Thief of our safety, cause of our insecurity

I go to bed depressed about Nigerian life challenges. Not of what to wear, what to eat, or where to lay my head, which sadly are the challenges of a greater many. I wake up, not to the cheer of the morning sun invading my privacy, but to more depression of the worsening situation of […]

I go to bed depressed about Nigerian life challenges. Not of what to wear, what to eat, or where to lay my head, which sadly are the challenges of a greater many. I wake up, not to the cheer of the morning sun invading my privacy, but to more depression of the worsening situation of safety in Nigeria, trending on television, radio, and social media. Without safety, no one can hustle about to meet all those other challenges.

We were scornful of the Igbo when the FBI list of arrests made of Nigerians involved in advance fee fraud and internet scams surfaced. Then it turned on the Yoruba when a disputed list of convicted drug couriers on death row in Saudi Arabia surfaced. The Hausa Fulani had hitherto alone basked in the infamy of killer herdsmen, bandits, and kidnappers. Of course you are depressed that most Nigerians are seen as crooks worldwide unless they prove otherwise. Then you watch on television, Nigerians being chased from street to street in South Africa and killed, with their shops razed to the ground. As I write this piece, Nigerian officials have summoned the South African High Commissioner for a dressing down, with little hope that the xenophobic attacks against particularly Nigerians would abate. I think the Nigeria should take the more extreme step to send the High Commissioner home and recall ours. All Nigerians resident in South Africa should return home. I am sounding empty on this because Nigeria is in a no win situation globally. We are there in South Africa. South Africans are not here in Nigeria. Nigerian business in South Africa is individualistic and petty. In Nigeria, only corporate South Africa is here with Nigerian partnership, engaging local labour, and, making greater profit for South Africans. There are no local South African shops here to burn in retaliation. Yet Nigeria must act decisively, unless we are weakened by the fact that we are ourselves killing one another here.

Brings me back to the issue of stolen safety. This past week alone, bandits on Kaduna-Abuja highway lived up to their notoriety, blocking the highway in broad daylight and taking hostage, scores of unsuspecting travelers. The video showing security aids to former Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, firing live bullets to scare away the hoodlums and open the highway to normalcy was a disheartening watch. The kidnappers made away with many victims. These included three final year law students of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. Another heartrending video emerged of their release after prompt payment of a negotiated ransom. No parent who watches the trending video of the reunion of the students with the family of one of them can hold back tears. On Kaduna Zaria road, also in broad daylight a Kaduna Legislator was kidnapped, and likewise, his family delivered ransom money to get him back.

A trip on the Kaduna – Abuja highway is a perilous journey taken heart in mouth because anything can happen. The gun wielding bandits emerge abruptly from the bushes, shooting directly at passing vehicles until the traffic stops, they then the rob and kidnap, while the surviving wounded bleed over the dead. This can happen anywhere. The Nation is in agony.

The safe railway has become the favourite for commuting between Kaduna and Abuja. Though intended to be a luxury mass transport facility, all you hear is always, sad stories of woe when users speak of their experience. With an ever growing frustrating long queues at the ticket windows of Idu in Abuja, and Rigasa in Kaduna, ticket rackets have appeared. Staff are involved and it is out of the control of the Ministry of Transport currently supervising the train service. It is to these staff that Transport Minister Chibuike Amaechi announced that travel tickets are free, an error that part saw to the collapse of the defunct Nigeria Airways. In the same old fashion, touts bulk-buy tickets and resell standing room at full price. It is a struggle to board the  overcrowded coaches. This week, undenied reports have the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and his men, as well as a host of senior military officers, ministers and legislators traveling that route in dedicated coaches. This was reportedly in the full glare of passengers livid with anger that the overcrowded trains were delayed for more than two hours, ostensibly held up by the VIPs. It was a crying shame that signified our helplessness over the security situation of the Abuja Kaduna highway.

The Nigerian Government itself has revealed that in the last seven months, about 330 attacks by bandits and 1,460 deaths were recorded in the country. The French Institute for Research in Africa, IFRA, has said that no fewer than 10,665 Nigerians died from herdsmen clashes, banditry, Boko Haram conflict, cultism and other violence across the country. This is added to our daily pressure from kidnappers.

You would think these dreadful happenings affect the conscience of the people who rule over the affairs of the nation. If so, it is a surprise that no word has been heard from the President, who was away in Japan while this was going on. The people’s’ elected in the National Assembly have no change of narrative, set as the 109 Senators are, to receive payments of N50m each for the purchase of their official SUVs. The common folk imagine that at N30,000 per month, N50m would guarantee 138 unemployed persons (could include would-be kidnappers) of emoluments for one whole year. The total would guarantee the paid jobs to 417 persons in each State, thus 15,042 nationwide. There is a narrative of our corruption that I had hoped the election of President Muhammadu Buhari would address, this being the legislated theft of public funds by both the Executive and the Legislature typified by this SUV purchase and the profligate lifestyle of elected politicians. It is the thief of our safety and the source of our insecurity.