Featured, Politics
The inability of some eminent Nigerians to speak out against the worsening security issues and the crisis of poverty, inequities in various strata of society, unemployment and discriminatory policies of government is a great disservice to the nation and humanity
By Goddy Ikeh
THE worrisome deteriorating security situation in the country is enough for the country to declare a state of emergency on security nationwide. Despite the assurances from the Presidency that the federal government is doing jts best to secure lives and properties of all Nigerians, the results from such efforts are not good enough.
Recently, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, in what looked like the State of Security Situation in the country, said that the Nigeria police arrested 4187 high profile suspects in seven months nationwide. He explained that the number included 1629 armed robbery suspects; 1053 suspected kidnappers; 1023 cultists, and 482 murder suspects.
Adamu said at a conference with senior police officers in Abuja, that 1181 firearms of various descriptions and caliber, including improvised explosive devices, IEDs, and rocket launchers were recovered in various police operations across the country within the same period.
He also said that 389 stolen vehicles were recovered from criminal elements, while 506 kidnapped victims were safely rescued.
For sure, the picture painted by the police boss does not show that this is not an era of peace and stability in the country.
However, the IGP sees the foregoing as achievements and indicative of the fact that the trust gap between the police and the citizens has been narrowed such that the communities are now demonstrating impressive commitment towards partnering with the police in presenting a common front against criminal elements.
“It is also suggestive of the fact that the institutional capability of the police to undertake specialised operations, take the anti-crime war to the camps and other safe havens of high-profile criminals, and respond to any scene of violent crime has also been significantly boosted. Above all, the achievements are indicative of the effectiveness of the Operation Puff Adder and other strategies emplaced by the Nigeria Police to address prevalent crimes in the country,” he said.
Adamu, however, alluded to the fact that the nation is moving closer to the adoption of community policing.
“In order to sustain these gains, we have commenced the process of implementing the Community Policing concept which involves the engagement of citizens in identifying and prioritizing prevalent communal security threats as they affect their localities, and working together with the police towards developing and implementing solutions to the identified threats,” Adamu told the conference.
Unfortunately, some Nigerians still engage in self-denial and deception and employ all kinds of strategies to distract the government from facing the obvious security challenges facing the country. They organize all kinds of groups and delegations to Aso Rock to congratulate the president for his success in the presidential election, 60 or more days after he was sworn in and praise him for his numerous achievements, including securing the country from the dreaded and decimated Boko Haram and the nation’s economy. What an irony in a country, which is at the crossroad due to worsening security situation and troubling economy.
Worried by the state of affairs and the apparent failure of the security agencies to protect lives and property in the country, some states have decided to collaborate along the former regional arrangements to set up a security architecture for their regions.
Already, the South East Governors’ Forum has resolved to set up a common security committee to tackle security challenges in the region with the integrated security monitoring/intelligence gathering centre to be centrally located in Enugu.
The forum in a communiqué at the end of its meeting held on Sunday, July 28, at the Government House, Enugu, reiterated its earlier stance that there is no land in South East for RUGA settlement programme, pointing out that the security committee will also address the safety of fuel pipeline route to Enugu Depot to ensure resumption of pumping of petroleum products in Enugu depot.
It also agreed to key into the federal government’s community policing programme. “We will establish forest guards in each state and roads cleared up to 50 meters into the bush to have a clear view of roads ahead,” it said.
In the same vein, the Southwest states have said that they plan to begin joint security patrol. The Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, disclosed the plans for the joint patrol of Southwest states by security operatives under the aegis of Operation Rapid Response Squad to tame the insecurity in the region.
Fayemi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, said that he had been midwifing series of meetings across the country and Southeast in particular on the need to have a joint security network that would stamp out criminals from the zone.
The governor, who spoke recently on the Ekiti State radio/television programme tagged ‘Meet your Governor’, said: “Very soon, our people in the Southwest will be seeing leopard branded patrol vehicles of the RRS.
“This is a modern security outfit that will be operating in Ekiti and other Southwest states. They are to work hand-in-hand to ward off any form of security threat.
“The governors, traditional rulers and other stakeholders are meeting across the Southwest and we are taking steps to ensure that our people are safe to do their businesses without fear of being killed or kidnapped,” he said.
In addition the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has said that an arrangement is being made to deploy drones and CCTVs to boost security of lives and properties in the South West.
The Ooni told State House correspondents after leading other traditional rulers from the South West for a meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja that the President had agreed to fast-track the monitoring of the forests in the region with the use of technology like drones and that the CCTV would be mounted along highways in the region.
The decision of the governors of the South East and the South West to set up regional security architecture is a clear testimony that the current federal police structure in the country is grossly inadequate to secure the country.
Aside from setting up community and state policing, there is an urgent need to rescue the country from the brink of discord, mistrust and break up. It is in this light that every well-meaning Nigerian should welcome any effort at tackling these national issues without fear of being branded unpatriotic elements.
For instance, the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, used the platform of the Abdulsalami Abubakar Institute for Peace and Sustainable Development Studies to invite about 70 people to Maizube Farms, Minna, Niger State, for a Roundtable on National and Security Issues for Political Stability from 29th – 30th July. The Roundtable was to deliberate on the way out of the current Nigerian situation.
Although, the apex Igbo organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo shunned the roundtable on insecurity in Nigeria, it did state that the group and other sociocultural organizations like Pandef, Afenifere and Middle Belt Forum were lumped together with Miyetti Allah and killer herdsmen.
The group said in a statement by its deputy publicity secretary that: “We are not against Gen Abubakar’s move to end the insecurity in Nigeria but proper things should be done properly.
“Apex socio-cultural groups in the country should not be expected to be in the same pedestal with Association of Cattle breeders. Miyetti Allah should have a roundtable with fishers, farmers, goat breeders, poultry farmers and artisans, who are in same category with them.”
However, the report of the roundtable by Babafemi A. Badejo, disclosed that the issue of herdsmen and farmers got eloquently put on the table by a leader of one of the many cattle associations associated with Fulanis, who claimed to know so much about many things, including movements of weapons from Libya through the Sahel into the hands of herders in Nigeria,“curiously justified the herders having the weapons because it is a reaction to a persecution complex they face in Nigeria”.
“He literally threatened the rest of us that if we don’t allow the herders to continue to move their cattle as they have been doing over the ages, then they would most likely join the Islamic State, West African Province against their father land,” the report said.
The report added that for a change to this life style, “he called for billions of dollars of support, a livestock ministry, (I praised him for at least not asking for cow ministry), paid training visits for herders to many countries etc and gradual process of change over the next 15 years during which period, the current arrangement needs to continue, etc”.
The reactions of any the groups that shunned the roundtable to this contribution of the herders group can only be better imagined.
Despite the unfortunate position of the herders group, Badejo no doubt praised the contributions of the other eminent persons at the roundtable. “The meeting was well worth it. We need more elders who will follow the example of General Abdulsalami Abubakar to fund dialogue meant to help us resolve the differences among nationalities. Kidnappings are showing that even the rich can cry since they cannot fortify all members of their families and most Nigerian cities do not have airports/airstrips for their respective private jets,” Badejo said.
It is, however, disappointing that some prominent Nigerians have maintained their silence in the face of this worrisome security situation in the country, while some others have gladly joined the group of praise singers who cannot see anything wrong in the way the country is being governed, even in the face of what Prof. Ango Abdullahi described at the roundtable as “crisis of poverty, inequities in various strata of society, unemployment, discriminatory policies of government”.
– Aug. 3, 2019 @ 21:21 GMT |
Tags: Insecurity: States collaborating to secure their regions
