 Armed persons attacked a train station in Edo state, the southern part of Nigeria, and kidnapped many passengers. The spokesperson of the police in the state, Chidi Mwabuzo, said the gunmen were armed with AK-47 rifles. He said the exact number of the people kidnapped could not be ascertained. Meanwhile, the Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nekihare, had hinted that out of 32 passengers kidnapped, one managed to escape and a suspect had been arrested by the police. According to him, the police in collaboration with Vigilante and Hunters had started combing the bush for a lead into the kidnappers den. Well joining us this evening to discuss is Kala Waleed Johnson and he is a communications expert and a public affairs analyst. Thank you so much, sir, for joining us. Are you here? Great. Great. I wish that we had this conversation on a better note, but unfortunately I can't say that. But this is happening ten months after bandits had kidnapped people from a train that was on the Abuja Kaduna trail corridor. And we know how long it took for those people to be rescued, half if not all of them, had to find ways to pay for their ransom so that they could be rescued from the kidnappers den. And while we were still pushing for these people to be released, the government had a deal with a terrorist, flew his wife to some place safe with taxpayers' monies and allowed for this man's wife to give birth safely, hoping that he would keep to their gentleman's agreement. But that wasn't the case. And the government came out to tell us that they were played by these terrorists. So here we are again, almost the exact same thing has happened, but this time very close to the south here. What does this say about our security and of course us learning from past experiences? What is very easy at this point is to cast a spashion either on the government or the security agents. I think at this point, it is just good for us to focus as a nation on how to end this disaster. These monsters are pretty hard to fight because this is not the usual, it's not behind the Mongols. They never are, you know, at times in cities, they get information. So this, it's not a clear cut war where you have the opponent on the other end and you're here and you're at one end trying to tackle that. So it's quite a tough, a very tough situation. And you know, world over some countries, you know, exposed countries are grappling with different issues, insecurity issues, as is turning, you know, as has gotten to this moment level because the government failed to act at the right time. So that is what, you know, laid this blame on the dust above the government. However, at the root of these are different, you know, factors. If you look at the indices, many of these people who are there, you know, previous research, if you look at them and we use data to judge, you understand that quite a number of things, you know, contributed to this, you know, before now. But these people are already on us and they are happening to all of us. And first, when these started in some areas, you know, then up north. I remember, of course, you can still Google and play some of my, you know, videos, interviews, you know, you know, I told people then that I was shouting that what is happening in a part of the country that they are, you know, we didn't see it as a big deal to all of us. So this will be a national breakfast at some point. If you fail to act, why, why did I say that? The fact is simple in the rules of managing crisis. When you don't manage issues at the right time, they dovetail into crisis. And this happened because, sorry, hold on please, this, you know, this, it got to this point because we refused to, you know, to approach the issue and to recompense actions, I mean, actions with equal and opposite reactions. So they agreed to become hostas and now they are everywhere, including the south. It is not just that this is happening. Maybe somewhere, look, this is the heart of the south. You know, in those states, they are here with us. And unfortunately, these guys understand the forest so much that I doubt if even the owners of the land would even understand the nooks and crannies of the forest like these guys. And unfortunately, this is falling on the security agencies. And whether you'd like it or not, it is stretching them. It is also stretching our resources because the resources that should be going into, you know, providing infrastructures, wealthier for the people. You know, we have to use it to secure because we don't have a choice. So what is he saying on the security architecture of the country? I mean, that expression, please, is that we have dangers on our hands. And the earlier, if I'm not just the earlier, we need to devise different strategies to tackle these people, especially at a time that people will be vulnerable, hoping for one place to another, you know, I mean, to other during the election. So it is telling on the security system of the country that we need to do much more better. And therefore, oh, I have directed, oh, you know, all those, all those, all those directed. When each of these things happen, when you see these incidents, what happens each time is you have, you know, you have the chiefs, our security chiefs, they go to the villa and after that, we just get some cute things. And that's all. Kaduma, a boobatrain attack. It's still very fresh in the memory. You know what happened. And sometimes we could not even ascertain the number of people, you know, that go kidnapped, even after, even after the numbers were coming out, you saw racketeering in the process. And that again, people are to pay through their nose to get themselves out of the custody of these criminals. And please make no mistake about this. This is in people are getting impoverished by this. Let me cite an example of a man that a daughter was, maybe a daughter or a son was kidnapped sometimes ago. Now the man saw the only surviving house that he got from his pension, you know, that he got. And he sold it to get to pay ransom. And unfortunately, the daughter still died. So what do you want to be the state of that man? So this is telling on not just on security agencies. It is also telling on Nigerians that we can no longer move freely, especially when you know that, you know, you can just depend on road system involved. The training is what you most encourage the people to use. But not when you have the train stations, you know, inside bushes. This particular one is about, you know, it's not a metal, you know, it's in the bush. And unfortunately, you don't have the place secured. You know, despite the insurance from, you know, from the government that we have our train stations secured now. It appears we are not learning from experiences. The place is not secure. These guys came into the train. Of course, they know the train would arrive like the end of five p.m. They came there like 20 minutes before and they let ambush and took everyone away. Why was there no security presence in that area? One, we are not learning from experiences. Two, we are vulnerable. Three, we are not devising strategies to arrest this situation. I'd just like to put it out there. The Chief Security Officer for the train station was also kidnapped, just so you know. And that means that even if there was one person who was armed to secure the people he too was also kidnapped. But let's move away from that. Let's talk about the general insecurity that we have for a government. And you've said that, you know, it's not a blame game. No, it's not a blame game. But then the number one duty of our government is to protect lives and property. And if under the Bahá'í administration and administration that promised us to put an end to insecurity and decimate Boko Haram a few months to the end of that government I'd just also like to intimate you that from the beginning of 2022 what we had was mayhem, kidnappings, massacres. And here we are again in January of 2023 another mass kidnapping. So I'm wondering to myself for a government that put this as one of the things that they rode into governments with, you know, what should we be remembering them for? And then what's the fate of the average Nigerian who of course has realized that if they're taken by these kidnappers or terrorists, they're left there at their own risk. They have to find a way or their family members on the outside have to find a way to get them out. Where does government come in? What is the role of government? You talked about the fact that we always don't learn from the past. You're very so reactionary. And when will it end? Well, it will end when we decide to end it. See, I give some background on why these people, you know, of course, they have mental force. At the beginning of the issue when they got my kid, at the right time I think, yes, in 2015-16 you see a drastic drop in the level of attack because they bombarded the Sambiso Forest and things were done. But these guys migrated and they went to, you know, the part of the middle belt and some areas, maybe not where it's a little bit. At that time they became, you know, we were seeing what we called, or described as Firmah's Heads Clashes. I don't understand why a man will sit, I mean, will be in his own fund. You come there to attack him. You even move from the farm to bomb, you know, the villages and you call that Firmah's Heads Clashes. Remember it was, it was a government spokesperson, I remember Gerber Sheo that helped us, you know, that designed that dowel, they gave them the name. That was a subtle way of, you know, of romancing these guys, of encouraging them. Well, so ever you fail to see at some point, I've said this over and again, Governments cannot be a popularity contest. There will be hard decisions to take, whether these people are of your household or not. Regardless, what must be done must be done else. The consequences will be there for all of us to bear. And unfortunately Nigerians are bearing these consequences, you know, much more than those in government today. The food crisis you have in Nigeria, you know, has little to do with the global crisis. It is much more about us, people that should be providing food for Nigeria. The food basket of the nation. Those farmers are today, respect of, you know, IDP camps. So they are no longer in the farm. We are not producing as much as we're producing. So there is crisis. That's why you have, you know, inflation in prices of food items. It is affecting Nigerians in practically every way. But unfortunately, the government seems not to be doing enough. Let's be specific about this. Even if, of course, you've seen changes. They've been trying, you know, lately to, of course, since last year, especially with the changes, of course, the change of us in security items. You've seen, you know, you've seen a lot of renewal of war. And I can tell you, you know, we have monitor events in the security sector. I can tell you that the present chiefs are doing much more better than what we had before. So you will have occasional things like this, not necessarily because they are not working, but because we still have new folks that need to be locked. And it has become a disaster before they come in. And, you know, the president will be remembered. One, for giving us promises. And unfortunately, he's scoring himself high on those promises. But Nigerians know by fact, by figures, by data, by the indices that, no, we can't score in high on if not just on insecurity. I mean, not just on the security that he promised us. Look at corruption. Look at the economy. So they tried to understand that this government came to power. One, you know, securities. Second, you know, two, corruption. They will fight corruption. You know, three, economy. And unfortunately, look at the three of them. Of course, we know it's a difficult time to govern any nation. You know, globally, you can't, you can't run away from world globalization as food or not. Of course, all over. Whatever is happening in some part of the world affects others. Even, you know, even England today, they are getting very close to recession. So they all cry. That's why you see that the prime minister that came, you know, could not stay long. She was kicked out. What she thought would be easy, of course, was not. However, as we know, it is difficult to govern. But we brought this upon ourselves largely because we failed to do the right things at the right time. And secondly, you know, the corruption that, you know, that the prime minister were going to fight. Before this government, I remember Stella Odua, what was the figure? 400 millionaires. And, you know, we cried, we shouted. And President Jonathan, you know, leader of a duty, took her from office. But in this government, it has seen, you know, what they do is to turn, you know, a deaf ear, blind eye to whatever you're saying, regardless of how long you shout with facts and figures. 2020, we brought out data, you know, mobilization, we brought out data on corruption activities in some, in some places. We, you know, we even brought out monies. I mean, details of monies moving from government account to private individuals account. Billions of there. Billions of there. And the president did nothing. These guys were not just eyes. And the moments you don't, you know, the moments you are rewarding indolence, the moments you are rewarding incompetency, what you will have is that you will have multiplication of that in the system. See, remember, sometimes it goes, the president came back from the trip and he saw the former IG. He said, oh, the guy was going fast. So he didn't add flesh to the president. According to him, his own KPI for measuring performances is that you're not getting fat. So if your KPI is wrong, so how will you be able to, you know, reshuffle if you need to reshuffle? So on the stance that the president came to power, I think he has not done enough. And I don't know what legacy is meant to be for us, but it has to be about a good election. Maybe. I just want to push you further on, you know, the leadership and this issue of insecurity before we go back to a dual state to, you know, continue that conversation. Is it possible that these so-called terrorists, the kidnappers or whatever they were, you know, they're called, have taken advantage of the body language of not just government, but service chiefs and how they have dilly-dallyed, because you talked about plugging these loopholes to put an end to what is happening. But if these people have tested, for example, they went into the NDA and kidnapped a soldier and we still see issues and issues in Kaduna state, but that's a whole kettle of fish on its own. We've also seen these people test and now they're in the south. The southeast is also dealing with its own uprising. If these so-called terrorists or perpetrators of violence have seen the body language of government that it only pays lip-serve, it's chock-stuff, but does not back it with action, who's to say that this is not going to one way or the other, continue, especially now that we're getting ready for the elections. This could also one way or the other be a dampener on the average person who we're trying to convince to come out and vote, wouldn't it? It's it. Unfortunately, you have a population that... Well, let me be very mindful of my words, but you don't really have a very informed population that take informed decision when it comes to vote. And these call across whether they're educated or non-educated. Today, even the noise we are shouting about some individuals, you will not ask, what are they doing in their respective places? Fortunately, all the leading candidates, they have sat in different places before and we are not asking questions. You see, if you want to employ anyone to your company, there are many organizations. The first thing you do is they need access. What do you need to be done in the company? What do you need somebody to come hand? And that is the first thing. So, whoever you are, you want to employ, must fit into the shoe of who can solve whatever is the problem, the needs, the access you have done. So, if you have done a needs access, number one, you know there is a terrible level of insecurity in Nigeria. In this, of course, look through them. Which of them has approached this in their respective places that they have sat before, holistically? Number one, but we are not even looking at that. Number two, you look at the next problem. Which of them have shown it on capacity to tackle this problem? We are not looking at that. Most times it is rhetoric, it is, you know, issues that should not even be on the table, you know, that will promote much more. And unfortunately, this would tell on us, if you think somebody will not get vote, because his party has done badly. And maybe, you know, it is so terrible that some factors may prove you wrong. The first factor is the level of education. Let me say, not the normal school, you know, the school education. It has to do with voters' education or what should inform their choice of candidate. Number two, don't forget that in the quality, you have a situation where money plays a lot of roles. So these guys who have stock money, they will move it into the system, and regardless of what you think the decision should be, they will influence. Number three, they have the ego. They have a security pressure. There are some people that will not be alive to their responsibility. Yeah, this is a conversation we have to have another day on voter education. Let me land on that. The issue of voter education. Let me land on that, please. The same people that will not be alive to their responsibility, you know, to tackle insecurity, they will be alive to support the politician to win election. Once you have the I-NEC, once you have the security agencies, and you have money, winning election is easier in Nigeria. Finally, finally, because my time is totally up. A spokesperson for the government of Adore State had something to say about the recent developments, and then I just want you to take a look at it, and then when we come back, I want to know, will we be doing the same song and dance that we did during the Abuja Kaduna train attack, or should we be looking forward to a better solution to the problem? But let's take a listen to what he had to say. We are pleased to say that while we were waiting to begin this press conference, we got a report that the suspect had been arrested, one of the suspects had been arrested. And this is very good news, and it's helping police and security agencies with their investigation right now. So I think once again, we must congratulate the police for the swiftness which they attended to this security breach. And also we're pleased to say that our local hunters on the London network, their collaboration also assisted in this operation, and that's where we have recorded very, very new circumstances, very short time. So we hope this is the last time we'll have some daring people embedding government structure, especially to institutions across the country. Well, he's saying he hopes that this is the last time that this kind of thing happened. So my question again, Mr. Johnson, one minute before we wrap up, will we be doing the same song and dance, or is this just another tea party? You can't close it anyway. If you want to sound pessimistic, you'll sound unpatriotic, or the fact is that if they're downground by the indices, I don't think this is over. And unfortunately, again, you will leave the people to pay for this. So you keep empowering the criminals against the people, and the government is not healthy matters. So for me, I will hit the sound terrible, or the fact is I don't think this is over. Regardless of what we say, if you don't do the right thing, you must pay for it. You will have the consequences then. You can eat your cake and have it. That is a fact. Well, I want to say thank you. Carl A. Johnson is a public affairs analyst, and he's a communications strategist. Thank you so much for being part of the conversation. We're hoping that something good comes out of this, and the people are freed. Thank you. Well, that's the show tonight. It's Plus Politics. Don't forget, if you missed any of our shows, you can go on our YouTube page, Plus TV Africa, and subscribe, so you can never miss any of our programs. So don't forget that your PBC is your only passports to a new Nigeria. So if you haven't picked up your PBC, go get it today. It's in your ward. It's at your registration center. And that is Plus Politics for tonight. I'm Mary Ann, and I'll see you tomorrow as we continue to talk for development. Good night.