When I first saw the headline of the Goronyo weekly market attack by gunmen where over 40 people were killed, my initial reaction was denial, not that it was not possible, but one would hope that with the actions taken against bandits in Zamfara and Katsina states that this kind of brazen attack would not happen.
However, the story is true which is sad to say the least. It increased people’s fear about insecurity in the country, particularly in the northwest, where President Muhammadu Buhari comes from.
According to reports, the market was full of people when over 100 bandits riding motorcycles surrounded the place and shot people.
The attack was said to be a reprisal because the local vigilante killed some Fulani herders, also a revenge for the attack on their communities by bandits. It is a vicious circle.
Sokoto State Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said the attack was due to the military operation in Zamfara State. He said this while hosting the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Farouk Yahaya on Monday.
When the drastic action of banning mobile networks in Zamfara and some parts of Katsina states was taken among others, security experts said the bandits would relocate to neighbouring states. That the operation should have included neighbouring states, though only God knows the outcry from human right groups, opposition politicians and some of the ordinary people whose livelihood depends on mobile transactions and so on.
Even when the mobile network was banned in Zamfara, some were happy if it would bring an end to the bandits’ attack, some lamented their losses, while some experts condemned it.
Whenever I read or watch experts advising on how to tackle insecurity, I wonder if the security agents are not ‘experts’ who should also know. And some of them are retired soldiers or police chiefs who were in the system before. Or is it with the benefit of hindsight they now know better?
In any case, people are not secured anywhere; at home, on the road, schools, markets and communities where the criminal gangs would ride motorcycles and raze shops and houses in the name of reprisal attack or just like that.
And the surprising thing is that they often operate for hours without any challenge from security agents.
Even when they abduct students in schools, they go in hundreds riding motorcycles and herd the students like animals. It is beyond belief.
With this massacre it is glaring that the best of our security agencies’ ideas are not good enough and people no longer have confidence of being protected by them.
That is why in frustration, some people even governors advocate for people to be armed in order to protect themselves, which some find appalling and condemn them because it may bring anarchy.
But it shows the lack of confidence in our security agencies to crush the bandits and other terrorist groups that are making the lives of Nigerians very difficult and scary.
Even President Buhari’s assurance that the days of the bandits were numbered because the military capabilities of Nigeria’s forces were being boosted by the acquisition and deployment of advanced equipment did little to put people’s minds at rest.
He said this in his condolence message of the Goronyo Market attack in a statement by his media aide Garba Shehu.
In this regard, recent people who want to leave Nigeria and live abroad often cite insecurity among their reasons for wanting to leave their own country. And some that live abroad are scared to come home even on visits by seeing the kidnappings and killings.
On the hand our security personnel are not well taken care of, in some instances they complain of not being given their allowance for months and other discouraging attitudes towards them. They need to be motivated by being cared for.
All the same the Goronyo market massacre is one too many, it shouldn’t happen again. Now it creates widows, widowers, orphans and destitute, creating more poverty in the already impoverished people.
