THE situation is bad. As in, VERY BAD. In the last few weeks, there has been an upsurge in wanton killings by armed non-state actors that we now refer to as herdsmen. From Uromi in Edo State to the wetlands of the various states of the Niger Delta, these gun-wielding felons have held the peoples of this country to ransom, killing, maiming, raping, and laying to waste sources of livelihoods. I particularly feel bad about the situation in Benue, Ondo and Plateau states.
Hardly a week passes by that peoples in various communities in these states have not experienced violent attacks; within eight days, no less than 104 innocent lives were cut short by marauding, armed groups in Bokkos and Bassa local government areas of Plateau. To say the governor, Caleb Muftwang, is embattled is understating the issue. The man must be at the end of his tether. Again, also in Nasarawa. In Benue and Plateau states, it seems an unending bloodbath is being perpetrated by bloodthirsty felons who thrive only on remorseless killing.
The situation is so bad that it seems we don’t have even the semblance of a Police force or security apparatus. It also looks like our other security agencies have either abdicated completely or simply don’t know what to do. When the Uromi killings happened, the Inspector-General Police sent a DIG to the area. According to a Police statement, “the IGP has directed the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department, FCID, DIG Sadiq Abubakar, to take over the case and ensure a thorough, impartial, and expedited investigation.”
Where is the “thorough, impartial and expedited investigation” into the unending killings in Benue, Ondo and Plateau states?
Last week, the National Association of Catholic Lawyers of Nigeria, NACL, at a media outing told the whole world that no less than 55,910 people got killed, and 21,000 abducted by terrorists in Nigeria between 2019 and 2023, adding that 124 priests were kidnapped and 15 parishes lost between 2018 to 2024. What are the outcomes of the “thorough, impartial and expedited investigations” into these?
It would appear that those who are wielding the levers of power are comfortable with this state of anarchy. What happened to action and reaction? Where is the reaction by state institutions of security to these endless killings? How do illicit, uncommissioned arms get into the country? By whom? For whom? There are a lot of things that don’t make sense about the state of insecurity in Nigeria. When did hunters start using assault rifles to hunt game? Prevention, they say, is better than cure. If our security organisations, including the Immigration Service were proactive, a lot of these problems would not have arisen, and so many innocent people killed would still be alive.
Any idiot, from anywhere in the world, seems able to come into our country, with anything, undeterred. And it didn’t start today. How did toxic waste find its way to a port in Koko, Delta State, in the ‘90s? And we had, and still have a Navy. Our inability to get our crude operation up to OPEC quota levels also has to do with the security organisations. They are either complicit or have abdicated. And the political authorities are looking on, somewhat unconcerned.
They seem to believe that being in office is only about looting the commonwealth, and flying agbadas to nocturnal meetings in chartered private jets. In 2022, the Customs intercepted a shipment of 660 pump action rifles in Lagos. Who brought them in? For what purpose? Any arrests, or prosecution? That particular matter petered out after the intercept.
In all of this, the buck stops at the president’s table. And the president left all of us for a whopping 14 days to do a retreat in France. What! Let me remind the president that the internet is a witch that doesn’t forget anything. In a tweet dated 2014-09-09, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, then National Leader of the APC tweeted: “The festering Boko Haram attacks on the North East and massacre of innocent citizens is concrete proof that Nigeria has no government.”
Today, nearly 11 years after, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is president and we are now victims of not only Boko Haram, which has renewed its attacks with daring ferocity, but murderous and marauding herdsmen, bandits, kidnappers, and cultists. I can only ask one question and the Tinubu tweet of 2014-09-09 will guide us to the answer. Do we have a government in Nigeria now?
Apart from reiterating the need for a radical, far-reaching overhaul of the national security architecture, if the Neros in power continue to fiddle as the nation burns, anarchy and state failure might be the result. The indications that we are heading in that direction are clear as people might resort to self-help in terms of security. That will lead to a proliferation of arms on a scale not seen here before as villages, towns and city neighbourhoods move to defend themselves. The time to act on this security problem is yesterday as today is already too late. Nigerians are suffocating in a gas chamber of insecurity. TGIF.
The post Cry, the state in which citizens are insecure, by Adekunle Adekoya appeared first on Vanguard News.
