Terror stalks the land. Last week was proof. Tuesday in particular was fatally epic: Terror Tuesday. The terrorists even dared the biggest stunt. They attacked the Presidential advance convoy of security personnel. It was the height of their effrontery and drug-induced, sometimes state-enabled, boldness. A Presidential advance security convoy, for emphasis, is a combined team of military, police, DSS and allied security personnel. Such was the profile of the convoy ambushed by terrorists.

The flip side is to see it as attack on the President, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The band of terrorists was unfazed by the convoy and what it represents. They succeeded in injuring at least two security personnel in a blitzkrieg of gunfire. The convoy was attacked on its way to Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s hometown. The team was to clear the path for Mr. President who is expected to spend his Sallah holiday in his Daura home. As usual, Presidency condemned the act. That’s all.

Same Tuesday, in the same Katsina, an Assistant Commissioner of Police Aminu Umar, the Area Commander in Dutsinma and one of his men were gunned down by terrorists said to number about 300 in a convoy of motorcycles in Safana Local Government of the state. The terrorists were said to have ambushed Umar and his team and showed superior fire power as they shot sporadically with AK 47 rifles and General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG). Nigeria lost ACP Umar, a father, uncle, husband and more. The authorities have sent condolences. That’s all.

Still in Katsina, the President’s state. Dr Shamsudeen Yahaya, the Executive Secretary, Katsina State Primary Health Care Development Agency chose the same Tuesday to address the press. An obviously terrified Yahaya told newsmen in tremulous voice how terrorists have made a mess of every effort of government to bring healthcare to the people. His story is both pathetic and comical. He said that a good 69 out of the over 1,800 healthcare centres in the state had been temporarily closed as a result of insecurity in some local government areas.

From Yahaya’s account, most of the health facilities in the area had been taken over by the terrorists. The solar refrigerators provided in such facilities have been converted to their personal use by the terrorists.

Simply put, lunatics have taken over the asylum and the real care-givers have taken flight to safety. Yahaya painted the picture of a state in urgent need of help, the picture of a people rendered helpless by the system that was supposed to protect them. In this same Katsina, Yahaya confirmed that health workers are routinely kidnapped and released.

Remember, this is Katsina where the governor, Aminu Bello Masari, was not ashamed to take pictures with terrorists openly bearing their AK-47 instrument of death. The story was that the governor was negotiating with the terrorists. He wanted to strike a deal with the agents of terror. Masari must love his people so much hence he desired to buy freedom for them by patronizing their killers. What a country? Some people shouted and screamed: never negotiate with your killer. Negotiating with terrorists has never worked. Especially the type in Nigeria who have successfully mixed terrorism with kidnapping, a toxic mix that produces cash in millions of naira. Masari negotiating with terrorists means that the Governor knows them. But he would rather pamper the goons when it’s in his hand to take them down and out.

It’s on this same Tuesday that Kwara state police command regaled us with the tragic news that one of its own, Inspector Adebayo Adeforiti, was killed and a Chinese national abducted by some gunmen at a construction company along Shao/Oloru Expressway a couple of days back. The cop was on duty at the company.

Before Terror Tuesday, we abducted an Abuja-based Naval officer, Musa Lawal, from his Kogi home on Monday night. The kidnappers have made a demand of N3 million ransom. In Kaduna, Adamawa, Ondo, Delta, Edo, Sokoto, Niger, Anambra and in almost all the states in Nigeria, the bold imprints of terrorists now define the nation. Yet, we have carried on as if nothing is wrong. But something is wrong. Indeed, many things. Pretence pampers the crooks. The more Nigerian leadership elites pretend that all is well, the more daring the terrorists get.

If Terror Tuesday was a movie (Nollywood, this one’s for you), the climax would be the strategic, tactical raid of Kuje Correctional Centre (Kuje prison) by terrorists whose mission was made obvious by the outcome of their fit of fury. That fateful Tuesday night, Kuje, which houses one of the most secure prisons in Nigeria, played host to a feast of guns and bombs. The terrorists’ rage of fury was itself a feat. How could sophisticated arms-bearing group of terrorists move unnoticed in Abuja? The Federal Capital Territory is a policed environment. All the different segments of the nation’s security apparatchik are here. Men and women of the DSS are everywhere including night clubs, garden bars, in marketplaces, operating as cab drivers, offering car hire services. The police are in every corner. It is apt to describe the FCT as a militarized zone. Yet, a group of terrorists would easily breach the city’s security, invade a supposedly well-manned prison, burn vehicles, deploy explosives, and release in one fell swoop over 600 inmates, including over 60 Boko Haram members. How can a city so heavily policed become a city brutally violated and the violators escape without a scratch? Pray, is this not a movie? Some script written by some highly knowledgeable and privileged persons and acted by equally privileged executioners?

Kuje is not in Benue where, according to the governor, Samuel Ortom, terrorists are intent on setting up their own republic. It’s not in Zamfara where terrorists roam the streets with their guns, unchallenged. Neither is it in Katsina where the governor hosts them to meetings in the name of negotiation. Kuje is in Abuja where the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the Minister of Defence, the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Inspector General of Police, Director General of the DSS, etcetera, all live. The Kuje jail break is a thing to be ashamed of. It’s symptomatic of a failed national security system. It happened because we allowed it. It happened because this government, from top to bottom, pampers terrorists for whatever reason. It happened because political elites like the governor of Bauchi state, Bala Mohammed, insists that Fulani from Senegal, Mali, Niger are free to come into Nigeria without documentation and instigate terror on Nigerians. The Kuje episode, despicable and depressing, happened because nobody was punished for similar episodes that happened in the past.

Asking the government to investigate, arrest and prosecute the offenders and their collaborators in the system is a waste of time. This government is not known for such self-introspection especially on matters of security. Obviously, the mission of the Gestapo gang is to free terrorists in Kuje jail house. It’s job done. My fear is the backlash that may follow: The over 60 terrorists who escaped that night may want to exact more pain on Abuja residents. Still, nothing will happen.

First published in Sunday Sun