Recent events after the controversial Nigerian Governors Forum election have both exposed the growing development of the democratic credentials of some governors and the seeming lackluster moral conditions of some. The elections have to a larger extent br

My initial response to the story was disbelief because in the recent history of this nation, I hardly could remember any such episode where more than fifty security officials were, while on any mission to apprehend or maintain law and order were so brutally dealt with as was the case in Alakyo, a village just […]

My initial response to the story was disbelief because in the recent history of this nation, I hardly could remember any such episode where more than fifty security officials were, while on any mission to apprehend or maintain law and order were so brutally dealt with as was the case in Alakyo, a village just outside Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa State.
My initial response to the episode when the story broke out was total disbelief but as the reality began to face us straight, the extent of pains and anger were only reflective of the reality of the fast denudation that the concept and reality of power and authority were assuming in Nigeria.
I have in the last twenty years or so that I took to writing in public medium, one word that I hated relaying but was all along gradually coming to pass in Nigeria was a failed state.
Eve Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, the early philosophers who spoke in details about the state of nature and social contract theory came from the background of the realities of their times when the level of human civilization was relatively very low. It was clear that these were intended at building effective socio economic and political systems that would guarantee the sanctity of life and ensure uninterrupted human activity.
In our country for sometimes now, the degeneration to anarchy has been unprecedented. Nigerians are used to wake up every morning with news of one form of mass killing by either one community against the other or often spontaneity that in the ordinary defied wisdom. What we are not used to rather was to wake up in the morning and hear that a detachment of armed lawful officers of state were ambushed by youths and killed in their tens in the line of duty.
As Mahmud Jega rightly captured in his column of Monday, the Nasarawa massacre of more than fifty police men was so tragic that it outnumbered the number of all soldiers killed in similar communal attacks on law enfacement agents from Odi to Zaki Biam to Baga in Borno State.
What then is the problem? Could it said that the authority of Nigerian state is gradually being eroded or that people are so hopeless and militantly determined to return the society to the state of nature where life is short, nasty and brutish? Or put simply, the literary village democracy in Ibo land here the strongest takes the decision on behalf of all?
Whatever the case may be, certain facts are clear and must be dealt with very decisively if the nation is to know peace. Arbitrariness of elites and the indiscipline of the youths which is anchored on the very hopeless conditions that they find themselves in must be addressed as a matter of national urgency.
In the process of doing that, youths that are involved in such a tragedy must not be spared under whatever circumstance and elites who try to cover up, legitimize or scavenge for excuses to justify such a crime against the state and the nation must be dealt with decisively otherwise the nation is in great trouble.
Looking at the events in Alakyo one thing that immediately comes to mind is the nature of the nation’s law enforcement agencies. On the one hand we are faced with an army that is a monster that kills and without recourse to any rules of engagements at times of crisis, and on the other, a police force that has been badly weakened by the political authorities of the state.
I believe that if the Nigerian Police Force was getting the right attention from the political authorities, the mayhem in Alakyo which saw the summary execution of these men in a fashion that seemed defenseless wouldn’t have occurred. Again, taking a cue from a position often canvassed by Mahmud Jega especially after the BAMA attack by the book haram insurgents a few weeks ago where police barracks was run down by the suspected elements, but resisted stoutly by the soldiers when the insurgents attacked their barracks. The lesson here is to say the least, the police aren’t given the necessary atmosphere to training as much as the soldier in peace time this is an abnormality which must be corrected if the nation is to move forward.
To those who attribute political meaning to the Nasarawa massacre, that is not the central issue in this piece. We are concerned more about how to bring those who are responsible for this crime to book and immediately too and also urge those who matter to take a look at the situation of the Nigerian police with a view to improving on its capacity so that we are all secured without having to bring soldiers to our houses in the event of any minor friction.
The police must also be sufficiently equipped and trained to not only defend the law abiding citizens but also to defend itself against such a barbarism as the one we saw in Alakyo. We are of the view that action appropriate must be taken and as soon as possible to bring those responsible for this crime to justice.
To those who desire to be crude by either trying to blame the political authorities for wanting to tame what in their best judgment was a growing monster and the police who acted lawfully in discharging their responsibilities, I say shame on to them for playing trivial with a very important matter.
If all communities that are aggrieved were to behave in the manner the Eggon youths did, Nigeria would become ungovernable. Despite the obvious challenges facing the police and their public image, the reality is that government must begin to reprioritize and ensure that the police is adequately taken care of so that it may protect the nation and its people at peace time.
We condemn in its entirety the abuse against the force n Nasarawa state. It is a national shame that Nigerians can at this time and hour behave in that manner.

This column was mistakenly published under Prof Brainy’s name last week. It was written by Dr Kabir Mato. The error is regretted – Ag Editot