On April 17, the United States embassy in Abuja issued a warning to US citizens to be security conscious in their movements in and around Abuja. Published on its website, the emergency information warned: “The US Embassy has received information that Boko Haram may be planning attacks in Abuja, Nigeria, including against hotels frequently visited by westerners. The U.S. government has no additional information regarding the timing of these possible attacks. The Nigerian government is aware of the threat and is actively implementing security measures.”
But Information minister, Mr Labaran Maku, tried to downplay the import of the warning by suggesting that it could create panic. According to him, “Whereas we believe that every country has a duty to secure its citizens and take decision that will ensure the safety of their nationals, we have always appealed to such embassies and agencies not to create public panic in our country.” He continues: “I will still appeal that foreign embassies and organisations that are working within Nigeria, if they have any doubt at all about the preparedness of our agencies to secure public places, I think it will be wise to communicate that to us. I must say that our security agencies have over the last year increased their capacity to respond to some of the threats particularly within this city and several other cities.”
The US warning of last week Tuesday, it will be recalled, did not limit the threat to only hotels frequented by foreign nationals; it also suggested that other targets could be hit. Nine days after the US warning, Abuja has been bombed, with the office of This Day newspaper in Abuja the prime target, and a little extra ladled out to the same newspaper’s Kaduna office. This time the bombers were quite innovative in selecting their targets. Though Boko Haram, Nigeria’s leading terrorist organization, had warned many weeks ago that it was getting exasperated by what the sect described as journalists’ inaccurate reports and general malfeasances, few thought the group would go beyond targeting individual journalists who offended the sect. By the time of writing this piece, Boko Haram was yet to claim responsibility for the bombing of the newspaper’s offices in Abuja and Kaduna. If it does, it would mark a frightening and disconcerting expansion in its violent campaign to undermine peace and stability in the country.
Though it is remarkable that in spite of the security cordon around Abuja the bombers still hit their target, what is more remarkable is the fact that the Information minister will now have to eat his words. Instead of grandstanding, it would have been better if the minister responded to the US warning by soberly reassuring the public of their safety and informing them it had linked up with the US authorities and other intelligence agencies to preempt the bombs. By now the Nigerian government must have realized that fighting terrorism is not a cakewalk. The terrorists are very imaginative in target selection, have remained daring and synchronised in execution, and are not bothered by the consequences of their actions. It is also clear that notwithstanding the assurances of the government to the people, the terrorist groups have not been degraded on the scale the citizens hoped or the government promised.
While it is unlikely the Nigerian government will react to subsequent warnings from foreign intelligence agencies with the seeming unconcern it exuded on April 18, it must be vaguely but worrisomely aware now that the terrorists hope to precipitate anarchy and, in particular, embarrass the government into regretting setting a date for the demise of Boko Haram.
TheNation