Nigeria's Insecurity: The Architects Holds The Solution

The daily reports of Insecurity across Nigeria, no doubt, creates a pang of panic in the hearts of even the bravest of men. Every well meaning Nigerian is perturbed by the daily reports of kidnappings, arsons, banditry and gruesome killings, that now appears routine. We are on a precipice as a nation, no doubt. 

While the cause of these nerve-racking wanton destruction of lives and properties could be said to be multifaceted in nature, a fundamental cause in my humble estimation, is the dereliction of duty by our security operatives. 

Though saddled with the responsibility of maintaining law and order, our security  agencies have chosen not to live up to their responsibilities. It is a choice a vast majority of them made for filthy lucre sake. They are either tied to the apron strings of politicians or are working in cahoots with criminal elements. 

The humongous cache of arms in the hands of all the criminal elements in the country, were successfully smuggled into the country because those who should have intercepted the arms at the Nation’s points of entry were compromised. 

When you travel round the country, by road especially, you come across roadblocks, erected for the sole purpose of raising money for some “Ogas at the top” seated in the office. Of course, the officers sent to stand under the scorching sun to collect “kola" from motorists are audacious in their nefarious act of extorting motorists because they make remittances to their bosses in the office. Grease their palms at checkpoints with some rumpled naira notes, and you are given access without scrutiny, not minding whether your car trunk is ladened with arms or human parts.  

Our security forces are easy targets of criminal elements today, because those responsible for arming them, chose rather to divert into private pockets, funds budgeted for arms procurement. When face to face with these criminal elements, they are subdued,  because of the sophistry of  firepower at the disposal of the criminals. As sad as I feel whenever I hear tales of our military men running away from criminal elements, I can’t blame them. They are not the biblical David who confronted a giant with a sling and emerged victorious. 

Those whose responsibility it is to lead the charge against criminal elements, have sadly turned into merchants of death. They don’t give a hoot about how many of their men are fell by criminal elements. They smile to the bank and have choice properties scattered around the world at the detriment of all of us. 

While it is no secret that politicians are also culpable in the proliferation of firearms, the truth remains that if our security agencies were living up to their responsibilities, the politicians won’t succeed in arming thugs for electioneering purposes.  

For me, the architect of our current quagmire, are the security agencies, whose personnel are busy engaging in unethical practices that has since become a norm. Today, they are not spared by the monster they nurtured and bred. We are all at the mercy of criminal elements. 

At this point, I have to also admit that there are decent men and women in all the security agencies, who are  helpless about the malfeasance going on around them. The forces of evil are overwhelmingly in the majority, that’s the sad reality. Until our security agencies adhere strictly to their constitutionally assigned duties, from top to bottom, we would continue to live at the mercy of criminal elements. 

©J-AY-O

29:04:2021