Insecurity and the 2023 polls

FEW weeks before the 2023 general election kicks off, the auguries are portentous, chiefly on account of insecurity. The election will cost Nigeria’s taxpayers a fortune, but they are increasingly beset by daunting security challenges and fears are being expressed in the polity over the possibility or otherwise of the postponement of the elections with dire consequences for the country. Only this week, terrorists cut down scores of security operatives in cold blood across two communities in the troubled Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Among the dead were personnel of the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and vigilantes. According to reports, the attack was the culmination of four days of terror unleashed by the outlaws. The situation is virtually the same across the country.

If Nigerians nurtured any false hopes about the Federal Government’s oft-repeated assurance that it is “on top of the security situation,” last Saturday’s terrorist attack on the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) in Igueben, Edo State, 10 months after terrorists staged a macabre drama on the Abuja-Kaduna railway, killing 14 passengers and kidnapping 65 others, effectively put paid to such reckless optimism. In the wake of the attack which led to the abduction of 20 innocent travelers heading to Warri in Delta State, the NRC has been forced to shut down operations on the route. As a matter of fact, last month, Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), decried the orgy of attacks on its  facilities across 15 states. Speaking during an appearance before the House of Representatives’ ad-hoc committee investigating the attacks on its facilities, the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, warned that the conduct of the 2023 elections might be jeopardised if the attacks were not stopped. He urged the security agencies to come to the commission’s aid.

To say the very least, the climate of insecurity that has enveloped the country ahead of the 2023 general election bodes ill. Last week, there was an explosion few hours before President Muhammadu Buhari arrived Kogi State to inaugurate some projects completed by the Kogi State government. In the South-East, the ubiquitous gang of terrorists dubbed “Unknown Gunmen” have made life an endless nightmare for the long-suffering, economically suppressed and impoverished masses who must stay home every Monday or risk grievous injury to life and limb, or permanent silence. Because Nigeria continues to be a clime where subnational governments have no wherewithal to contain security threats, killing in the most bestial fashion continues to define life in the zone on a daily basis. Worse still, the Federal Government, which virtually takes up arms against any talk of decentralisation of the security architecture in such a way that the subnational governments would be able to protect the lives and properties of their people without looking up to it for succour, has apparently given up on the security situation in the South-East and parts of the North, including Zamfara, Niger, Benue, Kaduna, Katsina states which are all currently engulfed in conflagrations created by terrorists.

Ideally, the escalating insecurity ahead of the polls scheduled to begin next month should be a cause for concern for all given the grave portents. The government is conversant with the fact that the so-called bandits and sundry criminals are getting more audacious by the day. In truth, it could be said that the major characteristic that defines Nigeria today is insecurity given the pervasiveness of attacks in every part of the country. And it has to be asked what kind of elections could be contemplated or conducted under these circumstances. Sadly, the government, already at its wits end, has come up with no viable plan to halt the degeneration into anarchy. Evidently, this situation is not conducive for any worthwhile elections, making it imperative for the government to quickly sit up and come up with a strategy to end the orgy of attacks and give Nigerians hope, not just on the election timetable but on their very existence.

We hope the government apprehends the precarious situation and acts with urgency to stamp down the reign of insecurity in the land.