SPECIAL REPORT: The Connection Btw Ibadan, Operation Wetie Opposition Coalition & Oyo Kidnapping (Nigeria)
It is not overstating the obvious that Nigeria is reeling under a security onslaught. This has been ongoing consistently exponentially since 2011.
Things took a dramatic turn recently. Prior, the insurgency and militancy had been limited to the northern region of the country. The south was largely unaffected.
This is changing. On May, 15, @rmed insurgents @ttacked an Oyo school and kidnapped 49 students and their teachers.
In the wake of carrying out this dastardly act, the terrorists filmed the decapitation of a make teacher and distributed it widely.
Mega Mode Media investigations reveal that the kidnapped are being held in a dense rain forest known as Oyo Forest Reserve. The school where the incident occurred, is by this forest.
Apparently, the k1dnappers either did extensive reconnaissance over a years-long period, or are in possession of a detailed map and compass which they are conversant with.
The area is doubly strategic because reports say it leads to a rough turnpike connecting several routes leading to virtually all the six regions of the country and even, outside Nigeria. Cornering them by land is tricky. Aerial surveillance is nigh impossible due to the very dense foliage of the rainforest. A full combat onslaught is impossible to avoid huge civilian collateral damage, especially as the captives includes an infant.
Thie peculiar circumstances has worsened the anguish and fear this incident has unleashed in the minds and psyche of the general population. This is evident by the mass hysteria, outpouring of emotion and intense debate this development is generating throughout Nigeria.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what the terrorists want. Criminologists say, to understand a crime, one needs to get into the mind of a criminal to understand his essence, his motives, personal traits, and worldview.
The word "terrorism" itself defies a cogent key definition despite its wide usage. Technically though, the endgame of terrorism is what's universally agreed upon as its definition. Simply put, terrorism is just the desire to unleash mass terror across an area to draw attention to a situation in order to demand desired solutions. Whether bl00d is shed or not, once they have succeeded in inducing horrific fear in mass people, their aim is achieved.
And this is why if they must engage in bl00dbath, it is always barbarically done to debase humanity in worst ways possible to create deep trauma and cause even the lion-hearted to quake in fear. Therefore ,the decapitations, the gougings, the limb d1smemberments.
The aim is to shock. Deeply. It is the extremity of psychological operations (psy ops) designed to exploit this induced horror to subjugate a territory and its people, bewilder legitimate authorities and cower them in order to force the acceptance of their objectives.
They are illegitimate entities seeking legitimacy in form of acknowledgment and dialogue with the recognized, legitimate government. This is why no government negotiates with terrorists. That is akin to voluntarily handing over the invisible crown from the emperor's head to the bandit's skull. That's what is really at stake when they seek dialogue with government.
Once this legitimacy is given, the damage cannot be undone in the psychological boost, legitimacy and attention it gives their supposed cause. The brazenness that attends to such a gambit would be of incalculable disaster. After several negotiations held with the bandit's in northern Nigeria facilitated by Sheik Gumi during the Buhari administration, nothing positive happened but worse: hydra-headed terr0r groups, mushrooming of new ones like Ansari and Lakurawa and increased radicalization of the old guard like Boko Haram, ISWAP and herdsmen.
Now, it seems these inglorious lot have a fascination with the letter "O" in the south West, for from Owo four years ago, Oyo is now the theater of their bedlam. The Owo massacre at a church was in protest of late Ondo governor, Rotimi Akeredolu's irrepressible effort in conceptualizing and implementing the South West Security Network called Amotekun. To teach him a lesson, they attacked his hometown in the state, Owo.
Now, what's it with Oyo? Oyo holds a fascinating pride of place in Yoruba history. It is the birthplace of the old Oyo empire stretching from Oyo Ile to Benin Republic, Togo even, parts of Sierra Leone. Ideally, a garrison town for the soldiers of Ife kingdom, it became powerful.and became an empire.
Oyo is also home to Ibadan, its capital. At the dawn of colonial incursions into Nigeria, and upon independence, Ibadan was the capital of the South West. It was the regional seat of power.where administrative, financial and political power resides. It is the location of Western region's corporations like the Cocoa boards, Oodua Investment Company, first television station in Africa, first skyscraper dubbed Cocoa House and so many trailblazing institutions. Ibadan's significance as the epicentre of the entire Yoruba political life is without question.
Not surprisingly, when the infamous political logjam leading to widespread arson and riots erupted dubbed Operation Wetie in the 60s erupted, it occured in same Ibadan. The violence precipitated the military dabbling into Nigerian politics which derailed the country for decades.
It begs the question of why when opposition politicians gathered in Ibadan recently, it styled this assemblage, "Operation Wetie."
The symbolism is jarring. Why would a collective of opposition parties from prominent zones in the nation including former VP Atiku Abubakar, former Senate President David Mark and sitting governor Seyi Makinde amongst others, define its meeting of coalition to wrestle power from incumbent President Tinubu with that particular acronym? PR practitioners know that Branding starts with crafting a name that will evolve memories of desired outcomes.
When the opposition dubbed its assemblage, Operation Wetie, they are reminding Nigeria of the portmanteau of crises that started in Ibadan, fueled by other crises in other regions of similar riots, leading to a military coup and eventually, culminating in a bloody three year civil war? Is the coalition likening its intent to fomenting crises in Nigeria that will ultimately lead to violence and destabilization like the civil war did?
The hangover of these events is what Nigeria is still grappling with 56 years after that war was fought. Any political leader of thought should naturally balk at stylizing a credible venture after such a regrettable development.
Unless such coalition's covert interests has nothing to do with genuine democratic process.
Ibadan, Oyo's capital & inaugural heart of South West's political administration (Credit,Google)
Weeks later, it seems Nigerians are waking up to the meaning behind the second coming of Operation Wetie. This is the abduction of the students and teachers. If we juxtapose events of the first Operation Wetie and this latter version, there exists similarities.
There is discontent between the regional government belonging to a different government at the federal level. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the founder of and premier of the South West elected under Action Group, AG. The central government was led by Northern People's Congress , NPC and later in a coalition with another Southern based party. Disagreements between Awolowo and SLA Akintola, his successor as South West's Premier, led to Operation Wetie. Currently too, reports say there is no love lost between Makinde and his deputy.
Recently, Makinde launched his long-runoured but oft-denied presidential bid to challenge incumbent President Bola Tinubu at a time political pundits expect that the South West cities should not be divided so its block vote can flow towards Tinubu to enhance his victory. But, with his declaration, the South east's inclination to go with Peter Obi and the South South putting former President Goodluck Jonathan forward, not only is there a marked split in the south west vote, but splitting the entire southern region votes is the aim.
But, that is less of the worry now in Nigeria's South. A pressing existential threat arise from the k1dnapping.
After an agonizing, finger-biting two weeks' wait with scant communication, the k1dnappers rustled up and demands, in one condition out of the rest, that the state should cede portions of its territory to herders with sharia laws as their guiding principles.
With the mindset that no serious-minded government negotiates with terrorists, and the terrorist choice of striking an opposition state few weeks after it held a coalition conference it called, Operation Wetie, is this a contrived crisis?
Former Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti thinks so. He pointed accusing fingers at the doorsteps of Makinde recently, accusing him as being the mastermind of the Oyo kidnapping to embarrass the Tinubu administration and diminish his shine in gains made in the FG's onslaught against terr0rists.
Many were quick in condemning Fayose. But, it is impossible for a two-term governor to make such a grave accusation without certain irrevocable facts. It stands to reason that as a former governor, he still has security personnel attached to him and information from their colleagues in the security network would filter to them, and by extension, to Fayose. Mega Mode Media first not like it to a frivolous palm wine drunks' gist but hard core security Intel.
Despite this disclosure, Makinde and the state government have kept mum.
Nigeria's security agencies should explore these allegations in the public domain. It should also try to discern the linkage between calling an opposition meeting "Operation Wetie" and indeed, a delicate imbroglio with potentials to rival the 60s version is playing out in real time weeks after that declaration.
A Yoruba adage says, when a sorcerer chants in the middle of the night, and a child d1es at dawn, there's no doubt that the two incidents are linked.
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