Time is the One Enemy That Cannot Be Bought or Bargained With By Femi Oyewale

We write not as antagonists but as patriots stirred by a profound and urgent alarm for our nation. The headlines that scream from our pages and screens are more than mere news; they are a symphony of distress from a people whose faith in the foundational covenant of governance—their security and welfare—is fraying towards breaking point.

Nigeria’s security crisis is not merely challenging; it is a fabric unravelling in real time. The brazen abduction of our children, the resurgent fury of jihadist factions in the Northeast, and the metastasizing cancer of banditry and communal violence represent the most clear and present danger to the Nigerian ideal since our civil war. With each passing day, trauma deepens, a humanitarian catastrophe widens, and millions of our compatriots are pushed to the grim precipice of hunger and despair.

Your declaration of a nationwide emergency and the bolstering of our security forces were necessary, even commendable, first steps. But the unvarnished truth, Your Excellency, is that the clock is ticking, and time is a luxury you do not have. The velocity of this collapse demands more than declarations; it insists upon a fundamental and immediate strategic rebirth. The Nigerian people are not just watching; they are suffering. And in a true democracy, their welfare—their simple safety—is the sole, non-negotiable measure of a government’s legitimacy.

In this most critical hour, to ignore the nation’s deep bench of battle-hardened, experienced security professionals would be an act of strategic negligence. We speak of leaders like former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (rtd), who embodies a trifecta of assets we can not afford to leave sidelined: deep operational knowledge, invaluable institutional memory, and the political acumen to navigate a complex war.

Consider what such expertise offers at this precipice:

Operational Wisdom, Not Just Force: This is not about reliving past campaigns but about applying their hard-won lessons. Experts like Buratai possess a nuanced grasp of asymmetric warfare, cross-border coordination, and logistical mastery that can prevent our efforts from being blind, costly, and futile.

A Cohesive Intelligence Architecture: Our enemies feast on our disunity. A seasoned security leader can dismantle bureaucratic inertia to fuse our fractured intelligence efforts—military, police, and civilian—into a single, sharp instrument. This is critical in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin, where threats respect no borders.

The Reform Our Gallant Forces Deserve: Our troops are consistently let down by systemic failures—poor logistics, sapped morale, and fatal intelligence leaks. Who better champion the urgent reforms in training, welfare, and accountability than those who have commanded these institutions from the inside?

Credibility and Critical Coalition-Building: Decisive victory requires buy-in from every tier of governance and from our international partners. A respected former service chief can be the credible intermediary, bridging the dangerous gap between uniformed forces and civilian authority and rallying regional allies with a voice they know and trust.

We are not naive to the risks. The path forward can not be a mere militarization of the state. Any role for such experts must be framed within a broader, non-negotiable commitment to attacking the root causes: poverty, hopelessness, and the cavernous gaps in local governance. Civilian oversight, transparency, and a parallel surge in development and reconciliation are the essential safeguards.

Thus, we propose a pragmatic and urgent middle path:

· Empower Security Experts as Strategic Architects: Integrate them formally as chief advisers and task them with designing a unified, actionable counter-insurgency strategy.

· Fast-Track Intelligence Integration: Mandate the creation of a single, interoperable intelligence framework with a brutally short deadline.

· Pair Security with Sustenance: Every military advance must be accompanied by an immediate, clear plan for humanitarian access, agricultural revival, and community reconciliation.

· Activate Regional Diplomacy with Immediacy: Leverage their networks to secure concrete, actionable cooperation from our neighbours and international partners—now.

Your Excellency, the legacy of your administration, is being written daily in the blood and tears of Nigerians caught in the crossfire. The institutional knowledge possessed by leaders like General Buratai is not a magic wand, but it is a decisive force multiplier we can no longer afford to discard. It is the vital ingredient in a comprehensive strategy that must marry security with governance, development, and dialogue.

The hour is late. The nation’s patience is exhausted. The world is watching. We urge you to act with the historic courage and decisiveness this moment demands. Bring in the experience, empower the knowledgeable, and marry their expertise with an unrelenting focus on the welfare of the people. This is the only way to secure not just the nation’s borders but the very soul of our democracy.

The choice is stark: a legacy of restored security and national gratitude, or a descent into a chaos from which we may not return. For the sake of Nigeria, we pray you choose wisely.

And we pray you choose now.