[Editorial] Attack on NDA and the Consequences

The attack last Tuesday on the Nigerian Defence Academy, Nigeria’s premier military University by gunmen who killed two officers and abducted one now in captivity has taken to the worst embarrassing level of the failed state of Nigeria’s security architecture.

That the gunmen allegedly dressed in military uniform could audaciously penetrate the living quarters of the officers in the academy and carry out such a heinous act, calls for so much question that would ultimately lead to the conclusion that ours is a failed state. Otherwise, how can any one in his right senses explain the penetration of the attackers into an environment that represents a society that accommodates the country’s military elite of different arms ranging from the army, airforce and Navy.

Each of the arms has high calibre personnel of various extractions in the Academy including intelligence.  It therefore, gives so much worry as to how the attackers could easily access the environment and operate with precision without being caught.

This obviously lends credence to the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) General Lucky Irabor’s early reaction that the attack may likely have insider collaboration.

The suspicion is further fuelled by the revelation of Prof. Kunle Olawunmi, a retired Navy Commodore who in his now controversial interview with the Channels Television last Wednesday pointed out that one of the factors that gave easy access to the Academy by non-military personnel was the Friday Jumat service that allow all manner of Muslim worshippers to get into the Academy premises.

By way of inference, such unchecked access may have given birth to a careful surveillance and study of the security situation in the Academy by the attackers days before the attack.

Varied comments from a broad spectrum of Nigerians have dominated the public space since the attack with a near conclusion by all that the attack was a bad omen happening at a time bandits, terrorists, herders etc were upping their game in dominating  the length and breadth of the country.

If NDA, which ought to be the last in the line of military elite could  suddenly fall victim of the gangsterism of faceless gun men at a time the nation’s security forces seem to be losing grip of the battle, the consequences of such ignoble occurrence may be weightier than the nation can ever imagine.

Before the NDA, we had had cases of bandits attacking military formations in the  terrorist war zone parts of the North East, but for them to take the fight beyond make shift military formations straight into a citadel of military professionals is entirely beyond what anyone could imagine.

The consequences of such invasion on the professional integrity of the personnel of NDA with respect to their combat readiness as an elite institution is seriously called to question and it would hurt its image for a long time to come.

As the nation is prettily sitting on a shaky security architecture in present time, with little or no hope of easy return to normalcy, SECURITY REPORTERS.com would like to join some other concerned Nigerians in calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to allow a restructuring of the Federation so that managing the obvious differences we have, would be much easier to contain.

Now is the time to aggregate what constitutes our national interest and see the best way possible to reposition our security system for efficiency and proactive need.