A harrowing week of wicked attacks, Super Eagles of weaklings, and other related weak links
It’s been one week of blood, horror and disappointments for many Nigerians. From sports through politics to security, the nation has had to face one of its most horrifying moments in its recent history.
On Monday night, terrorists attacked a Kaduna-bound train in Northern Nigeria, planted explosives on the train track, and immobilised it before firing gunshots at passengers as they tried to open the doors. The train had left Abuja, the Nigerian capital, at about 6:00 p.m. and was heading to Kaduna when it was attacked between Katari and Rijana communities.
The wicked attack compounds the yet-to-be-resolved complexities surrounding the security conundrum in Kaduna and the larger North-Western part of the nation.
According to the Kaduna State Annual Security Report, in 2021 alone, 3,348 people were kidnapped in Kaduna. Of that number, 2,771 were kidnapped in Kaduna Central Senatorial District, representing 82.77%, while 298 people representing 11.86% were kidnapped in the Southern Kaduna Senatorial District.
Since the beginning of the year, the numbers of persons killed and kidnapped in Kaduna is 287 and 356 respectively. If nothing is done to halt the heartbreaking trend, the figures at the end of the year will by far surpass 2021 figures.
In several reports of the attacks and cases of kidnapping, the Abuja-Kaduna Road appears as a notorious hotbed of tragedy. Against the backdrop of the unbearable level of insecurity on the (Abuja-Kaduna) road, thousands of passengers were forced to start using the train.
In July 2020, an increase in fare was announced on the trains amid precautionary measures to curtail COVID-19, shooting the fares on First class, Business Class, and Economy to N6,000, N5,000, and N3,000, respectively. But despite the increase in fare, many Nigerians still preferred the trains to the dreaded road.
Last year, the passenger volume on the Kaduna-Abuja railway rose by 270 per cent, according to data released by the Nigerian government. In effect, passenger traffic on the rail service rose to 3,700 daily from its carrying capacity of 1,000 people.
But Monday’s attack has exposed some weak, corrupt links not just in the trains’ carrying capacity, but also in the revenue generation template. This may in turn give insights into the security lapses that perhaps aided the attacks.
Incoherent Numbers, Silent Plunderers
When the news of the attack broke on Monday, media reports said 970 passengers were on board the AK-9 train when tragedy struck. For several hours, the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC, dismissed the numbers but failed to make the manifest of the train available.
When pressured to verify the actual number of passengers in the ill-fated train, the NRC echoed the claims of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, that only 398 persons bought tickets to board the train.
It later claimed that “398 passengers purchased tickets to travel on the NRC AK9 service, and 362 passengers actually boarded the AK9 service,” adding that “(t)he entire seat capacity of the train in question is 840; therefore, the figure of 970 being circulated cannot be correct.”
But contrary to the NRC’s claim, there have been several investigative reports showing records of massive ticket racketeering, inflated prices, hoarding and sales of “standing tickets” at the train stations.
As a report by investigative journalist Fisayo Soyombo shows, the train can conveniently convey passengers whose numbers are far above the “entire seat capacity” depending on the number of “standing tickets” sold through hoarding and other corrupt malpractices.
The massive racketeering, which results in loss of revenue, likely evidence for the sustainability challenge plaguing the railway service. It could also be responsible for the security breach in the trains.
According to details of its 2022 procurement activities, the NRC requested a whopping N61.5 billion as a proposal for procurement items, which cuts across 22 budget lines. They include locomotives, coaches and wagons, Insurance of locomotives and rolling stocks, rehabilitation of track from Port Harcourt to Makurdi, maintenance of roads into stators, rest houses, workshop, chalets and operational residential quarters, among others.
In contrast, the NRC generated a meager N1.13 billion in revenue last year, a clear sign of unsustainability.
A Tragedy Foretold?
The train attack came two days after armed men invaded the runway of the Kaduna airport and killed at least a guard before security forces responded. The airport incident also forced many airlines to halt their operations into Kaduna airport.
Both tragedies raise valid questions about the place of the many military institutions in the state, and how their presence does not translate to peace and security in the state.
First off, in his reaction to the tragedy, Governor Nasir El Rufai admitted that the Nigerian authorities know the camps, the identities and listen to the conversations of the armed groups that are terrorising the region.
In addition to that, data collected from a number of Nigerian newspapers showed that Kaduna has no fewer than 13 military establishments spread across the state, all manned by top officials.
The state plays host to the elite 1st Division of the Nigerian Army; Nigerian Army Depot, Zaria; Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji; Nigerian Defense Industry; Nigerian Airforce Training School; Nigerian Police College; Nigerian Navy School of Armament, Kachia; Nigerian Army School of Legal Services, Bassawa Zaria; and the Nigerian Defence Academy.
Other key institutions are the Nigerian Army School of Artillery, Kachia; the Nigerian Army School of Military Police, Army Operation Base, Southern Kaduna; and the Nigerian Army School of Infantry, among others.
Despite the presence of these military institutions, and the intelligence gathered by the government as confirmed by El-rufai, Kaduna remains unsafe.
In the face of its security conundrum, the big question remains: where is the weak, missing link? Why have the security risks not been nipped in the bud in the state and across the region? Why have the attacks continued on the Kaduna-Abuja roads, at the airport, and now on the train?
A Not-So-Super Eagles
On Tuesday, the Super Eagles of Nigeria and the Black Stars of Ghana extended their ‘Jollof Derby’ in a winner-takes-all tie that saw the victorious side qualify for the 2022 World Cup to be played in Qatar later this year.
Before Tuesday’s encounter, both sides had met on a record 57 times across all competitions. In all, the Black Stars won 25 times while the Super Eagles won on 12 occasions. The other 20 games ended in a draw.
Their last meeting, played 11 years ago, was a friendly played at Vicarage Road which ended in a 0-0 draw.
To be sure, the Ghanaians had a competitive edge in the early years of their encounters, winning the first five international friendly games with an aggregate of 10 goals. But from 1994 (widely considered the golden era of Nigeria football), the Eagles have flown higher than their Ghanaian counterparts. The three games played between that year and 2001, for instance, all ended in barren draws.
But in the run up to the Korea/Japan 2002 World Cup, the Eagles trashed the Black Stars 3-0 at the Liberation Stadium in Port Harcourt.
Before the fiercely competitive match on Tuesday, the Nigerian side had the big names on their team, fueling speculation that it will come out victorious.
But interestingly, the Ghanaian team had numbers on its side and as the result eventually showed, numbers don’t always lie. The match ended in a 1-1 draw with the Black Stars qualifying on the strength of a lone away goal., having held the Eagles to a goalless draw in Kumasi last week.
Weak links and Weaklings
Many pundits have raised questions about the quality of the Nigerian midfield, considered a weak link that failed the otherwise impressive, energetic striker Victor Osimhen. But the entire team, including the coaching crew and the goalkeeper, also proved to be weak links with that poor outing.
On Thursday, a new FIFA ranking placed the Super Eagles of Nigeria ahead of the Black Stars of Ghana in its world ranking.
While the Super Eagles ranked as the 30th best team in the March world ranking, Ghana was ranked 60th.
In its regional ranking, the Teranga Lions of Senegal are number one in Africa and now the 20th best team in the world. They are followed by Morocco, the second-best team in Africa, and Nigeria, the third-best team on the continent.
The Ghanaian team, interestingly, was ranked 11th on the continent.
Maybe that’s some sort of consolation for Nigeria’s army of angry soccer fans.