The Roads Not Taken On Insecurity

 By Adekunle Adekoya

If it’s not over, then it’s not over, and therefore we cannot stop talking about it. We cannot, indeed, we must not stop talking about a problem that threatens our very existence. It is trite to restate that as at this time, majority of Nigerians are feeling insecure, what with the news of  killings and kidnappings in various parts of the country continuing to dominate news headlines. Things are so bad, security-wise, that people are getting benumbed by news of killings. If Boko Haram strikes and kills people in Borno now, the reaction of an average Nigerian would probably be: “Na today?”

That reaction means we are used to getting killed by mindless, Luciferous gangs of killers on a blood-sucking mission. They are on repeated missions to kill people and execute other sinister agenda.

Despite repeated assurances, no less than eight (8) vigilante operatives were killed in an ambush by gunmen in Kanam Loval Government Area of Plateau State last week. And that is despite the presence of a military task force, Operation Safe Haven, OPSH, in the state. In fact, it was the spokesman of the task force, one Major Samson Zhakom, that gave information about the ambush to newsmen. That is reactive, if you ask me.

Elsewhere in the country, bandits mounted an attack in Faskari, in Katsina State, while in Rivers State, suspected kidnappers escaped with bullet wounds while the Police rescued the victim. Same story, every day, every week, only the location changes. In some instances, the locations don’t even change, as in the case of Benue and Plateau states. It seems the killers are sworn on a mission to drink the blood of every indigene in these two states, to the last drop.

But what baffles me is the seeming lack of synergy among many institutions of state that have one role or the other to play in the area of security. First, kidnappers. This must be the only country in the world where people are abducted and the kidnappers make calls to the families of their victims, demanding ransom, and yet, the kidnappers go away with their ransom. In many cases, ransom was paid and still, the victims were killed. After making calls demanding ransom, the kidnappers, from where I’m sitting, have given themselves away. But that does not seem to be the case with our security apparatus.

Cast your mind back to the agony all of us went through — and many are still going through it — when government mandated that telephone SIM cards must be registered, complete with biometrics. Thereafter, came the directive that the SIMs must be linked with the owner’s National Identification Number, NIN. Wahala over that is yet to abate. After going through all these, how come kidnappers are able to make calls, demand and get ransom, and still walk free? Let’s leave that for a moment.

The internet is a worldwide enabler that guarantees access to information of all kinds, once you’re connected.  Available for free downloads are scores of phone tracking applications that anyone can use to determine the location of a caller. In addition, there are also applications, like Google Earth that people can use to see, in full technicolour, the location of anywhere on earth. If all these are available to commoners like me and you, I can bet my next paycheck that superior ones are available to specialised security agencies. Is it then a case of deliberate non-use of what is available to achieve what is desired? I just can’t wrap my head round it.

Just as I cannot figure out how and why Kaduna State, with the largest number of military installations and institutions was the epicentre of insecurity occurrences until just recently. If you remember, killings in Kaduna, particularly Southern Kaduna, were the order of the day. There was a permanent bloodbath in that state for years.

But if your housemaid, recently recruited from the village misses her way and you go to the police station nearest to you to report of a missing person, you’re likely to be responded to by the admonition that there’s no paper with which to write the report. And if your complaint needs a police officer to move with you, there may be no fuel in the operational vehicle at the station. With situations like that, how can the security scenario be properly managed to the benefit of Nigeria’s tax-paying citizens?

Last week, I celebrated on this page, the graduation of the first batch of 800 men of the Special Operations Forces in Jaji, Kaduna. I then ended the piece with the hope that we use them properly, like the nations that pioneered them have done to the benefit of their national security. As I noted, we had a military unit named the 72nd Special Forces Battalion, and is a special forces unit of the Nigerian Army, stationed at Makurdi. I do not know how this unit has been deployed to tackle the terror attacks in Benue State, its home.

I also do not know if the unit has been used properly, which is unlikely, and may have led to the conception of a different special operations unit entirely, like the one that just graduated a fortnight ago. Therefore, if we had free Google Earth, and other applications that can be used to battle insecurity and we have not used them, and we had the 72nd Special Forces Battalion, and we did not use them well, there is very little hope that the recently graduated Special Operation Forces will be used well. We’re just going round in circles like someone seated in a barber’s chair. Time to wake up.

*Adekoya is a commentator on public issues