INSECURITY: Home War In
Insecurity in Nigeria is a recurring phenomenon that threatens the well-being of its citizens.
By: Hassana Abdulmanaf Yunusa
The issue of insecurity in Nigeria has become something of grave concern to all well-meaning citizens, most of whom continue to wonder how the country arrived at such a dastardly situation where no one is safe; and worse still, rather than abate, the problem is escalating and now totally out of control. Insecurity in Nigeria is a recurring phenomenon that threatens the well-being of its citizens.
The south-west of Nigeria is plagued by a surge in cybercrime, armed robbery, kidnapping, domestic crime, extrajudicial killings, herder-farmer conflicts, ritual killings, and banditry.
The south-east is a haven for ritual killings, commercial crime, secessionist agitation, kidnapping, herder-farmer clashes, attacks by unknown gunmen, and banditry.
The south-south remains threatened by militancy, kidnapping, and environmental agitation.
The north-east has been subject to a humanitarian crisis lasting over a decade and caused by the Boko Haram insurgency and the Islamic State in West Africa Province. Meanwhile, the north-west is enmeshed in illegal mining, ethnoreligious killings, and banditry. It is, therefore, that insecurity in Nigeria has assumed a soft spot in political stance and that it has claimed thousands of lives and extensive damage and loss of property.
Where did it all start?
Since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, the corrupt system has birthed the situation we have ranging from the 1963 crisis to the military coups. The 1966 coup is unarguably the ugly cornerstone for the insecurity experienced today in Nigeria.
The immediate consequence of this coup was mutual distrust between Igbo ethnic groups and the Hausa/Fulani ethnic groups. That distrust provides strong subterranean currents driving insecurity today.
It worsened the ethnic mistrust between the Igbo and perhaps all other ethnic groups, particularly the Hausa/Fulani. Maybe, the distrust made it extremely challenging for a Nigerian of south-eastern origin to become the country’s president, further fuelling the perceived marginalisation of the region in the power control equation.
Also, the Niger Delta communities, through several of these militias, protested the unjust and uncompensated exploitation of their natural resources now wholly owned by the federal government.
Solutions to curb insecurity
The possible and viable solution is to solve unemployment, this is critical to ensuring a safe society with progressive and productive individuals working hard to make the country great.
To be secured, we must revamp our leadership recruitment criteria and stick to them religiously and honestly. There is a need to interrogate the type of education that we are giving to our younger generation. Is it one that guarantees our safety tomorrow or one that will pull us deeper into insecurity? These are issues that we must interrogate critically.