The general state of insecurity in the country may have reached a stage where virtually everybody is now worried the direction the country is headed. Presently, hardly can people sleep with both eyes closed or for fear of being attacked. There is distrust everywhere, even among close-door-neighbours. In the last one year, the situation has deteriorated to a situation where everybody is now afraid over the spate of violence, kidnapping, armed robbery and assassinations in the country.
It was against this backdrop that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua recently admitted that the malaise was the greatest challenge facing his administration. Yar’Adua, who spoke at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja, was apparently reacting to the local and international condemnations that followed the recent murder of the Assistant News Editor of The Guardian Newspapers, Mr Bayo Ohu and other violent crimes and growing militancy in the country lately.
The President is not a lone in this line of thought. Last week, the Chief Judge of Katsina State, Justice Sadiq Mahuta expressed concern over the current level of insecurity in the country. Mahuta, at a ceremony held to mark the commencement of the 2009/2010 legal year, noted that the situation had assumed a disturbing dimension. He said the country’s rulers were to blame for the problem, adding that they often breached the law and went unpunished.
“This security situation in Nigeria is in shambles, as nobody except few people, now goes to bed without thinking of how the night will end. We seem to be losing the battle to the hoodlums who have made life so miserable for the people. This makes other less-privileged citizens to feel there are different laws for different categories of Nigerians,” he said.
The current security challenge in the country is better understood against existing evidence that even government officials and traditional rulers are not spared. Kidnappings are targeted against the executive, legislative, and the judicial branch of the government, and also their family members in spite of the tight security at their disposal. Recently, the Secretary to the Government of Kaduna State, Mr. Waje Yayok, was kidnapped in Kaduna metropolis. He was in the hands of his captors for over 10 days before he was released last week.
Yar’Adua’s admittance that insecurity was the greatest challenge facing his administration may have embarrassed the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo, who last week, summoned all the officers of the Nigeria Police Force from the rank of commissioners and above to an emergency meeting in Abuja. It was learnt that Onovo called the meeting following rising cases of violent crimes, armed robbery and kidnappings in some parts of the country.
This was not the first time Onovo would be holding such meetings. Recently, irked by the state of insecurity vis-à-vis armed robbery and kidnapping in Anambra State, the IGP after holding a meeting with commissioners of police and AIGs in the zone, announced the deployment of 16 units of anti-riot policemen to the area to complement the efforts of policemen attached to the state commands. The move, according to Onovo, was informed by reported cases of armed robbery and kidnappings.
Kidnapping, with the benefit of hindsight, was first noticed in the South-south sub-region among the restive youths of the Niger Delta commonly referred to as militants. Their stock-in-trade, according to investigations, was to kidnap workers of oil companies, especially expatriates, and later establish contacts with their employers to demand for various monetary ransoms. From such nefarious acts, the crime soon made an incursion into other parts of the country, where unlike the Niger Delta region, where oil workers are the targets, wealthy Nigerians or members of their immediate families soon became prey for kidnappers in the South-east. The trend, though receiving national and international condemnation, appears not to be getting the required attention to indicate that it is on the verge of being nipped in the bud. Instead, has raised some fundamental questions, which Nigerians are desirous for answers.
Today, the menace has spread to states like Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Kaduna and is moving steadily to other parts of the country. Most times, the perpetrators are some cheap, jobless street gangs who use common tricks to lure preys and use the same to extort money from victims’ families. At other times, very crude and lethal means are used to commit the crime. Whatever the means, kidnapping has become a major threat to the security of lives and property.
Another security challenge is armed robbery, which has gone beyond the level of random and speculative neighbourhood attacks to well-planned, full-scale assault on communities and banking halls. Robbers now go in convoys, with a full complement of assault machinery and instruments to breakdown strong rooms. Robbers now invest hours on an expedition, after which law enforcement agents would arrive the scene after the robbers had made away with their loots. On a few occasions when gallantry is displayed, casualty is always high on the side of law agents, because of the superior arms of the robbers, arms that are usually smuggled through land borders and the high sea.
While security in the South-south, South-east, and the South-west has been compromised, the northern zones that have always shown a propensity for violent conflicts did not disappoint security watchers. Starting with the usual religious and sometimes, ethnic oriented conflicts, to the Jos ethnic conflict of 2008, the northern states have shown that security of persons and properties is still far from being realisable. However, the crisis which started in Bauchi and engulfed other states in the north has elements of theocratic political ambitions in it. While the fundamentalist group – Boko Haram’s – demanded the jettisoning of western behavioural pattern, and the imposition of strict Sharia law.
What the governments at all levels have so far shown, is that they do not have the capacity to protect the people against violence or threats of violence, and that they do not care about the welfare of the people. The first duty of any government to its citizens is the protection of life and property. Without adequate security that allows the people to live in peace and to earn a decent living, a government is likely to lose the much needed support of the citizens. It was for this reason that on assumption of office on May 29, 2007, Yar’Adua rated security of lives and property as number two in his seven-point agenda, with a promise to treat security as a critical infrastructure. But in spite of the constant re-shuffling of security chiefs in the country and various equipment donated to the police to enhance the operations, the challenges are getting more serious.
Though security is a collective task that should involve everyone in society, more than any one else, government has an onerous responsibility for the security of its citizens because it alone has the where-withal to fully discharge this important duty.
While insecurity disrupts socio-economic and political activities in the country, it also slows down the pace of growth and development. Many investors continue to flee the country. Life span has reduced and unemployment as well as hunger has hit the roof top. The effects of all these on the economy are enormous. While the country is in the throes of infrastructural decay including lack of electricity for industrial development, the added woe of escalating criminal activities have dealt a heavy blow on the country’s quest for foreign direct investment.
The nation’s image has suffered because of this. The news at the disposal of the international community is that Nigeria is most unsafe to live and have investment. Before any foreigner contemplates of coming to Nigeria, he or she would not only be calculating the high cost of investing in the country but also his or her safety.
Another major security problem is the spate of assassinations/killings in the country. While it is difficult to explain why this is on the rise, one reason adduced for this ugly state of affairs is the gross ineffectiveness of the various security agencies in the country, which makes it difficult for them to successfully confront those out to destroy lives and to undermine the security of the nation. It is also argued in some quarters that the murders have continued unabated because of the inability of the authorities to promptly and honestly solve previous ones.
In other words the failure to find and bring to justice those behind the killings has emboldened other intending murderers to go ahead and kill, knowing that the chances of their getting away with their crime are high. What the current trend of violence is imprinting on the psyche of Nigerians is that government security apparatus is incapable of guaranteeing the safety and security of its people. This has therefore impacted on the general human security of the people as the situation has promoted fear, while at the same time limiting the peoples’ ability to develop economically. At the same time, the state’s capacity to attract investors becomes limited as a result of the insecurity.
After the recent Boko Haram crisis in the North-east geo-political zone, the House of Representatives was jolted to bring together an array of defence and security chiefs, to examine the security status of the country and help proffer solution to the frightening prospects of a gradual descent into a state of chaos and anarchy. Before security operatives could bring the situation under control, over 350 people had lost their lives and thousands more were either displaced or suffered various degrees of injuries.
Also recently, a security meeting was convened at the instance of the Senate to address the problem. According to reports, the Senate had summoned the Minister of Internal Affairs, Dr. Shettima Mustapha, the Minister of State, Internal Affairs, Mr. Demola Seriki and some top security chiefs behind closed doors on the worsening security situation in the country. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Ayogu Eze said the meeting was “informed by a recent motion in the Senate urging the Federal Government to take urgent steps to address the high rate of kidnapping and security lapses in the country”.
Unfortunately, five months after the intervention by the National Assembly, the situation has not improved. People are still being kidnapped and killed. What the governments have shown by the state of insecurity is that they do not have the capacity to protect the people against violence or threats of violence. Governments have also shown that they do not care about the welfare of the people. This attitude is setting a dangerous trend as individuals are being forced to approach the issue of their security from the realist perspective and resort to self help. This has further immersed the zones into further security dilemma.
Even the Director General of the State Security Services (SSS), Afakriya Gadzama, recently, expressed fears that if the current situation of lawlessness is allowed to continue the way it is into the volatile election year of 2011, the country could go up in flames. The failure of the security cluster in Nigeria to make use of its intelligence network to decode the security challenge the Boko Haram and all such sects poses to the peace and security of the nation leaves much to be desired.
The country’s Early Warning System Mechanism in preventing such deadly conflicts from erupting needs to be developed. An eruption, the type that was witnessed in the northern states recently could not have happened without extensive planning. That the intelligence sector and the conflict prevention mechanism of the country failed to pick up the tell tale signs is indicative of failure of the state structure.
Experts said what the Yar’Adua Administration needs to do is to develop the conflict prevention mechanism in the country, including the establishment of an Early Warning System (EWS). The EWS, they said, must not be confused with intelligence gathering mechanism. The different states in the country should also establish their counterpart conflict prevention mechanisms in order to feed into the national structure. Through the early detection of impending conflicts and its prevention, government will be providing a safe and enabling environment for the civilian population, and for economic development to thrive.
However, experts told THISDAY last week that a veritable way of enhancing security in the country is keeping policemen abreast of latest advancement in science and technology. With statistical data and mathematical calculation, for instance, predicting where the next crime will take place with a fair level of accuracy would be possible.
In Nigeria, critics bemoan a situation where the police do not have crime statistics, not to talk of being able to anticipate crime. “We don’t even know how to make use of geographical mapping, a system with which one can locate the home of a criminal or anybody or group that commits crime in an area,” a security expert told THISDAY.
It is the view of many that the Nigeria Police is incapable of fighting crime because their arms and ammunition are not as sophisticated as those of the criminals they are to confront. So the police are often overwhelmed and overpowered by armed robbers in gun battle. Therefore, for the police to fight crime effectively, they must have access to sophisticated weaponry as well as adequate training.
A social affairs commentator, Mr. Nehru Odeh believes that the inability of the Nigeria Police to adequately police the society was responsible for the increasing crime rate in the country. He said with the advent of democracy in the country, it was expected that the crime rate would drop rather, it is on the increase. He advised that to combat this, government needs to take certain urgent measures, including overhauling the police system, creation of state police, providing access to advanced technology, facilitating economic growth and good governance.
“Save for cosmetic changes, the present structure of the Nigeria Police has been in existence for at least 40 years. And it has performed woefully in its responsibility of protecting life and property. So, for the police to truly perform its primary responsibility, and to restore Nigerians’ confidence in it, the force needs to be overhauled,” he argued.
On his part, a public affairs analyst, Mr. Kenneth Uwadi believes those who engage in armed robbery and assassinations in the country have taken undue advantage of the lapses in the security outfits to continue in this act. He argued that because armed robbers, assassins and those who instigate crises believe that the country’s security outfits have a record of not being able to unravel the mysteries behind the various cases of crime in the country, they continued to enjoy what they are doing.
“Back to history, there is hardly any case of assassination that has been successfully unravelled. The ineffectiveness and inefficiency of the national security outfits particularly the Police Force is a major reason why assassination is stinking to high heavens in Nigeria. This is because the Police don’t really deem it fit to arrest and try the culprits and their corroborators of those killed in Nigeria in the past and present as well as provide the needed security for members of the public.
“The inordinate level of barbarism being displayed by members of the Nigerian political class is giving Nigerians a cause for worry. The level of assassination in Nigeria is a clear manifestation of vendetta; where peace has given way to violence and assassination has become the norm; where political actors resort to assassination of political opponents all in a bid to attain political power or positions.
The spate of political assassinations in Nigeria has reached an alarming stage with a good number of our prominent politicians and citizens alike lost to this cankerworm. The government of Nigeria is finding it extremely difficult in handling the level of insecurity in the country, which has put the lives of its citizens in danger. Right from 1986 till date, the spate of political assassinations has risen in a geometric progression, thus eroding human values such that violence grew in time,” he said.
Source: This Day