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 7^th 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