NLC protest against insecurity in Nigeria

 

Several media channels (News Central TV, Daily Trust, Rapid 96.5 FM, Umuahia and Metro 97.7 FM, Lagos) have interviewed me on today’s protest against insecurity organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress. They all wanted to know if the Comrade Joe Ajaero led labour union was right to organise the protest. Of course, I responded without equivocation that the exercise had my full support and was even long overdue.

Recall that the media had widely publicised last Sunday that NLC had said its planned nationwide protest on December 17 aimed to draw attention to Nigeria’s worsening insecurity and compel urgent action from stakeholders. NLC president reportedly stated this in Gombe last Saturday while speaking with journalists after meeting Governor Inuwa Yahaya on labour-related issues. Ajaero said the protest would demand decisive government action against insecurity, stressing that the situation now affects every Nigerian, regardless of status or occupation.

He said banditry and violent crimes were alien to Nigeria’s culture and must be collectively condemned to reverse what he described as a dangerous national narrative. According to him, insecurity is damaging the economy and weakening Nigeria’s ability to attract local and foreign investors.

Sincerely speaking, the impact of insecurity on Nigerian workers cannot be overemphasised. Many workers or their family members have been kidnapped for ransom or maimed and killed by insurgents and bandits. In some of the recent mass abductions in Maga, Kebbi State and Papiri in Niger State, workers were involved.  Hassan Makuku, the Vice Principal of Government Girls Comprehensive School, Maga, Kebbi, was murdered by bandits who came to abduct students in his school last month. He allegedly left a wife and nine children behind. When gunmen abducted over 200 school children at St. Mary Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, last month, they also kidnapped 12 staff members with them, according to a news report.

Many business owners have also been impacted negatively by the state of insecurity in Nigeria. They or their workers have largely fallen victim to insecurity. Life insurance premiums have gone up significantly due to this increased insecurity in Nigeria. Has anyone given a thought to the fact that most people who are in Internally Displaced Persons camps today are either workers or their family members? These people could be farmers or traders; they may be operating in the formal or informal sector, yet they are workers who have lost their means of livelihood and have therefore become dependent on charity for daily survival. This is heartrending!

Apart from physical displacement and loss of businesses, insecurity is also a major cause of hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases, including trauma. So, there are health implications to the raging state of disorder in the country. In many communities plagued by terrorism, people are experiencing insomnia, anxiety disorder and panic attacks because of the activities of these scoundrels and fiends.

Another social impact of insecurity is the high rate of widowhood it creates as couples become widows or widowers arising from the premature death of spouses. There is also a high rate of orphans as children lose either or both of their parents to the crisis. These orphaned children, if not properly taken care of by extended families, may grow up to become deviants and terrorists themselves.

The economic losses due to insecurity are gargantuan! There is a direct correlation between rural banditry and the prohibitive cost of staple foods, be it grains or tubers. When farmers have to pay access fees and harvest fees to bandits in order to cultivate their farms, they will pass the fee on to the consumers. Because of the kidnapping spree and killing of farmers, many have to abandon farming for another business. It is believed that many northerners found in city centres engaging in commercial cycling; operating grocery stores at corner shops or serving as private guards at homes may be previously farmers who have to abandon tilling the soil for a safer business in towns and city centres.

Several investors in the Nigerian economy have divested to go to a saner and safer clime to reinvest. This has further worsened the rate of unemployment in the country. The reason the Nigerian government is not attracting the desired foreign direct investment into the economy, despite the several attempts to shop for investors abroad, is due to the appalling state of security in the country. No matter how you want to sweet-talk foreign investors into your country, they are not blind or dumb. They usually read about the unsafe environment you’re trying to talk them into investing in, and therefore will pull back. It’s simple economics; no investor will want to lose his or her money in a volatile environment like ours.

Insecurity has also been cited as part of the push factors that made people to japa. I mean to say that the wave of unprecedented brain drain and emigration being witnessed in the country is partly as a result of Nigeria’s unsafe environment. There are many people who have fantastic and well-paying jobs in Nigeria but have had to resign and move abroad due to insecurity. Same way, many business owners have sold off their businesses to relocate abroad.

This is the festive season when people usually love to travel to spend time with family and friends. Unfortunately, many can’t, not because they don’t desire but due to insecurity. They are worried about being kidnapped on the road and can’t afford the astronomical and unprecedented hike in airfares. Many have stopped going to churches and other worship centres due to fear of being killed or abducted by criminal gangs ravaging many communities in the country.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the state of play in our dear country. This is why I am in solidarity with the Nigeria Labour Congress on today’s planned nationwide protest. We have no other country aside from this, and the ruling elite must make it livable for us. Some of us have no intention nor the financial muscle to japa with our families. So, the least we can do is to demand safety and security from our leaders across the three tiers of government. There have been too many promissory notes and rhetoric to fix the challenging security situation in the country.

However, this brings to mind the line in one of Femi Kuti’s songs where he said “so, so talk and no action”. As the popular saying goes, “Action speaks louder than voice.” Nigerians are tired of all motion without movement on insecurity, on which several states of emergency have been declared without much to show in terms of improvement. No matter what President Bola Tinubu may claim to have been his achievements in office as President, if it excludes the security and welfare of citizens, he has failed!

I.G: @jideojong