By Emeka Alex Duru
(08054103327)
If you take a critical look at the leading media organisations in the country; the prints or electronics, you would notice a seeming neglect of the global dictum in news reporting – ‘when it bleeds, it leads’. Simply put, it means that any news item that involves loss of life, should be the lead story. This is a major demand on the practitioners, to emphasize the premium placed on life by the industry. Sadly, this maxim is gradually taking the back seat in news selection and presentation in the Nigerian media space, not on account of laxity or callousness on the part of the newsmen. Rather, the rate and regularity of loss of life in the country on account of insecurity, leadership failure and infrastructure collapse, have combined to make death a common trend in the country. There is presently, hardly any day that people are not killed in various numbers and for various reasons in the country.
Perhaps, more than any other factor, it is this rising culture of insecurity, that is rousing the question on the continued existence of Nigeria, as a country. No matter how hard the leaders try to paint or bend things, the situation in the country, is dire. In fact, as it is, any Nigerian who does not feel sufficiently concerned with the persistent drift of the country to the status of a failed state, deserves pity and not condemnation. Gradually but steadily, Nigeria is losing it at all fronts. Except a few – just a few, who may be feeding fat on the remains of the carcass that the country literally represents, most citizens would rather wish to be associated with another country.
Security of life and property, is listed as the primary function of government all over the World. But that cannot be said to be the case here. As we write, we are yet to know the number of Nigerians that may have been dispatched to their early graves, today. Yesterday, Monday, January 27, barely two weeks after suspected Fulani herdsmen killed 12 people in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State, no fewer than 13 more persons were wasted in fresh attacks by gunmen in Bokos Local Government Area of the state. That was only in Plateau State. There could be other unreported attacks in Adamawa, Benue and other states. In addition to these attacks on the Plateau communities, fighters of the Boko Haram sect, are unleashing more ferocious attacks in Borno and neighbouring states. In each of these encounters, lives are properties are lost. The victims are helpless. The immediate reaction by the lucky survivors, is loss of hope on Nigeria as a country.
This feeling of despondency by the citizens accounts for why Nigeria is increasingly losing respect abroad. In a recent posting on its website, for instance, the United States’ Embassy, in a piece of information meant for Americans intending to visit Nigeria, described the country in very unflattering terms. It stressed on two major failings, namely crude infrastructure and poor security. The directory touched on other aspects of our national being including health, roads, transportation systems and even such basic necessity as water, stressing, “no areas (in Nigeria) have safe tap water.” This is very damning of country that prides itself as the giant of Africa. But it is a sad reality. By the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, the approved lifespan of Water Pipes is five years. The Pipes in Nigeria are hardly, ever replaced, decades after being laid. It is, thus, proper to consider pipe-borne water wherever it exists in the country as unsafe. That, however, is where the pipe-borne water ever exists. In most cases, they do not.
But the most embarrassing aspect of the regime of insecurity, is the menace of armed gangs in various forms. The pledge to tackle insecurity, corruption and unemployment, was the key point of President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign in 2014. Of course, given the unexciting profile of the then Goodluck Jonathan in those critical areas, the voters lined behind Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC). The administration, initially, seemed to have a working template in containing the Boko Haram insurgency and other incidences of insecurity by retrieving 14 councils the terrorists had earlier annexed from Borno State. The rate of bombings was equally reduced. That air of relief however did not last as murderous herdsmen took up arms, attacking unarmed farmers and villagers in Enugu, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Benue, Niger, Adamawa, Taraba and other states.
Curiously, the tempo of the attacks has widened in the second phase of the administration. Boko Haram insurgents appear to be gaining grounds, increasingly. Aside pitched battles with soldiers, they are going for civilians and other soft targets. A University of Maiduguri student, Daciya Dalep, who was abducted on his way to school, was beheaded by members of the sect, some days ago. The fate of his colleague, Lillian Daniel Gyang, remains uncertain. Those taken hostage earlier, are still in captivity.
When therefore, the government, humours itself that Boko Haram has been technically degraded, Nigerians know that it is a lie. When its officials prance about claiming increase in standard of living by Nigerians, they are mocked by statistics. The truth is that but for the fact of various sections of the country not yet fully taken over by armed gangs, Nigeria is seriously going the way of some failed states in the Continent. It is a huge irony that Nigeria which was buffeted with requests for wish-list by the US, Britain and other Western nations at the election of Buhari in 2014, is currently being lumped in similar travel directory as Libya, Chad, Sudan and even Somalia by the very same countries that had earlier thrown wide their arms in open embrace to her. Whether those in power would want to hear it or not, the truth is that this house, called Nigeria, is falling.
This calls for the Buhari administration to come down from its high horse to face the realities in the land. There is need for another look at the security arrangements in the country. There is need for tired hands and legs to give way for fresh minds and strategies to tackle the monster of insecurity in the land. There is need to halt the drift before Nigeria loses it.