Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff saying that the deadly Christmas Eve attacks in Plateau State were intended to embarrass President Bola Tinubu‘s government does not inspire confidence in the country’s military.

Development Diaries reports that the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, in an interview on Channels TV, also said that the attack was ‘shocking’.

‘I think the purpose is to embarrass everybody and to make the government look stupid’, he said.

That is not what we expected from the country’s defence chief. At a time when families of close to 200 people killed in the attacks are still mourning the loss of their loved ones, security chiefs or operatives should be reassuring Nigerians of their safety, not appearing to sound political.

Recall that the Nigerian army announced in July 2023 that additional troops and supplies had been sent to Mangu Local Government Area and other Plateau State communities in response to attacks. The Chief of Army Staff, Taoreed Lagbaja, launched Operation ‘Hakorin Damisa IV’, a special operation to tackle insecurity in the state.

Despite these efforts, an investigative report by The Cable revealed that communities in the state recorded attacks every month in 2023, with over 300 lives lost.

These attacks are a violation of the right to life. The attacks also raise concerns about the ineffectiveness of Nigeria’s policing system, which focuses more on protecting the elite and government officials while the masses are left to sleep with their eyes wide open.

Development Diaries calls for the deployment of additional troops to areas prone to attacks in Plateau State and other parts of the country and the improvement of collaboration between security operatives to ensure a more effective response.

We also call for the strengthening of the country’s intelligence agencies to be more effective in detecting and preventing attacks.

Photo source: Kim Masara/AFPTV/AFP