17th April 2026, NewsOrient, Opinion, Column, Law And Society, Governance And Development, News
By Sam Egburonu Esq
08023165410
egburosam1@gmail.com

When former Chief of Army Staff, Retired General T. Y Danjuma, on March 24, 2018, first made a public call for communities to engage in self-defence against bandits and other mass killers ravaging Nigerian communities, his critics expressed disappointment over what they dismissed as a “desperate and risky theory.”

General Danjuma, once considered by some Nigerians as one of the country’s most passionate fighters for preservation of one centralized Nigeria, surprised many that fateful day at the maiden convocation ceremony of Taraba State University in Jalingo, Taraba State.

In his speech at the ceremony, the Army General publicly accused the Nigerian Armed Forces of “complicity and lack of neutrality in the killings of unarmed Nigerians,” especially, according to him, “in Taraba and other rural communities.”

His verdict: Nigerians should henceforth “rise to protect themselves and their communities.”

It sounded like a bomb blast then.
But eight years after that call, insecurity and mass killings in Nigeria have worsened even more, so much that more Nigerians are recalling the option of self defence against bloodthirsty bandits, terrorists and killers.

Even the Federal Government seems to have given it a thought, hence it’s more favourable disposition towards State Police and establishment of Forest Guards.

All said, it seems Nigeria and Nigerians are today really left with no other option than to defend themselves against bloodthirsty attackers.

Why not, considering that every day, bandits and other killers in Nigeria seem to be gaining more grounds and are evidently more emboldened by governments’ cowardly or compromised attitude towards bandits’ attacks on communities, abductions and heartless slaughter of unarmed Nigerians like cows.

What is more, the killers almost always beat Nigerian security operatives: The heavily armed killers, who sometimes may have served notice of their invasion, will stroll into hitherto quiet villages or ride in a convoy of motorbikes, shoot sporadically and abduct as many helpless villagers as they please, leaving the remnants to count the number of the dead before organising mass burials.

Then, about one hour or forty minutes after the killers would have returned to their hideouts in the forests unchallenged, government security operatives, including soldiers, will arrive the scene, perhaps to inquire from the mourning village remnants the number of the dead and the wounded.

As would be expected, this late arrival of government security operatives in virtually all attack instances have, over the years, invoked suspicion that the country’s security operatives may actually be compromised as General T. Y alleged eight years ago.

Even if our government or her security operatives are not really compromised, the impression being created by their poor showing seems to be that they may be afraid of engaging the bandits alleged to be better armed..

Better armed? This phrase reminds me of the reaction of a contributor in one of our social media chats on bandits and insecurity in Nigeria. The contributor had doubted the claim that bandits are better armed than Nigerian soldiers and other security agencies put together. He had asked: “The bandits, do they have and operate with fighter jets? Do they have and operate with armoured carrier tanks? If not, how are they better armed?

Back to the issue of self defence, not many Nigerians believed at the beginning that the issue of insecurity in Nigeria can ever degenerate to a state where the government will directly or impliedly hands off the defence of her citizens and await helplessly for the harassed citizens to put one and two together and arrive at the option of self defence.

At first, it was a mere rumour spoken in hushed tones: that the bandits and other killers in Nigeria are well armed or even better armed than our soldiers. When such insinuations are made, many will rise up to disprove it.

Today, the reality is different. It is no longer a secret that the bandits are well armed and highly connected. Everyone, including soldiers who allegedly ran away from the battle fields, say so to their wives. It is no longer a secret! And as a result, even the high and mighty in our society are afraid.

This explains why, when it became absolutely necessary for Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, to visit and commiserate with his people after the last massacre, he had to visit the affected Angwan Rukuba community in Jos North Local Government Area, with heavily guarded armoured carrier tank.

Even when it was time to address the traumatized villagers, the governor did not take the risk of stepping out of the armoured vehicle. Instead, a tiny top roof of the tank was lifted up for the state Chief Security Officer to bring out his head enough to address the people.

It looked like a short scene in a tragi-comic movie. But it was real.

The people had waited for hours for his arrival. Then came the long convoy. Everyone was curious to know which of the glittering jeeps the Governor will emerge from to address the people.

Then, the Governor brought out his head from the hole-like top window of the armoured carrier tank and spoke some words. Just few words!

At the end, he withdrew back into the bossom of the tank and they drove away to safety.

The shock; the disappointment; this is Naija!

But if Nigerians are shocked by the admissions derivable from the governor’s drama and display of defeat or helplessness, they are yet to find the right words to describe President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s last drama or display in the name of condolence visit to relatives of Plateau victims.

In his own case, the Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces could not take the risk of getting to Angwan Rukuba, the scene of the massacre. He chose to stop at ‘a safer’ Yakubu Gowon International Airport to address family members of the victims.

Even at that, and also because “the airport is not properly lighted,” as he complained, Mr President only spared about ten minutes to talk to the few mourning relatives who could make the journey to the airport.

Other residents of Angwan Rukuba communities waited for Mr President in vain.

Since these displays, tongues have been wagging.

In one of the WhatsApp platforms where I belong to, there is a raging controversy following someone’s allegation that youths of the constantly attacked communities in Nigeria are cowards who have failed to take up arms and defend their communities, their aged parents and their helpless sisters.

He argued that it is silly to say the youths are still waiting for government to save their people, when the army and the topmost government officials have done so much to signal to the citizens that government may be currently overwhelmed by the details of the war against insecurity in Nigeria.

Beyond our WhatsApp platform, common Nigerians are discussing in hushed tones and in safe gatherings the need to reconsider the self defence theory suggested by General T. Y.

Their argument is that if the bandits have become so strong that after attacking Angwan Rukuba communities of of Plateau State and slaughtering civilians, the country’s number one (1) citizen and the Commander-in-Chief of the country’s Armed Forces, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, could not safely visit the site of the massacre but because of the pressure on him and the people’s expectations from him, could only risk 10 minutes meeting with the victims’ relatives at far away Yakubu Gowon International Airport, no one needs to be told that Nigeria must rethink her strategy if it imagines the killers will ever be defeated.

Many countries, like USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland and Nigeria, have laws that allow self defence when it is absolutely necessary to avoid death or bodily harm.

In Nigeria, for example, the constitutional right for self defence when it becomes necessary to safeguard life and property can be read from the spirit of Section 33 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

In the case of self defence against bandits and killers, it is not in doubt that the attacks are unprovoked, unlawful and that they create reasonable apprehension of death or grievous harm. So, really, the people, under our laws, can actually defend themselves.

But the question is, do they have what it takes to contend well armed bandits, terrorists and other killers? If they don’t and security forces hide under unending excuses, should all of us wait for crazy bandits to take over Nigeria?

In most of the nations, where self defence is allowed in their laws, including Nigeria, it is required that the force used to repel an attacker must be proportionate to the danger faced.

The bandits, terrorists and killers currently tormenting Nigerians carry and recklessly employ some of the most deadly killer weapons today but the common citizens, expected to defend themselves, are not even allowed to own riffles.

To resolve the riddle, time has come when our government must evolve radical policies that can better empower the people to defend themselves even beyond State Police and Forest Guards.

A bandit that plans to attack a community or a fully loaded commercial bus, may likely think twice if he knows for certain that most of the people in the community or passengers in the bus are equally armed, even if with less potent arms and amunitions.

• Samuel Hezekiah Egburonu is a veteran journalist and lawyer.

~ Published By NewsOrient Network

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