Should Nigerians resort to self defence?
As Nigeria`s security has unraveled, throwing open the floodgates for bandits and terrorists to run amok slaughtering innocent Nigerians; many have confronted difficult questions about the citizenship of the country and whether what little patriotism they have left amounts to anything. The carnage has been ceaselessly terrifying: farmers go to their farms and are […]
As Nigeria`s security has unraveled, throwing open the floodgates for bandits and terrorists to run amok slaughtering innocent Nigerians; many have confronted difficult questions about the citizenship of the country and whether what little patriotism they have left amounts to anything.
The carnage has been ceaselessly terrifying: farmers go to their farms and are savagely beheaded; entire families are hacked to death while they sleep; security compounds are overrun and hapless soldiers slaughtered and abducted.
As the foot soldiers of death and destruction have overrun vulnerable communities leaving indelible scars, the response of the government at all levels has been at best reactionary and at worst nonchalant.
Schools are attacked and examination candidates abducted before those responsible know to post security around the premises; children and their parents are hacked to death in their sleep before the decision is taken to provide all round security; passengers are routinely abducted never to be seen again before the government knows to belatedly secure roads.
So, the criminals who are fast turning Nigeria into one elaborate crime fest have enough time to chillingly conceive their plans and cunningly set them in motion.
Nigerians feels particularly defenseless as those trained to defend them are hard-pressed.
Into the conversation about how to find security again have come contentious questions about self- defence. In the face of approaching death and grave bodily harm, to fold one`s hands and do nothing is unfathomable cowardice. So there are growing calls for Nigerians to exercise the right to defend themselves from those who mindlessly lay waste to lives and livelihoods.
Self-defence does not work by magic and it necessarily would involve some form of arms to repel the relentless fire of the deadly terrorists and bandits. It would mean a proliferation of arms in unaccountable hands. It would mean more gunfire when all the country needs to regain its sanity and stability is less gunfire. It would mean more casualties. But it may also enable communities paralyzed by fear take their own destinies into their hands and rout those who are determined to annihilate them.
Kenechukwu Obiezu writes from Abuja