Anti-corruption hard push will recover wealth stolen by treasury looters, and recovered sums will free the Muhammadu Buhari administration from borrowing $3.5 billion to finance the N6.08 trillion budget.
However, the rapid proliferation of crime denies the government the luxury of taking its time to reflate the economy.
The National Assembly (NASS) is expected to pass the Appropriation Bill this month. Once that is done, the faster Buhari and his cabinet implement job creation programmes in the productive sectors the better it minimises poverty, hunger and destitution which propel crime.
Crime is proliferating nationwide.
On January 30, seven Northern governors deliberated in Kaduna on reducing crime in their states. They focused on Kamuku forest, the large expanse of woodland which cuts across the seven states.
Kamuku forest is also the haven of cattle rustlers. About 30,000 animals were recently retrieved when the joint task force (JTF) raided criminal hideouts in the forest.
In July 2015, the JTF killed three armed robbers in the forest in Birnin Gwari Council of Kaduna State. About 850 stolen cattles were recovered.
The Governors at the parley were the host, Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Aminu Masari (Katsina), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Yari Abubakar (Zamfara), and Abubakar Bello (Niger).
Masari, who chaired the meeting, told reporters that the JTF had tamed cattle rustling in the forest and will now turn to kidnapping.
He said the governors would encourage the JTF to wipe out all the criminals from Kamuku forest. Cattle rustlers turn to kidnapping when blocked from stealing cattle.
We commend the efforts of the JTF as well as the moral and financial support the governors provide.
In the South, the crime has no neat, clear-cut, easy solution. Moreso a hallowed cultural institution of administration is now under siege.
Traditional rulers are the political-cultural administrators of towns and villages at the grassroots. With traditional religious awe in their powers, they are revered.
However, the latest addition to the crime album is the kidnap on January 26 of O.O. Anyanwu, a traditional ruler of Nguru Nwafor in Aboh Mbaise Council of Imo State. He was abducted in front of Crown Plaza Hotel, Owerri and driven to an unknown hideout, the police say.
On January 29, armed men kidnapped from his palace Josiah Umukoro, the Odion-Ologbo of Olomoro in Isoko South Council of Delta State. He was later released. It was not clear whether any ransom was paid.
A week earlier, the traditional ruler of Ubulu-Uku, Obi Akaeze Ofulue the III, was found dead in the thick bush of Umunede, Ika Council also of Delta State after being held for about two weeks by abductors.
Unconfirmed reports said his relations paid N50 million ransom yet the abductors murdered him.
Kidnapping a traditional ruler crosses the insecurity red line. They play a peaceful, stabilising and harmonious role in their domains.
We agree with the Primate of the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, the Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh who, during the week, advised the government to declare it as an emergency and deal with it as such.
Only the irreverent rebel against traditional rulers. Kidnapping three in rapid succession raises brows.
We concede that the politicisation of the royalty has divided opinion about the once mono-cultural institution. The absolute reverence subjects used to have for monarchs has been eroded by politics.
Divisive politics, sometimes riding piggyback on bitter rivalries into which some royal fathers dabble, is their undoing.
But that is no excuse for people to arrange, usually with criminals from afar, to kidnap them for ransom or for punitive political or traditional vengeance.
Traditional rulers are not the only targets. Elder statesman and Chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Olu Falae, was also kidnapped for ransom in September 2015.
As long as the economy stagnates because of the government’s delay in implementing large scale productive activities which generate jobs, put incomes in the hands of idle youths, crime will remain in the society alongside insecurity.
Law-abiding citizens bear the brunt of criminals – petty thieves, pickpockets, hard core criminals, kidnappers, and ritual killers.
As the government delays implementation of economic resuscitation programmes, corporate bodies lay off staff to swell the jobless ranks, and some drift into crime.
Unfortunately, necessity is no mother of invention in Nigeria. It is the precursor, if not the fons et origio (exact starting point), of get-rich-quick crime.
Worse still, punishment for some has ceased to be a deterrent to others. In fact, arresting crime suspects provides ideas for people who hope to do better than those arrested and punished.
We must add the other dimension of incessant clashes between herdsmen and cattle rustlers that lead to killings, maimings, and injuries that are as bad as clashes between nomadic herdsmen and sedentary farmers whose crops are destroyed by grazing cattle.
Agriculture Minister, Audu Ogbe, concedes that the clashes are a major setback for the agriculture sector.
He wants to tackle the problem by developing paddocks to grow grasses, sinking boreholes and building dams for cattle rearing across the hinterland.
Such projects will also enable herdsmen have a more organised life, where their children would have access to education and other basic needs.
“There is too much death, violence and too much destruction. So, we will go for massive nutritive grasses across the hinterland because what the cattle want is grass and water and we have the capacity to grow the grasses,” Ogbe says.
We hope he walks the talk.
We also hope that efforts would be made by the government at all levels to end the humiliating treatment of kidnapping.
