Agenda Papers Editorial: When Will Federal Government be serious about fighting insecurity & end these senseless killings— By Austine Uche-Ejeke

In the last two weeks the governors of Plateau and Benue states have come out on national television to state that bandits who attacked and killed Nigerians in their states have taken over and are now residing in those communities.

This called for serious concerns by a government who is serious and determined about stamping out insecurity in the country. Plateau state governor Mutfwang said over 60 communities have been taken over by these bandits.

Also in about a fortnight more than 100 lives have been killed in Plateau and over 80 in Benue state.

The question is what should a serious government do in these two alleged cases. Without employing rocket science what a sincere government should have done is to mobilize and go to the mentioned communities, round up those people, call a world press conference and let the captured tell the whole world where they come from and who are their sponsors.

But no this cannot happen in Nigeria rather we saw a supposed National security adviser Nuhu Ribadu coming on national to recite same old stories that insecurity is not only peculiar to Nigeria but a global phenomenon citing countries where bandits wreck havoc. But what Ribadu failed to tell us are the countries that are dealing decisively with these bandits and sending them to early graves, closing out their sponsors and sources of funds. He refused to mention Ghana and other West African countries where their leaders have continued to stamp out banditry and terrorism.

As at last count over 578 Nigerians have been killed in only North Central in the past six months and the figures keep on rising on daily basis without any adequate actions by government to see that this is stopped.

Just last month Borno state governor Professor Zulum raised alarm that Boko Haram has taken over some local government areas and are steadily encroaching on other parts of the state. What did the government do they hushed the governor up, accusing him of raising false alarms. Yet there are ongoing insurgency and killings in same Borno on regular basis after the governor pronouncement.

It is in this country that a whole retired general and former director general of NYSC was abducted in his home state Katsina state. It took the coming together of his friends, associates, family members to float a Whatsapp group where over N100 million was raised to pay for ransom and procure his release. In the same vein ECWA church just reported that they have paid a whooping N300 million in ransom to secure the release of their church members abducted.

The kind of lip service that the federal government is paying to issues is worrisome and may consume the country if care is not taken. The partiality and favouritism is not doing the country any good and may boomerang very soon. The government should treat all states, regions and citizens the same way and not apply differential treatment to some people.This is the only way to stamp out this menace.

Just imagine the situation where we have over 100 check points of both military, police and other security agencies from Onitsha in Anambra state to Aba in Abia state that has made people to wonder if the region is under siege or at war to warrant such numbers of military men on their roads and communities. What do these security operatives do in the region if not to harass, humiliate ,intimidate and extort motorists and people even at gun point.

These are the army that are supposed to be sent to Zamfara, Borno, Benue, Nassarawa, Niger, Benue states where we have serious cases of insecurity and killings virtually on a daily basis.

If what is happening in the North Central and North East is happening in South East and South South this same government would have dispatched various operations crocodile and operation python snake dance to the regions to harass and make life miserable for the innocent and hapless residents of the region. But take a decisive action on this No, the government will not do as this same bandits and terrorists are spreading down to Edo, Enugu, Delta Ebonyi and other states in the South and leaving killings and destructions in their trail.

The government is busy declaring state of emergency and suspending duly elected governor in Rivers state that is peaceful but has left troubled states where bandits and terrorists are having field days killing Nigerians and destroying properties.

The other thing that this government is preoccupied with s cajoling and winning political opponents to the ruling party, doing all manner of permutations for the 2027 general elections. What an absurdity and insensitivity as this government does not know that it is only a peaceful and united country that will organize an election. If the government does not tackle the issue of the insecurity and allow it to fester it is only God that knows what the projected 2027 will be.

The time is now for the government to divest itself of all manner of hypocrisy, favouritism and lukewarmness and boldly face the issue of insecurity as it is getting out of hand.

Nigerians cannot continue to be slaughtered on daily basis like fowls while government does next to nothing or even play politics with it. The number one cardinal responsibility of government is to provide security and protect lives and properties of the citizens. If government fails in this regard then they have lost legitimacy and relevance. The citizens will not have any other option but to take laws into their hands and defend themselves. TY Danjuma and other well meaning Nigerians have started advocating for this. It may not be the best approach as an enraged citizen can attack a government who failed to protect them and that will amount to anarchy and total break down of law and order.

The time bomb is ticking and if this government will borrow sense this is the best time for them to act and see that Nigeria is not consumed in this insecurity occasioned by bandits, terrorists,Boko Haram, kidnappers.

*Austine Uche-Ejeke a public affairs analyst and publisher of Agenda Papers wrote vide eaustineuche@yahoo.com