THE state of security in Nigeria has continued to agitate the minds of virtually all Nigerians. Never in the history of the country have things been this messy and uncertain. Hardly does a day pass without teary concerns about the country’s security. While Boko Haram terrorism spills blood in the North-East, bandits have literally declared a republic of violence in the North-West. In the South-East, a combination of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and other violence-inclined persons have foisted a regime of violence on the people. In the South-West, nomadic herdsmen bare their fangs at the people, shedding blood at will. The month of April 2021 will indeed go down in history as one of the most challenging to the Nigerian people. It was the month in which five kidnapped students of Greenfield University in Kaduna were murdered by their captors. Many reported and unreported kidnappings took place in the South-West during this period while police stations, as well as the personal home of the governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, were bombed by attackers.
Sadly, the Presidency’s reaction to the state of anarchy is anything but cheery. While the security situation has broken down almost irretrievably, it keeps releasing hollow statements and platitudes. The responses are either tepid or indicative of a government fiddling while the Nigerian Rome is on fire. The situation has become so bad that those who inflict violence on Nigerians openly show that they do not acknowledge a government that can counter their violence. The amount of weapons in circulation is so benumbing that it calls to question the power of the government. In their utterances, actions and inactions, it is obvious that Nigerians do not believe that their redemption lies in the hands of the government. They are tired of repeated assurances by the runners of the Nigerian state that the slide into chaos will be arrested.
All over the world, governments are renowned for their awesome powers. Malefactors themselves run away from state power, devising strategies to prevent contact with its reach and brunt. In Nigeria, criminals have become lords, and governance is in abeyance. The security situation is so tense, and death at the hands of criminals is cheap. In 2019, Afghanistan accounted for 41 per cent of deaths from terrorism globally, and Nigeria came second with nine per cent of deaths in that category. The statistics are so frightening but the government’s effort to curtail insecurity is negligible. Only recently, the United States warned its citizens to avoid 14 of the country’s states. Last week, the spate of attacks and worsening insecurity across all zones necessitated the Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka’s call on President Muhammadu Buhari to accept governmental failure and ineptitude and call for outside help. In a seeming response, President Buhari asked the United States government to consider relocating its Africa Command (AFRICOM) from Stuttgart, Germany, to Africa. He made the plea during a virtual meeting with Anthony Blinken, the U.S Secretary of State. That call was inchoate and imprecise, and Nigerians cannot say that President Buhari has indeed heeded the admonition to seek outside intervention in curtailing insecurity.
If, for the sake of argument, Buhari’s request indeed approximated a response to the yearning of Nigerians, there ought to have been an acknowledgment of the severe situation in the country, followed by a more than veiled demand for assistance. It is obvious that if the government hangs on to egotism in the face of its inability to safeguard the lives of Nigerians, malefactors will make mincemeat of the lives of more citizens. Stakeholders, friends of Nigeria and all patriots are asking where the country is headed from this hopeless intersection. They should go a step further by prevailing on President Buhari to rescue the country. Rescuing Nigeria cannot be done by merely issuing press releases. It can only come with an acknowledgment of the sorry pass that Nigeria has got to, especially in the last five or six years, and with a re-drawing of strategies. The president must act fast.
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