Solutions to Nigeria’s lingering insecurity

 

Security and welfare of citizens are the primary purposes of government so says section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, as amended. This regime of the President, Major General Muhammdu Buhari (retd.), promised an onslaught against the monster called insecurity six years ago. Unfortunately, much as it tried, it has not succeeded. Should the verdict of history come today, the president and his lieutenants at the state and local government levels will definitely be rated very low. The truth is that Nigeria is faced with worsening insecurity on a daily basis.

Let’s look a bit at statistics. According to 2020 Global Terrorism Index rating by a group known as Vision of Humanity, “Nigeria is the third country most impacted by terrorism. Yet, total deaths from terrorism in Nigeria fell to 1,245 in 2019, a 39% decrease from the prior year. Terror-related incidents also fell by 27%, marking the lowest level of terrorist violence in Nigeria since 2011. Boko Haram, Nigeria’s deadliest terrorist group, recorded an increase in terrorist activity mainly targeted at civilians by 25% from the prior year. Additionally, Fulani extremists were responsible for 26% of terror-related deaths in Nigeria at 325 fatalities.”

While Nigerians await what the 2021 Global Terrorism Index will show about the country, there is no gainsaying the fact that while herders/farmers clashes, the Indigenous People of Biafra’s violent agitations and insurgency may have receded, banditry and kidnapping for ransom have substantially escalated. To buttress this point, yesterday, December 14, 2021, your darling newspaper, The PUNCH reported in a news item that no fewer than 3,125 innocent persons were killed and 2,703 abducted by bandits in Northern Nigeria in the last 11 months. The figures were obtained from the Nigeria Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank as well as quarterly reports released by the Kaduna State Government from January to September. According to the latter, no fewer than 888 people were killed and 2,553 others kidnapped in Kaduna State between January and September 2021.

This is indicative of the fact that push factors such as poverty and unemployment rather than religious sentiment are responsible for the soaring incidences of insecurity. Similar factors are responsible for the exponential rise in the incidences of internet scamming – also known as advanced fee fraud – and money ritual better known as Yahoo Yahoo and Yahoo Plus which has now become the pastime of Nigerian youths, especially in Southern Nigeria. These twin variables of poverty and unemployment are responsible for the growing incidences of human trafficking, drug trafficking, prostitution and other social ills.

Last Saturday, December 11, 2021, I was on the “Editors Roundtable” on Love 104.5 FM Abuja to discuss the rising and intractable insecurity in Nigeria. Part of my panacea to the problem is what I have decided to share with a wider audience through this page. There are two broad ways to deal with this protracted insecurity problem. There are hardware and software approaches. Part of the hardware approach is the military onslaught against the criminal elements in Nigeria. However, through that, the law enforcement agents have only recorded minimal success.

Though, we have procured more arsenal ranging from the 12 Super Tucano aircraft that Nigeria bought from the US Government which the air force recently inducted into its air fleet; more arms and ammunition have also been similarly procured.  However, a lot more still needs to be done in the area of actionable intelligence gathering, processing and implementation. I am yet to see a robust use of technology in the fight against insecurity. No functional Close Circuit Television Camera within and around most public infrastructures including our prisons. No all-weather drones, deployed for intelligence gathering. There is high possibility that we don’t have forensic laboratories to process evidence and exhibits gathered from sites where there have been security breaches.

Our satellite agencies such as Nigeria Communications Satellite, the National Information Technology Development Agency and the National Communications Commission have not been able to offer strong support for use of their different platforms to help the country solve its insecurity challenge. The so-called National Identification Number registration which many Nigerians have been coerced to participate in by the National Identity Management Commission has been of little or no effect in the fight against insecurity. Worse still, there is lack of coordination and cooperation between and among the security agencies despite the presence of the National Security Adviser appointed to perform such role. Many of the agencies are still working in silos while there is a lot of turf war going on among them.

More worrisome is the inability of the Nigerian government to use technology to unearth terrorism financing which still thrives despite the establishment of the Nigerian Financial Intelligent Unit. In March 2021, the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria says 26 of its members were arrested by security operatives over alleged unlawful foreign exchange transactions. They claimed  that men of the Department of State Security arrested their members on investigation bordering on issues relating to money laundering, terrorism financing and Know Your Customer status. It is unknown how the case ended. Unless and until we’re able to cut off illicit financial flow used for money laundering and terrorism financing in Nigeria, the fight against insecurity will amount to mopping a leaking roof or attempting to use woven baskets to store water.

We are yet to find a lasting solution to our porous borders despite the alarm raised many years ago by the Nigeria Immigration Service that the country has over 1,400 illegal entry routes. How then will there not be smuggling and trafficking in humans, drugs, currency and small arms and light weapons across our borders?  If you are not worried, I am seriously concerned with the ease with which criminal gangs are breaking into our correctional facilities better known as prisons and setting hardened criminals free. Four of those had happened this year in Owerri, Kabba, Oyo and, more recently, Jos, where several thousands of awaiting trial and condemned criminals were set free with many of them never again recaptured. It goes without saying that crimes and criminality have grown exponentially in the states where there have been successful jailbreaks. This has ended up making mincemeat of the modest achievements of the security agencies in arresting and prosecuting the gangsters.

On the flip side, with Nigeria’s unemployment figure standing at 33.3 per cent and the country wearing the title of the poverty capital in the world like a badge of honour, no matter the length and scope of military operations in Nigeria, crimes and criminalities will not abate. This is because survival is the first law of nature. How many Nigerians are able to have their basic needs met? With the rising cost of commodities and soaring cost of living it will take a miracle for many Nigerians to live a righteous and patriotic life. That’s part of the reason it will be difficult to exterminate corruption in Nigeria.

I appreciate the Social Investment Programme of the Federal Government and all the poverty and unemployment reduction strategies of the various tiers of government. The N-Power, the Conditional Cash Transfers, the TraderMoni, FarmerMoni, Anchor Borrowers Programmes of the Federal Government are all noble and commendable initiatives but they all appear like a drop in the ocean. There is need to diversify the economy, genuinely promote ease of doing business, fix the infrastructure deficit, stimulate foreign direct investment, and provide the enabling environment for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to grow. This is because government alone cannot employ most of the employable youths, hence the organised private sector has to be encouraged through tax rebates, access to low-interest loans, easy access to land and other incentives that will enable them to employ more hands and even for unemployed individuals to create their own wealth.

We may run but cannot hide away from the fact that it is high time Nigerian government promotes child spacing and family planning in the country. This idea of having more children than one’s income can cater for has become a societal albatross. Yes, the Yoruba say Omolewa meaning children are beautiful, they also said ‘Omoboriowo’ meaning children are preferable to riches but they also say emphatically that ‘omo beere, osi beere’ meaning many children leads to widespread miseries and deprivations. What’s wrong if it becomes a federal law for a man not to have more than two children while anyone wishing to have above that limit should pay tax on any other children? China successfully did it and the country is better for it. If we don’t want to legalise it, let’s intensify public enlightenment and advocacy to religious leaders to admonish their worshippers to reduce their childbirth. It serves no utilitarian purpose to have children that will be exposed to the vagaries of life thereby making such children be susceptible to being recruited by criminal gangs.