Nigerians are tired of these killings

DESPITE official assurances that the Federal Government is doing its utmost to bring the security situation in the country under control, and that its deployment of resources towards this end is starting to produce results, Nigerians continue to wake up to daily reports of brazen attacks by bandits on defenceless citizens. In fact, hardly a day passes without a report of such incidents, deepening fears that the Federal Government, for all its posturing, has lost control.

And no less a personality than Senate President Ahmad Lawan admitted last week that Nigerians were already tired of the killing spree. Speaking during his 63rd birthday get-together, Lawan said: “Recently, we lost 200 people in Zamfara State and some numbers in other parts of the country. This is not the type of story we want to hear as a government and country. The country is going through a hard time security-wise. Challenges across all parts of the country have stretched the armed forces beyond their best to defend Nigeria’s sovereignty. The government has not been able to adequately provide for the needs of the armed forces, hence the resolve of the National Assembly to do its best in spontaneous reaction to appropriate funds for the effectiveness of the armed forces, and we promise to continue to do this.”

According to reports in the media, in the first week of this year alone, no fewer than 284 people were either killed or abducted in various attacks across the country. The attacks included onslaughts by roving bandits and sundry gunmen in Kaduna, Plateau, Niger and Anambra states respectively. Perhaps the most dastardly of these attacks took place in the northwestern state of Zamfara where, on January 7, an estimated 200 people were butchered after bandits cut a murderous swath across different farming communities. The ordinary sadism of these attacks is underscored by the fact that, in many cases, they entailed needless violence being visited on farmers or otherwise hapless villagers who had otherwise done nothing to provoke them.

The picture of rural mayhem across the North is complemented by urban lawlessness and casual violence across most southern states, where daily life is now regularly punctuated by kidnapping, gun violence and assault on civilians by law enforcement. No matter where one looks in the country, the impression one gets is of a centre desperately straining to hold, and a society that is gradually coming apart at the seams. While Nigerians are rightly worried at the ugly turn of events in the country, they are increasingly more agitated by the government’s listlessness. While, for instance, the Federal Government would normally respond to a report of an attack with the usual pabulum of reassurance that it is doing everything within its power to curb the menace, it took condemnation from several stakeholders before the Federal Government issued a lame statement in response to the attacks in Zamfara.

When, in December last year, former President Olusegun Obasanjo asked Nigerians to manage their expectations of the Buhari administration because it had done its best and was incapable of doing more, the statesman was condemned for his apparent pessimism. At the time, Obasanjo had compared criticising Buhari with kicking a dead horse. Yet, the evidence continues to mount that the Buhari administration, far from being mischievous, may be simply out of its depth, and that Obasanjo was right at the time.

It would be a shame if an administration that promised so much upon inception were to flame out so unceremoniously. To avoid the worst judgment of history, the administration needs to get its act together and make a determined push to restore security of life and property in the country. The material and political resources are out there. It just needs to mobilise them.