Nigeria: A Nation At War With Itself
BY SIMON REEF MUSA
More than any challenge, the rising spates of devastation by criminals on our communities remain Nigeria’s greatest problem. If the main essence of government is for the protection of lives and property, the inability of government to secure citizens is the greatest failure of government.
We do not need critics to remind of the onerous failure of the government to guarantee the safety of lives and property of citizens. For over a decade now or more, citizens have wailed and groped in the dark over security issues that ail us. It was for this security challenge that former President Goodluck Jonathan was thrown out of power. Sadly, nearly six years after he emerged as Jonathan’s replacement, President Muhammadu Buhari has not made citizens forget the terror of criminals who once terrorised citizens and turned our country into a flourishing field of bloodshed.
Despite denials from the presidency’s media minders that the present is far tolerable than the past in terms of safety, we all know that the path to the harbor of safety for our country is still far. Apart from kidnappings and banditry, citizens in various parts of the country still sleep without closing their eyes. Foreign invaders have turned farming communities in North-west and North-central zones into a flood of blood.
Citizens have been reduced into easy targets for brigands whose major preoccupation is murdering women, children and feeble persons in cold blood. Many communities have been reduced into rubbles by these invaders. The number of dead keeps increasing by the day as both the governed and government keep lamenting. A few days ago, a jet belonging to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) went down in flames. Boko Haram claimed responsibility, but NAF was quick to dismiss the claim. There are too many attempts at obfuscating the facts on the challenges of insecurity.
The recent disclosure by the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd), who is The Chairman of the National Peace Committee (NPC) that the proliferation of weapons in the country by non-state actors has led to the death of no fewer than 80,000 persons is quite alarming. Disclosing this in Abuja at a dialogue session of the committee with key stakeholders on Wednesday, the former military leader disclosed that about six million weapons are in circulation, thereby leading to unprecedented violence that has turned the country into a battlefield.
Describing the present challenges confronting Nigeria that must be understood beyond the narrow sense of insecurity, Abdulsalami said that the present security challenge has assumed frightful prospects. Identifying major security challenges to include the devastations caused by Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnappings, increasing poverty and calls for the balkanisation of the country from different quarters, among others, the country’s former military leader noted that the threat of hunger caused by the insecurity farmers have faced and continue to face has enthroned despair and despondency among the people populace.
It is tragic that in the face of these threats against the corporate survival of the country, members of the National Assembly are yet to think of any concerted effort aimed at resolving these problems caused by insecurity. In saner climes, lawmakers should have been expected to summon the executive arm to explain why the fight against insecurity has largely remained unachieved. Recently, the National Assembly was pilloried by some pro-presidency elements for inviting President Muhammadu Buhari to explain the state of war against insecurity. When the legislative arm of a government decides to surrender its role in deepening and sustaining democracy, lawmakers can only grovel in servitude to the executive arm that it must hold accountable.
There is no denying the fact that security forces are not just overstretched, but they are grossly underfunded. Against the backdrop of foibles demonstrated in the fight against criminals in various parts of the country, there is a need for security agencies to be fully equipped in order to enhance their performance through the provision of better and sophisticated weapons, equipment and funding.
Let us not make any mistake on the resolve by Nigerians to stay united despite challenges posed by leadership problems. As General Abdulsalami rightly pointed out on Wednesday, “Nigerians still love to remain in one united nation. We find a way out of these problems. Our hope is that perhaps among us, by listening to your different perspectives, we can begin to build up confidence among our people so that we can hold together.”
No one should misinterpret citizens’ calls for justice and restructuring as akin to calling for the dismemberment of the Nigerian state. Even if the country were to be dismembered into many nations, no one can obliterate the calls for justice and equity for all groups within a political entity.
The calls for the restructuring of the country is not a call for the breakup of Nigeria but a wake-up call on leaders to stand up for justice and evolve enabling laws that will afford all the zones of our nation with the necessary capacity to realise their dreams. We must forgo lamentations and stick to the dream of confronting our challenges that have reduced us in the eyes of the world.
As long as we allow non-state actors access to dangerous weapons, so long will our dream in tackling criminals be inebriated. The need for community policing to democratize our security and involve citizens in the protection of lives and property must commence in earnest. Our borders have become open gates and the government must halt further influx of these bandits that are turning our country into a battlefield.
It is not enough to declare that war against criminal elements is yielding results. Security forces charged with the responsibility of protecting citizens must wake up and perform their mandates without let or hindrance. In a situation where they feel overwhelmed, they should take advantage of their membership of regional platforms to rally forces of other nations to assist them in defeating these bloody fiends that have turned our country into a river of blood.
We can’t afford to have a nation that is at war with itself. The merchants of weapons that have found profit in bloodletting must be stopped in their tracks. Allowing the government to take sole charge of restoring stability and security is the best means of frustrating the war against insecurity. It’s time we concentrate on what we must do and not what we must say to stop the current carnage unleashed on our nation. No nation at war with itself can survive for long. We must end the spectre of uncertainties thrust upon on us by these angels of death.
