not attained by force of arms but by the aggregate influence of justice and prosperity.
Back to Akwa Ibom, the war must be prosecuted more at the realm of mind games and gadgets. We must seek advantage through telecommunications, surveillance, local vigilantee and air power, of course with support from the federal government.
There are questions we must ask ourselves and find honest and objective answers to as soon as possible. Who are these invaders? We must be able to profile them, pre-empt them, second guess them and route them. We must develop high rapid response capabilities. At the peak of the Covid19 pandemic, Governor Udom Emmanuel told us he has mounted security cameras at the state’s entry points where he can monitor vehicles and see who comes in and goes out of the state from the comfort of his office. Such technology should be deployed now than ever at our borders to help security forces and vigilante groups have advance Intel of suspicious and dangerous movements towards our homeland.
Also, it is a terrible disgrace not to combat injustice. Yet, it is almost as hapless to fight it incompletely. Society achieving long term justice and prosperity are more peaceful and their people are less vulnerable to extremists views and the formation of violent organizations.
Available Intel in the public domain indicates that young Akwa Ibom youths are being recruited to wage war against the state by these invading forces. We must act fast to halt and reverse this dangerous trend. If we allow the situation persist whereby a young Akwa Ibom youth believe the only way he can be sure of his next meal is to join any of the violent groups and possibly rob the next supermarket, then the situation may soon no longer be salvageable.
While it can be argued by some folks that poverty alone cannot be a motivation to turn a hungry, angry youth against the state, the truth is without poverty, the motivation cannot stand for long. It is hard to recruit a well-fed man to fight for a cause. As Sam Omatseye once said, “To recruit, give the poor bread, and to sustain them, give them bread of life”.
The way forward
Apart from behind the scene security meetings which has to be classified due to the sensitive nature of security issues at stake, the Governor should urgently convoke a meeting where Akwa Ibom people can sit together and talk to themselves on the way forward. Am proposing a sort of bipartisan meeting which will be a meeting or melting point where we must be courageous enough to tell ourselves the bitter truth and see the situation and reality on ground as it is, not as we hope or wish them to be. The ongoing security crisis is not a PDP probelm neither is it an APC nightmare. It’s an Akwa Ibom problem and the solution should be collective.
We must also quickly develop a homegrown security and defence mechanisms. This should see to the activation of local vigilantee groups within communities but in a way they too will not tomorrow transform to be part of the problem or a much bigger monster than what we’re trying to solve.
But for this to be achieved and be effective, efficient and result oriented, our Local Government Chairmen must play a key role both in their formation, monitoring and evaluation and to achieve this, they must be provided with sufficient funds to foot the bill. That means a greater percentage of their Federal allocation getting to them. None of the 31 LGA Chairmen can survive and sustain the proposed security overhaul under the present financial configuration they are passing through.
Moreover, the role of the locals in our neighborhood and communities cannot be over emphasized. The intelligence community have an urgent role of distinguishing the terrorists from the rest of society. To do otherwise would be to alienate those who would have helped to provide the right information to solving the problem.
If Akwa Ibom want to solve these security problem and tackle the insecurity menace systematically, then it must pay a much close and deeper attention to Essien Udim LGA. Essien Udim is the base and the terrain where these seeds that have blossomed to consume us all as a people was planted, watered, nurtured, groomed and exported.
We all shouted and screamed when Akwa Marine was terrorizing Essien Udim with base at Midim Atan community. No one came to the rescue because it was politically correct then to maintain a see-no-evil, say-no-evil posture. Now that Essien Udim is turning out to becoming the new Aleppo, do we fold our hands and watch it become an ISIS stronghold?
Let me deepen the debate a bit further. The current Chairman of Essien Udim LGA, Hon Anthony Luke, has all the experience and expertise needed to tackle the situation if supported, having served at various times at different levels of different governments at the Council for more than a decade. He understands the tertian and on knows the problem his people are facing more than Uyo or Abuja.
But when a Chairman is incapacitated by lack of funds, punished with zero allocation and undermined using the instrumentality of the Joint State-Local Government Account, then we have to pause, reflect, meditate and evaluate if the Government has not by commission or omission contributed to the worsening security situation by starving the Councils of her statutory and legitimate funds needed to effectively combat the menace at hand.
Essien Udim’s pathetic scenario is made worse by the fact that hundreds of youths stood by and supported the Chairman come into office with the hope of being empowered and having a meaningful and more purposeful life. Now that lack of funds to the Council has enabled the growth of an avoidable crisis of expectation to set in, the security situation may become worse and God forbid irreversible if nothing is done and urgently too, as the local government may become a veritable recruitment and indoctrinating ground for future or potential terrorists. This is an open secret and only those responsible for the crisis will argue otherwise. If the AKSG will summon the courage and political will to call these sponsors to order, that will be a good starting point. But this will mean “stepping on toes”. Again, it boils down to being ready to damn the political consequences for the greater good.
This is not the time to think of 2023. If the ugly trend is not halted and immediately reversed, Akwa Ibom politicians may not be able to visit over 70% of their constituents to campaign let alone INEC being able to organize the 2023 election in a state that was once Nigeria’s most peaceful. But in all of these, the good news is that no matter how dark and gloomy the situation looks or sounds, we will with unity and determination overcome and come out victorious. We always do because we are Akwa Ibomites. We never give up or succumb to fear and despair.
Peace to our Fatherland!
