As Multi-Dimensional Insecurity Ravages Nigerians

By Adekunle Adekoya

Last week I opined that in terms of security, our dear nation is still at 100 level. To those who know, 100 level, in our clime, is generally used to refer to the first year of study in a university. In other countries, 100 level students, or JAMBites, here, are also called freshmen. Compared with many countries, Nigeria is a fresher in terms of security, and yes, some fellow African countries, lumped together as the Third World. Much of what goes on here is simply not tolerated next door in Benin Republic. 

On a trip to Cotonou a few years ago, I was amazed at how the gendarmes (police) there controlled traffic by merely blowing whistles. I saw, on that trip, how a truck that rammed into a street light pole on the highway was arrested and detained. I was also told that the vehicle will not be released to its owners until they have paid the cost of repairing the damaged street light pole. Here, that happens daily, and government bears the cost. In any case, most of the street light poles don’t give light, so nobody bothers.

Let me add that on our way back, my wife and I boarded motorcycles to bring us to the park where we would get vehicles back to Lagos. I arrived the park earlier. I was worried about the whereabouts of my wife, but the motorcycle union there simply asked the one that brought me the number on the flier that the rider wore. It was given, they looked at their register, got the fellow’s name and phone number. He was called, and about 10 minutes later, arrived with my wife and explained that he had taken another, longer route. That is security! Here, many okada riders are on motorcycles that are not even registered, and the state is not worried about that!

Insecurity takes many forms — food insecurity, which we are going through right now, financial insecurity, which we are also dealing with, internal political insecurity, which is heightened each time we conduct an election, and many other forms of insecurity, which manifest because we have been unable to establish basic security. 

Basic security, in my book, refers to the ability of the state, including the sub-nationals, to impose its will on the governed in a responsible form. In other words, having surrendered individual freedom to the collective, the state must equally discharge its obligations in a way that guarantees sustained freedom from all forms of insecurity to the best of its ability. It’s a two-way traffic. When the citizens default, the state cracks down, using its agencies of coercion, and when it’s the state that defaults, protests, riots, uprisings, and even outright insurrection may manifest.

Right now, Nigerians are contending with multi-dimensional insecurity. Getting food to eat is becoming harder as the prices are rising beyond the level of affordability. Higher petrol prices and flotation of the Naira are the major culprits here, the inevitable outcome in a petro-state run by leaders who seem to have lost their thinking caps when it comes to making life and living a worthwhile undertaking for the vast majority of Nigerians.

Right now in Nigeria, those who don’t have to worry about the harsh effects of policies being pursued by government are either clerics, or politicians. Pastors and mullahs have successfully wired the minds of their congregations, and turned them into money-vomiting automatons. As for the politicians, they have  unfettered access to the exchequer, from which they draw at will, without let or hindrance. The rest of us are merely gnashing our teeth as we struggle to make ends meet daily.

As we remain insecure, Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South) expressed the opinion earlier this week that the military lacks weapons and morale to defeat terrorists. I really wonder! Since we started our experience with Boko Haram and the bandit leaders in the North-West, isn’t it time we adopted another strategy? Sending a formal army after bands of terrorists in ungoverned spaces is a strategy that is not working.

Consider the US. After the 1995 Oklahoma city bombings and the 9/11 bombing attack on the WTC Towers in New York, that country has opted not to wage assymetric warfare against its enemies. Do we hear of units of the US Army, Marines, Navy or Air Force being sent after Al Qaeda, or ISIS? Instead, special commando groups are being used, as in the case of US Navy Seals that took out Osama bin Laden.

I’m sure our armed forces also have special commando groups that can perform similar tasks. A commando unit of say, 12 men, backed with credible intel, will get Bello Turji faster than a motorised brigade advancing in APCs can. It’s time to change strategy and change the narrative, and for all time, end the terror war. It’s so disheartening to read of Air Force squadrons flying sorties to take out terrorists’ camps. There must be less expensive, more efficient ways of dealing with the terror menace.

As I noted in an earlier piece, we play a lot here. Look at the NIN-SIM linkage. Years after government said we must all do this to enhance security, kidnappers are still in business, abducting people, demanding and getting paid ransom using telephone lines. Why did we all go through the NIN-SIM linkage stress if that information is not being used by the security agencies to eliminate kidnappers?

Is there synergy between security agencies and NIMC, and the telcos? If not, why? That we are in this situation lends credence to my assumption that nobody, repeat, NOBODY in government is working for the Nigerian. They are all there for themselves. Pitiable situation, right? That’s where we have found ourselves, and the founding fathers must be turning in their graves, as I’m sure this is not the Nigeria they envisaged. The struggle continues, abi?

*Adekoya is a commentator on public issues