By Emeka Alex Duru
In 2016, the United States (US) and United Nations (UN), issued two frightening advisories to their citizens and officials in Nigeria.
In one of the alerts, US listed 20 of the 36 states in the country as unsafe and asked its nationals to stay away from them.
Borno, Adamawa and Yobe topped the list and were categorised as no-go areas. Bauchi, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, and Zamfara, could only be visited if only the need was compelling, the US Department of States, warned.
Rising state of insecurity and crime in the country were reasons for the advice.
UN also raised alarm on the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in Nigeria, stressing that over 350 million of estimated 500 million of such weapons circulating in the West African sub-region were domiciled in the country.
The illegal weapons, UN noted, had found their way into unauthorised hands and non-state actors thus constituting huge threats to the existence of the country and the people.
Five years after the alerts, the situation has not changed. It has rather worsened. In fact, to state that Nigeria’s current security profile is piteous, is perhaps, an understatement. It is literally flat on its back, offering uncertain hopes in the immediate future.
It is not that the security situation has been cheering at any particular stretch of time since the Boko Haram Islamic fundamentalist group launched its murderous campaigns on the nation 12 years ago. But the regularity and rapidity of attacks on citizens and communities by various armed gangs in recent time, have further exposed the country’s porous security arrangement.
We are all victims in many ways.
There is hardly any part of the country that is not experiencing one variant of strife or another. The insurgents still rattle the North East, with occasional incursions in the North West. Fulani herdsmen and bandits are drawing blood and destroying properties in the North Central.
Kidnappers, unknown gunmen and rabid self-determination groups, are killing businesses and making life difficult for residents in the larger South. The South East, in particular, is becoming a slaughter slab.
So, the recent incident in Jos, Plateau State, where gunmen attacked a convoy of buses conveying people from Bauchi and killed 22, fits into the regime of insecurity unsettling the country.
Bad as the situation is, we are gradually becoming a people inured to the sight of blood. It is only the volume that may make the difference, now. We seem headed for Kigali, Rwanda, in the worst of its times.
Before the Jos killings, other parts of the country had had reasons to mourn. Last Monday, four workers of an oil services company were confirmed dead after gunmen ambushed them in the Assa community in Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State. The victims were on transit when the hoodlums swooped on them.
In the same Imo, two police officers were reportedly killed by armed men on Friday, August 13. Within the same period, bandits slaughtered nine persons in Bejingo, Dantudu, and Tulutu villages in Birjin ward, Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
The sad story from Sokoto coincided with reports of abducted villagers of Buruku and Udawa in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State killed by bandits. Earlier in the month, Kaduna State Government had confirmed the death of 25 persons in attacks in four communities of Kauru Local Government Area of the state.
On Sunday, May 30, attacks by suspected herdsmen in the boundary area of Ebonyi/Benue, left over 30 Ebonyi indigenes dead. Other states, have also had reasons to lament loss of loved ones in the hands of criminals.
But what has remained amazing is the attitude of the government in the situation. Aside deployment of the military in addressing the crises, not much has been done in terms of comprehensive and enduring strategy to curb the menace.
Security operatives and senior government agents may humour themselves with the joke of being on top of the situation but Nigerians know that the hoodlums and criminals clearly have upper hands. The current effort at addressing the situation is more of knee-jerk operation or to borrow a popular street lingo, fire brigade approach. Much still has to be done to restore sanity in the land.
The first step in this regard, is a radical departure from the culture of delusion and self-righteousness that has characterised the President Muhammadu Buhari administration since its inception. It is time to face the realities on ground. This house is falling. It won’t be a bad idea for the government to reach out to experts outside its circle on how to win the obvious war.
There are compelling reasons why the President must climb down from his high horse to address the burning issues that are forcefully razing the fabric of the nation. Governance is about the welfare and security of the people.
At the inauguration of his administration on May 29, 2015, Nigeria’s rating in the comity of nations was an all-time high. In the mood of the day, the President was courted by various world leaders and invited over, with wish-lists. It is no longer so. The country is now being mentioned in scorn.
For the very same Nigeria that was celebrated six years ago to be sullied with the tag of insecurity to the point of being ranked alongside Iraq and Afghanistan as the World’s most terrorised states, shows the level we have plummeted in international reckoning.
A startling report by an international rights organisation, Global Rights Nigeria, released in May, indicated that 1, 603 Nigerians were killed in the first quarter of 2021. The research covered killings that took place between January and March.
Banditry claimed 906 lives of the lot, making it the highest cause of anguish in the country. It was followed by Boko Haram attacks which claimed 207 lives. Kidnapping recorded 1, 774 abductees within the period under review.
Another group, Nigeria Mourns, had earlier put the number of people that lost their lives to violence and related factors between January and December 2019, at 3188. These are conservative figures, no doubt. But they point to the level we have slid in barbarism.
Of course, the impacts are severe, as shown in massive capital flight and sharp drop in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Central Bank (CBN), has dropped to its lowest level in over 11 years, crashing to $77.97 million in Q2 2021, compared to $154.76 million and $148.59 million recorded in the previous quarter and Q2 2020 respectively.
There are other frightening statistics elsewhere. No nation survives on this curve. Something has to be done to reverse the trend. It is good that Buhari has pledged that he would not leave office a failure. That is quite encouraging, ordinarily. He has less than two years to do so, if only to redeem the battered image of his administration. Nigerians should hold him by his words.
• Duru is the Editor, TheNiche Newspapers, Lagos (08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)