We nurture and promote insecurity

Last week we dealt with the need for State Police. It may have been about the sixth time we discussed the same issue. The reason is so obvious to warrant a repetition here again. We must be concerned why we have expanded so much to curb the menace, but the results are nothing to cheer about.

The question of insecurity has remained cardinal for us for 20 years running. It is still the biggest matter threatening the people and our sovereignty. Without security the talk of development is balderdash. Three weeks ago President Tinubu while playing host to two delegations from the North East and North West or to be very clear, Katsina and Bornu states, two centres of very high insecurity in the country, disclosed that politics has beclouded search for endurable solutions to the challenge of insecurity.

He said it was one of the reasons we have not had State Police in place. Shouldn’t it be intriguing that a President whose party has the majority in both chambers of the National Assembly is unable to have his noble desires and policies turned into law very quickly?

The question of multi-layer security isn’t new in the country. It was part of the few very contentious matters agreed on before independence. The agreement was that we run a federal system with state police as a component. This was in place until the military, pandering to narrow interest, dissolved the arrangement and replaced it with a centralized unit security arrangement. It has not worked and if history is a rich guide it won’t work.

The country is large and deeply pluralistic. Good security from experiences elsewhere is a local affair beginning from estate, community, to corporate and the state and federal. People who live together know themselves, their peculiarities and factors that drive certain behavior and deviancy. The stranger may see the surface without adequate knowledge of what the undercurrents are.

The arguments have been abuses, the answer to possible abuse isn’t abandonment. What may be required is to put on our thinking caps, sit down and envisage possible scenarios and try to put up legislations couched in a way that captures the foreseeable future. This is the right path to take.

If we anticipate that differential layers of policing would be used for personal and/or political purposes, a simple matter to deal with, let the law state the jurisdictions, and the board to supervise them. Truth is that  many areas of the country are left un-policed. In many locations across the country there’s hardly a police or policing presence.

Like we said earlier one of the constraining forces is politics. The old regions still hold different perspectives see of this matter and it is becoming a source of big trouble on its own. Appropriate branding of the felons disturbing our peace, something as easy as the task has been very difficult to execute in our fight against terror. Some make out issues when we say we are fighting terrorists, they would prefer we call them bandits. What is in a name after all? It must be recognised that appropriate diagnosis would determine the right treatment. We are yet to agree with this assessment as you read this.

When President Bola Tinubu says politics has become an obstacle he sure does know what he is talking about. There was a time in the fight against insecurity when highly placed leaders mainly from the core North accused President Goodluck Jonathan of killing northerners. Recent recounts have since proven those who ran with the position did the country a big disservice.

Location

The divergence in perspective has affected the way or manner our country would have fought the scourge and ensured its defeat long ago. The intelligence gathering isn’t penetrating enough, we have not seen clear target identification. Americans, Russians and Israel know exactly where the enemies are and what they do per time. They know who the sponsors are.  They can tell with exactitude the camp arrangements and weaponry available to enemies of their respective countries. They go for them.

In our case no one, not even the government as told us why terrorism and the general climate of insecurity is on the increase , arrests are being made in some instances yet the citizens have not been told who the felons are, what their objectives are and who their sponsors are.

 It is only in our case that criminals would attack the country with arms, kill and maim victims, and yet such criminals are caught they do face the full weight of the law. Instead, they get a pat on the back and are taken to well made centres, given first class treatment and told they are into a reform process. We are yet to see any other country that walks this path of infamy.

Just last week we saw acts in the management of insecurity which go a long way to enhance segregation. In Katsina State a wanted high flyer criminal was hosted alongside his gang members to a well organized ceremony by the state government, where they were made to denounce crimes and to receive state pardon. In the South East another group of people of similar disposition were hunted and many despatched to the world beyond.

In other instances, others arrested have been let off the hook while others face trial for upwards of five years. Others have been arrested and taken to comfortable camps, fed well and made to denounce crimes. It is said some of these were even recruited into the national security systems, army and police inclusive. No country that wants peace and stability does things this way.

The laws in the first instance must not be vague. If it is terrorism and that is what it should be regardless of who is involved. Laws must be sacrosanct, not respecters of persons, their status in society notwithstanding. The question of selective application of sanctions shouldn’t be contemplated at all but it is happening. It is inconceivable that criminals of over hundred persons can move in and out of a location, commit heinous atrocities without dictation by the security architecture. This is a story not worth telling at alll.

We have seen examples showing we can discover enemies of the country with ease and possess capacity to deal with them very quickly. If we have taken to this path perhaps our story, security-wise, would have been a lesson for the world to come pick a few things. Unfortunately this is not the case.

Next week we would look at what bastardization of our security architecture, high population, eternal influence among others have done to promote insecurity. You will hear downturn in the economy isn’t exactly the reason felons are giving the rest of us serious concerns.

Happy NEW WEEK TO YOU ALL.