National security, the South-west security summit and the blabs

Contemporary Nigerian society has morphed into a jungle where all kinds of criminal activities and inhumane treatments are unleashed on hapless citizens and their properties on a daily basis with the perpetrators at large and the government chasing shadows. The situation has blown out of proportion to the point many Nigerians could not remember the last time they slept without hearing gun shots, travelled without being robbed or kidnapped, went to their farms without being abused or killed, or went to religious centres without being bombed.

These indices made the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) to rank Nigeria as the 16th most dangerous country in a survey of 163 nations in the world. Recently, the United Kingdom warned against travel to 21 states in the country due to insecurity. Needless to mention are the heart-breaking statistics of deaths, in thousands, as a result of herdsmen killings, banditry, terrorism and electoral violence in the last five years. A media tracking group, Nigeria Mourns, recently released a report that stated that bandits and kidnappers killed 310 Nigerians in May, including 22 soldiers and seven policemen. Due to time and space, the sordid details would not suffice in this rendition.

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Security has been a major challenge to each Nigerian government and the unnecessary politics they played with it made matters worse. However, since the inception of this administration under the stewardship of a retired army general and one-time military head of state, the security situation of the country has gone out of control. For the past four years, marauding herdsmen and kidnappers go about armed with sophisticated firearms, making millions of naira from their victims, while terrorists and bandits have seemingly outnumbered security personnel in villages and on highways.

When the security situation of the country started getting messier in 2016, especially with the killings in the Middle Belt of the country, the only consolation the president, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Force, could offer was to tell the victims of the terrors to live in peace with their oppressors. Later, he told the world that men of the late Muammar Gaddafi of Libya were the reasons for the attacks. As the 2019 election drew closer, he blamed the opposition. Then when Boko Haram and bandits recently struck, killing tens of people—after he has severally said his government has defeated them—he said God would judge them and that hell is where they would all go.

Unfortunately, however, every nook and cranny of Nigeria has turned out to be the exotic hell these evildoers know. They are insidiously extending their venomous tentacles down South with little or no resistance. The South-South is still fighting with militants and kidnappers. The South-East is now contending with herdsmen and the Miyetti Allah. The South-West is now battling with herdsmen and kidnappers. There is fire on the mountain and the people that swore to protect the masses are busy chasing power, while the economy and socio-political harmony of the country are in flames.

These, and many more, are the reasons why the six South-West governors of Ekiti, Osun, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo and Lagos states are worried. Since their son, Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo, is obviously tired of condolence visits and mass burials, and even irritating the region with his politically correct comments on the security breakdown—not to mention a President Muhammadu Buhari with a seeming phobia for criticism and advice—these governors decided to convene to seek solutions to their security and existential problems.

Gathered on Tuesday, 25th of June, for the ‘Stakeholder’s Security Summit: Focus on Western Nigeria’ held at the Theophilus Oyetola Hall, University College Hospital, Ibadan, the governors tried to salvage the security nightmares that have befallen them. In the summit convened by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, hosted by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and organised by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN), the embattled governors unanimously stated that “state police is one of the major steps to stem the tide of insecurity in the region.”

Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State noted that the collective goal should be the security of the region and safety of the people. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State said controlling one’s police at the state level would help achieve unhindered and accelerated response to any criminal activities recorded at community levels. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State underscores the roles of traditional rules in maintaining peace in the region, adding that the advantage of community policing far outweighs the fears of the people.

Furthermore, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State noted that the security agencies are overwhelmed by security challenges and that there is need to reconfigure the nation’s security architecture. Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State emphasised on regional approach to security, adding that insecurity must be addressed urgently or the people would resort to self-help. Finally, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State spoke on the need to strengthen state’s borders, stressing that each state in the region has peculiarities in the area security.

The big question is: How serious and sincere are these governors as regards the security of their region? It is claimed that the elections that brought them in were hijacked by the thugs they hired. Some of those thugs are now the kidnappers and bandits terrorising them with the arms they purchased for them. On political levels, some of these governors take orders from their boss in elsewhere and from their godfathers, orders that are not in the best interest of their people. More inhumanely, some are serial abusers of the security votes meant to protect their states. No wonder Ayo Adebanjo, in a recent Nigerian Tribune interview, said that the hands of governors are dirty, especially when it comes to restructuring and state police.

The government is not sincere with the security challenges of the country and probably has no pragmatic blueprint on how the salvage the embarrassing situation. To add salt to injury, while the citizenry are nursing the wounds afflicted on them by guerrilla forces that are almost stronger than the military, the politicians are busy scrambling for positions in the National Assembly, in the president’s cabinet and in other political offices. Many of them have started the 2023 election struggle—the lives and the welfare of the electorate are the least in their agendas—with some of the ethnic groups and organisations well-known for the orchestration of the terrors in the country leading the struggle.

Former Governor Mario Cuomo of New York, United States, once said that politicians “campaign in poetry, but govern in prose.” This encapsulates Nigerian politicians—they say one thing and mean or do the other. Yinka Odumakin, in his recent Nigerian Tribune column article titled ‘Abnormal now our new normal’, stated that countries die like human beings, adding that, “Those who are perceptive enough cannot miss all the symptoms of death all around our country.” Unfortunately, the occupants of Aso Rock and the like seem to care less.

It is necessary to conclude this reflection by stressing that if President Buhari and his administration are sincere in proffering lasting solutions to the national security challenges, he should secure the country the way he secures his Aso Rock. The state governors should also do same. Advocating for state police without strong political will and sincerity to fight crime would amount to nothing. If the right leaders, laws, security apparatuses and funding are not judiciously deployed in solving the security problems of the country, the terrors and killings would continue for a long time. Optimists of this administration could take it or leave it.

Kingsley Alumona is with the Nigerian Tribune