Nigeria’s lingering security challenges, the panacea
Introduction
Section
14 (2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, (as
amended) states that the security and welfare of the people shall be the
primary purpose of government while Section 17(2) (c) says ‘governmental
actions shall be humane’. It is doubtful if any of the tiers of government in
Nigeria is meeting any of these constitutional provisions. In Nigeria today, as
a result of the protracted and festering insecurity, the country is now in the
Hobbesian state where life is short, brutish and nasty. Many analysts have
traced the remote causes of the current spate of insecurity to the fratricidal
war the country fought for three years between 1967 and 1970. It is called
civil war. However, an estimated over one million people allegedly lost their
lives on the side of the separatist Biafran agitators and the Nigerian armed
forces. Quite unfortunately, when the war ended on January 15, 1970, there was
no disarmament. Thus, a lot of small arms and light weapons got into the hands
of many non-state actors.
If
we’re looking for immediate causes, some of the push factors will be the
grinding poverty, high rate of unemployment, religious extremism, ostentatious
lifestyle of Nigeria’s political elite, misgovernance and corruption to
mention, but a few. All of these bears
no explanation as they are daily manifestation in our societal life.
Impact of insecurity
The
escalating insecurity in Nigeria has a lot of negative impacts on our socio -
economic life. Socially speaking, many Nigerians are now observing self-imposed
curfew due to fear of abduction or being robbed by armed gangs. Night life has
almost vanished except for few urban centres. Many Nigerians no longer do
all-night parties while most churches and worship centres have now cancelled
vigils. Serial attacks of terrorists on our public schools and mass abduction
of pupils and students, have led to exponential increase in the number of out-of-school
children. Health wise, many Nigerians
are now fatalistic. Mental health of compatriots has become unbalanced. Many
who do not have history of blood pressure are now developing high blood
pressure. Many more people are now paranoid with fear leading to anxiety
disorder, insomnia and depression. Many family members of victims of insecurity
are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Economically,
insecurity has led to a lot of divestment from the country while many foreign
direct investors have refused to come and invest in here due to the negative
stories about insecurity. When there is divestment or closure of business in
the country, this leads to more people becoming unemployed. Millions of people
in internally displaced camps as a result of natural disaster or insecurity are
no longer productive economically. Rather they become a burden on government
and the entire society as they have to live on charity.
As a
result of insecurity, many farmers have had to leave their ancestral farmlands
and homes only to run to cities where they either live off family and friends
or take to menial jobs such as commercial cycling or selling groceries. Thus,
food insecurity is staring us in the face now and this is partly responsible
for high cost of commodities, especially food items in the market. In order to
stave off food scarcity, the government may reluctantly license people to
import food items into the country. This will put pressure on our foreign
exchange and kill off the few agro-allied industries in the country.
Insecurity
has led to reduction in public infrastructure. Take for instance the Monday,
March 28, 2022 attack on the Abuja – Kaduna night train in which eight people
were confirmed dead and scores of people abducted, this has led to the
indefinite suspension of train services along that route. Same thing with the
airport of Kaduna State. After the terrorist attack on the Kaduna International
Airport on Saturday, March 26, 2022, flight operations to the airport has
equally been suspended indefinitely. These attacks on public infrastructures
has substantially increased the cost of governance as billions of naira will
have to be spent to replace damaged facilities.
Solutions to Nigeria’s protracted
insecurity
There
are two broad parts to solving this menace of insecurity. There’s the hardware
and the software approaches. By hardware approach Nigerian government at all
levels have to do the following: Recruitment of more police and military
personnel. The number of soldiers and police as well as other security
operatives in Nigeria vis-a- vis the population is grossly inadequate. There’s
need for more boots on ground. The recruited personnel must be well trained in modern
crime-fighting techniques. It is unfortunate that the immediate past Inspector
General of Police and the Police Service Commission got involved in a legal
tussle over whose mandate it is to recruit the 10,000 constables per annum
ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari. Thankfully after two court judgements in
favour of PSC, this issue has been finally laid to rest.
There’s
need for technology driven solutions to insecurity. It is imperative to have all-weather
drones, Closed Circuit Television on our roads, around public facilities and
even in the forests where these criminal gangs used as hideout. There’s need
for forensic laboratories to analyze fingerprints and other exhibits from crime
scenes in a timeous manner. Part of technological solutions needed include body
and vehicle scanners, bomb detectors, jammers, surveillance equipment and many
more. While it is heartwarming that the
Inspector-General of Police has acquired five additional high-powered Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to improve surveillance operations to checkmate criminal
activities in the country, it is disheartening that the N52bn e-surveillance
project meant to police our borders which was approved by the federal executive
council on April 25, 2019 has not been completed. The truth is, if we don’t
secure our boarders, there will continue to be migration of criminal gangs into
the country while smuggling and trafficking of drugs, humans and small arms and
light weapons will persist.
Our
intelligence gathering and analysis should also be top notch. There are technologies
that can aid this. Government agencies such as Nigerian Communication Commission,
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian
Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) and National Identity Management
Commission (NIMC) all have roles to play in helping the security agencies with
vital information that can help intelligence gathering and surveillance.
In
terms of the soft approach, there is need for individuals to embrace family
planning and child spacing measures. Having too many children than one can
cater for has led to increase in the number of miscreants who could be easily
recruited by criminal gangs to perpetrate crimes in the country. It would have
been ideal if government can legislate on this or come up with a policy but
this may not enjoy wide acceptance. However, at individual family level, we can
decide to have few children that our income can effectively cater for.
There’s
also need for public enlightenment on why crimes does not pay. However, for this
message to sink into the mind and subconscious of the populace, there must be
prompt and efficient punishment for those who indulge in crime. Thus, there is
need to overhaul our justice sector. As the saying goes, justice delayed is
justice denied. It is not out of place, in fact, it is recommended that there
should be review of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 with a view
to making the law work seamlessly.
The
serial jailbreaks of the recent past are counterproductive to crime fighting.
Many of the escapees who are hardened criminals are never recaptured. They end
up becoming more vicious in the perpetration of crimes after their escapes from
prisons or correctional centres. The number of awaiting trial inmates in our
correctional facilities is intolerable. Statistics show that between 70 – 80
per cent of inmates in our prisons are awaiting trials. This has led to prison
congestion and the more reasons the inmates are restive and engage in
jailbreaks. Prosecution of criminal suspects therefore need to be fastracked.
There’s
also need for transparency and accountability in the management of the
country’s security and defence sector. The mismanagement of the $2.1bn meant
for procurement of military hardware under former President Goodluck Jonathan
is very preposterous. There’s yet to be closure to the prosecution of those who
are fingered in the Dasukigate since 2016 when charges were filed against them.
Recall that the 2019 Audit Report said 178,459 Firearms and Ammunition were
missing from Police Armoury. This is an ugly phenomenon which does not inspire
confidence in the fight against insecurity. These so called missing firearms in
the hands of non-state actors will definitely be used to perpetrate crimes.
Above
all, the three tiers of government must work robustly and collaboratively to
reduce unemployment and poverty. These are twin push factors which can lure
people who are not long-suffering into crimes. The Federal Government’s multi-billion-naira
Social Investment Programme under which there are Conditional Cash Transfer,
N-Power for unemployed youths, Tradermoni and Farmermoni, Homegrown School
Feeding Programmes are all laudable. However, not only do I recommend that
states should have their own social investment programmes, there must be value
for money. It should not be a vote-buying scheme. In closing, this is political
season. As the nation prepares for the 7th General Election in
2023. Political Party managers and
contestants should please eschew arming youths to perpetrate electoral
violence. They do not need private army or militia to protect themselves and
deal with their opponents. They should please not compound the country’s
security challenge.
There
must be political will to fight crime and insecurity in Nigeria. I am shocked
at the revelation of the former Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu who on May 1, 2019 alleged that some
state governors covertly promote insecurity as justification to inflate their
security vote.’ Magu stated this while presenting a paper with the theme,
“Imperative of Fighting Corruption/Terrorism Financing in Nigeria” at the
induction of new and returning governors at the Old Banquet Hall, Presidential
Villa, Abuja. This is worrisome.
I am also dumbfounded by the surreal
revelation by Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai who told journalists
in Abuja that he knows the identities of terrorists in his state, their camps,
their phone numbers and sometimes eavesdrop on their conversation. He said he
has twice written to the management of Nigerian Railway Corporation to stop
night train services but he was ignored. He wondered why the military has not
gone to neutralize the bandits despite the intelligence he has passed on to
them. He said all these after his visit to President Buhari over the
unfortunate train attack by terrorist on March 28, 2022. What can one say about
this? It is also unfortunate that despite the fact that the US and UAE
governments have both made available to Nigerian government names and
identities of some people who are involved in terrorism financing in Nigeria, the
government is yet to prosecute these criminals. Is this out of cowardice, or
complicity?
First
published in THISDAY of April 12, 2022
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