Follow Us on Google
The tragic attack on Abuja-Kaduna train, which left eight passengers dead, many injured and hundreds of others abducted, clearly underlined the nation’s threatening and intractable insecurity. The death in the Kaduna bound train, the Kaduna Airport incident and the raid of a military base in Kaduna and sundry killings by bandits in the North West region of Nigeria are veritable signs that the federal government is not doing enough to check the rising insecurity across the country.
With almost all our elite military institutions such as the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), One Mechanized Division, Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Army School of Artillery, Kachia, Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, the Nigerian Military School, Zaria, and others located in Kaduna, it is puzzling that Kaduna, our hallowed military fortress is being besieged by terrorists and bandits. No part of the country can really be said to be free from festering insecurity.
For instance, the North East region is the epicenter of Boko Haram insurgency and other terrorists activities; the North West has been under constant attacks by bandits, terrorists or bandit terrorists; the North Central, the famed food basket of the country, is groaning under attacks by killer herdsmen or what government has called clashes between herders and farmers; the South East is suffering from clashes between security agents and unknown gunmen as well as activities of some agitators or freedom fighters; the South South is having the problem of oil bunkering and agitators; and the South West is grappling with kidnappers, killer herdsmen and rampaging killers and ritualists. While some Nigerians believe that the rising insecurity has overwhelmed the federal government, its apologists still have the mouth to blame the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the so-called enemies of the administration for the worsening insecurity. Former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the other day, reportedly stated that the government had been overwhelmed by the growing insecurity following the train attack in Kaduna, the security breach at the Kaduna International Airport and others.
However, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, recently told reporters after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting that the federal government is not overwhelmed by the security challenges ravaging the country. Lai Mohammed is known for his ability to defend the APC government even when it is clear that his defence is porous and cannot be substantiated with facts. But in this case as usual, he goofed. The situation is dire and truly getting out of hands.
Regardless of what the federal government is telling Nigerians about the current state of the nation, there is no denying the fact that all is not well with the country in terms of security and other needs. Nigerians are victims of the present system which has woefully failed to prioritize the welfare of the people and protection lives and property, the main reason government exists in the first place. The federal government should stop living in denial and for once admit that things are getting out of control security-wise.
Even the blind know that insecurity is gradually enveloping the entire country. Instead of continuously living in denial, which has been the custom of this administration; and blaming others for its failure, the government should think out of the box and come up with pragmatic strategies to confront the raging insecurity. This is the time for all politicians, irrespective of party affiliations, to come together and think of how best to rescue Nigeria from being a failed state. Rescuing Nigeria must occupy the minds of those aspiring to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari in May next year when he retires to his farm in Daura, Katsina State.
Before then, there will be peace before elections can hold. With the occupation of some portions of Nigeria by gun-wielding non-state actors, there are fears that the 2023 general election may be seriously threatened if nothing is done now to contain those instigating general insecurity, especially in the North west axis, which has witnessed murderous attacks in recent weeks. Our leaders must stop playing politics with the welfare of Nigerians. They should desist from politicizing security matters. If the country is under siege, the right thing to do is for all to come together and rescue the country. That is exactly what all Nigerians, including the politicians, statesmen should do now. Without adequate security, no sector can thrive and nothing can work in terms of national development.
The growing insecurity is perhaps the major cause of migration of Nigerian professionals to United States, Saudi Arabia, Canada, South Africa and other countries. The unbridled migration is not about medical doctors, nurses and other health professionals, university teachers, due to constant strike by ASUU, have joined the bandwagon. Are those in government aware that many companies are daily divesting from Nigeria and moving to other countries where they are assured of security of their lives and their investments?
‘The casualties,’ a poem written by renowned Nigerian writer, John Pepper Clark, essentially and thematically centred on the aftermath of the Nigerian civil war or what is generally known as the Nigeria/Biafra civil war, it could also refer to the general insecurity facing the entire country in the 21st century world. The poem is so relevant to our situation today that some parts of it are worth quoting in this article. ‘The casualties are not only those who are dead./They are well out of it./ The casualties are not only those who are wounded./Though they await burial by instalment./ The casualties are not only those who have lost property, hard as it is/ The casualties are not only those who started/ A fire and now cannot put it out./ Thousands/ Are burning that had no say in the matter./’
The poem is about the Nigerian civil war tragedy, it is also about the tragedy of a nation that has refused to develop because of its foundational contradictions. It is also about the aborted dreams of our founding fathers. Like the poem revealed, we are all casualties of the inept and unworkable Nigerian skewed federalism. All Nigerians, the leaders and the led, are all victims of our unrealized dreams, aspirations and visions.
As JP Clark aptly captured the scenario during the Nigerian civil war, it is likely that those who started the raging insecurity in the country by their actions and inactions cannot now stop the fire. The monster they created has assumed another nature that is far beyond their control. It is no longer a hidden fact that the country is bleeding from the wounds inflicted on it by those it has neglected. It is not only bleeding, it is bleeding profusely from all sides because the leaders have abdicated their constitutional roles to ensure safety of lives and property in pursuit of self-serving ends.
That is probably why the hitherto neglected, the frustrated, the marginalized, are now taking their pound of flesh on the very country that put them at the margins of the society. For Nigeria to forge ahead in peace and tranquility, the leaders must dialogue with the neglected, the frustrated, the marginalized and indeed the so-called wretched of Nigerian earth. To save the country from the burning inferno, the government must frontally address Nigeria’s foundational contradictions and other issues haunting its future existence. The leaders must honestly right all past wrongs for peace to reign in the polity. Without doing so and doing it so timely, we will all be groping in the dark and postponing the doom’s day.
