By Ben Okezie
It is a fact that Nigerians worked very assiduously to secure their independence from colonial rule. However, rather than ensuring its safety over the years, they have not taken the issue of security very seriously. Instead, they have forgotten the sacrifices they made before gaining independence.
Since Independence, the rate of criminality has continued to affect every facet of the country; from the government to security agencies and Nigerians as a whole. The people have been very careless with their personal security and that of the country they worked hard to liberate.
Over the years, the country has been subjected to diverse attacks that had wearied its collective energy. The story has been the same with each passing year throwing up its own type of criminality. A time was when burglary was the in-thing. Houses and property were burgled in a whisker and police stations recorded many cases across the country.
As development increased and security was upgraded, criminals delved into car snatching and petty robbery. Fear gripped many members of the public. Then, the military were in charge of government and they re-actively introduced summary execution of convicted armed robbers. Even at that, robberies became the story of the day.
In Lagos, Anambra and Abia states, “Operation Sweep” and ‘’Bakassi Boys’’ were set up respectively to address the rise in armed robbery. Both the people and the police had sleepless nights, as police strategies were sharpened and the government drafted in the military to the streets and highways.
Just as the spate of criminality seemed to abate, the criminals took to ritual killing, as human parts are severed for rituals, and cultism surged in various higher institutions across the country. Again, the increase in population and unemployment opened other windows of crime as desperate politicians went haywire to recruit unemployed youths, arming them and transforming them into political thugs. They killed, maimed and raped innocent women.
This changed the security narrative in the country. It became a veritable trade to illegally import arms into the country. With time, concerned members of the public withdrew their support for the police and the military.
Sequel to this scenario, the Nigerian government later realised its constitutional assignment by kitting the police and increasing its manpower and welfare. All through these years, many innocent lives were wasted and property worth billions of naira lost. The Niger Delta militants later emerged, whose firepower and strategies almost depleted the oil earning capacity of the country.
In their hundreds, they took refuge in the creeks, armed to the teeth, kidnapping and blowing up oil pipeline. Thus, began the era of daylight kidnapping, as retired armed robbers took solace in the new crime. These terrorist increased the criminal terminology in the country. They abducted students, women and old folks while still engaging in conquest mode.
Impressively, the army’s frontal combat paid off and they were decimated. Yet another invasion of the Middle Belt and some states by herdsmen began. This created a massive national uproar and President Muhammadu Buhari summoned all the security chiefs as well as Inspector-General of Police to a crucial emergency security meeting.
Extracting their commitment after the meeting to ensure better security for Nigerians is gladdening. The reassuring answer by Sadiq Abubakar, Chief of Air Staff, is encouraging. He said, “We are to ensure that all hands are on deck. Nigerians, equally, has a role to play by passing relevant intelligence to us”.
The truth is that the security agencies need members of the public and the media to help restore confidence in their work. There is also the need for them to provide necessary information on corrupt persons and criminals in their communities. It is such involvement of members of the public that the security agencies need to heighten their morale. Nigerians should be educated that securing themselves and the country is their right; while securing the country is the constitutional duty of both the government and the security agencies.
The time has come for a new mindset in Nigerians to see the country as their personal project that must be protected at all costs, with the assistance of the security agencies and government at all levels. By so doing, it shall be recorded in history that there was a time when securing Nigeria was the duty of everybody.
