Pastor Tunde Bakare, serving overseer of Citadel Global Community Church, has urged the Federal Government to suspend all non-essential gatherings in vulnerable areas nationwide and place them under emergency patrols.
Bakare made the call at a State of the Nation news conference titled “The Darkness before Dawn”, held at the Citadel Global Community Church in Lagos on Sunday.
The pastor noted that while such measures might appear as the militarisation of affected communities, they remain essential and temporary steps to neutralise terrorism in Nigeria.
“The suspension of mass gatherings and increased emergency patrols measures must be taken to prevent further mass kidnappings,” he said.
He lamented that terrorists have intensified their attacks on Nigerians since the U.S. President, Donald Trump, redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over allegations of a government-tolerated killing of Christians.
“In a space of one week, troops were ambushed and some killed, dozens of secondary school students abducted in Kebbi, worshippers in a church in Kwara attacked, kidnapped, some killed, and hundreds of students from St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri town, Niger, kidnapped.
“The level of insecurity seems to have worsened in response to the global focus on Nigeria as terrorists and bandits brazenly dared the Nigerian state.
“While we rejoice at the release of some of the kidnapped victims, including the Kebbi schoolgirls and the Kwara church worshippers, as well as the escape of some of the pupils kidnapped in Niger, the continued attacks on communities further underscore the need for fundamental interventions.
“These interventions go to the very essence of our nationhood and the quality of governance in both domestic and foreign policy contexts,” he stated.
Bakare noted that years of leadership failure to confront the nation’s underlying crises have finally come to a head.
“It is sad that it took the United States Congress—not the representatives elected by Nigerians (National Assembly)—to convene a hearing on the lived experiences of citizens suffering under insecurity,” the cleric said.
According to him, to position Nigeria strategically in the shifting global order, an integrated approach is required, involving a critical review of governance structures, security architecture, and geo-economic strategy.
He stressed, “From convening the Save Nigeria Group to accepting the invitation to be running mate to the late president Muhammadu Buhari, to sponsoring the Nigerian Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration at the 2014 National Conference, I have been guided by a realisation.
”The best of the North and the best of the South must come together at the table of brotherhood to forge a strong and united Nigeria.”
Bakare said it is the failure of state institutions over the years that has transformed a local revolt into a vicious terrorist movement and other unresolved grievances.
According to him, “The state’s failure over decades to address long-standing disputes between Hausa farmers and Fulani pastoralists allowed local tensions to mutate into a sophisticated and deeply entrenched network of terror.
“Whether the violent attacks are motivated by land grab, ethnicity, religion, or all of the above, the situation reflects the height of failure to guarantee security and welfare of the Nigerian people.
“The Nigerian state has a responsibility to invade camps of armed marauders who hide under the cloak of herdsmen of whatever ethnicity, and who invade defenceless communities and gleefully massacre unarmed men, women, and children.
”From the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), to the Eastern Security Network (ESN), to the so-called unknown gunmen, the reaction has ranged from a revolt against the Nigerian state to sheer criminality.
“The trial and sentencing of Biafran separatist Nnamdi Kanu, which took place at the same time that Donald Trump shifted the world’s attention to Nigeria, has tended to reopen old wounds.
”It is time for Nigeria to truly heal from the Civil War. It is time for the Nigerian state to take concessionary steps to ensure equity for the South East.”
The cleric said that at the 2014 National Conference, the progressives were convinced that Nigeria does not need the creation of additional states.
”We strongly believed that what was needed was the consolidation of states into geopolitical zones, rather than the further balkanisation of non-viable states,” he added.