Last week, the Defence Headquarters told newsmen that a new terrorist group known as Lukarawas has emerged in Sokoto and Kebbi State axis. According to the Director of Defence Media Operations, Major-General Edward Buba, the group infiltrated in from Niger Republic and Mali, a fallout of the coup in Niger.
Prior to the coup that overthrew civil rule in Niger, there was a joint military border patrol between Nigeria and Niger troops; however, the cooperation broke down in the aftermath of the coup which affected relations between the two countries.
Major-General Buba said that, “The terrorists took advantage of the gaps in cooperation between both countries and exploited difficult terrains to make incursions into remote areas in some north-western states to spread their ideology”.
The ideology of the group is not yet clear but it was reported to be taking advantage of ungoverned areas, built a settlement that is ruled with Islamic laws, and further brought in more groups thereby swelling its camp. They oppress and tax herders and farmers who give cows and farm produce in exchange for protection.
Just like the case when Boko Haram insurgency began, the emergence of Lukarawas as reported followed almost a similar complex narrative: failed intelligence and political commitment towards nipping the problem in the bud right from its infancy.
First is the issue of porous border, an age long issue that has remained the bane of our international insecurity at borderlines. A report had detailed the timeline of Lukarawas’s infiltration into Nigeria dating back to 2018. There are Department of State Service (DSS), Police, Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Nigerian Custom Service (NCS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) among others all over the country. How then would such a deadly group come and occupy the Nigerian territory without immediate commensurate response, the broken down relationship between Nigeria and Niger notwithstanding?
There is also the problem of politicization of intelligence in Nigeria that is very disturbing, equally pointing to a lack of diligent and patriotic management of intelligence; lack of synergy among the security agencies.
It was earlier reported that there was an initial effort by the security agencies to respond to the threat of Lukarawas but some Muslim communities rose up in their defence saying that the group was made up of harmless herders and so they should be left alone.
But even at that, under the prevailing circumstance, the defence should not blame helpless villagers on a very sensitive national security threat posed by a dangerous group like Lukarawas to take necessary action. That is a lame excuse.
While we hope that our security forces will expedite action on the troubled spot as they have said, assuring us of sustainable intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) efforts in order to degrade the terrorists, we call on the government to reform the country’s security architecture.
Nigeria and her people need a security architecture that is active and not reactive, a technology-driven system that is ahead of the enemy and not the other way round.