This house called Nigeria, is falling and requires urgent steps to prevent the crash, not for the President to throw up his hands in the air in obvious exasperation.
By Emeka Alex Duru
On occasions of prolonged uncertainties in communities, it is normal for concerned observers to ask, ‘are there no elders around to restore order?’ The unceasing spate of insecurity in the country, has reached the point at which the citizens may start asking if there is any semblance of protection by the government over them.
Security of life and property of the people, has been established as the primary function of government, hence the principle is given adequate mention in the 1999 constitution. Unfortunately, that major obligation which the constitution bestows on the government, is being met in breach.
Virtually on daily basis, Nigerians are abducted, maimed and/or killed by kidnappers, terrorists or the so-called unknown gunmen, with the relevant agencies of the state not doing much to save them. On Monday, January 29, a coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the auspices of the Civil Society Joint Action Group (CSJAG) reported that at least 2,423 people have been killed, while 1,872 were abducted within eight months of the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, who made the disclosure, expressed the concern of his colleagues at the deteriorating state of security across Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, and called on the government to take steps to end the endemic insecurity, mitigate further attacks by kidnap syndicates and terrorist groups, and, account for persons missing in these attacks. Though the figure posted by the CSOs is high, it is nonetheless, conservative, considering that many cases of deaths and abductions in remote parts of the country, are hardly brought to public light.
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By gruesome coincidence, while CISLAC and other Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) listed the number of Nigerians killed or taken in by hoodlums, five school children, three teachers and a bus driver were kidnapped in Emure Ekiti, Ekiti State. The gunmen were said to have ambushed the school bus carrying the pupils from a private nursery school back home at about 5 p.m. By Tuesday, the kidnappers had issued a demand of N100m for the release of their victims.
The same Monday, bandits attacked a vehicle conveying three traditional rulers between Oke-Ako and Ipao Ekiti, in Ajoni Local Government Area. Two of the monarchs – the Onimojo of Imojo, Oba Olatunde Olusola, and the Elesun of Esun Ekiti, Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin, lost their lives in the attack, while the Alara of Ara Ekiti, Oba Adebayo Fatoba, narrowly escaped.
Elsewhere, gunmen on Thursday night invaded the palace of Olukoro of Koro in Ekiti local government area of Kwara State and killed the traditional ruler of the community, General Segun Aremu (rtd). The attackers also whisked away the wife of the monarch and two others.
In Imo, the former chairman of the state’s traditional rulers’ council, Eze Samuel Ohiri of Orodo community in Mbaitolu local government area, was released from captivity, by his abductors, after being held for over two weeks. Within the same period, terrorists in Kaduna, killed at least 17 people and kidnapped 58 others in three communities in Kauru Local Government Area. Same day, a different gang of bandits struck in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), abducting seven members of a family and killing a policeman. One of the victims was killed while others were released after a crowd-funding exercise to raise the ransom demanded by their captors. Other frightening instances abound in other parts of the country.
No nation progresses on such regular flow of blood by its citizens. Nigeria is bleeding profusely at all fronts and impact felt in all aspects of the national economy. Things cannot, certainly be allowed to continue on this trajectory.
The other day, President Tinubu raised an alarm that the Federal Government’s target of a $1 trillion economy will be in jeopardy if the current spate of insecurity in the country persists. His remarks tallied with unexciting projections on the country’s economy by experts and international agencies. For example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its ‘World Economic Outlook Update: Near-Term Resilience, Persistent Challenges (July 2023)’ report, had projected that Nigeria’s economic growth would decline in 2023 and 2024 due to security issues in the oil sector. It stated that the country’s economy would grow at 3.2 per cent in 2023, before declining to 3.0 per cent in 2024.
Here at home, the impacts of insecurity, corruption and other hostile business factors are already being felt as more than 15 multinational firms have relocated from Nigeria in the past three years, according to data from the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA).
The latest in the exodus, were Procter & Gamble, P&G, a major global player in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, (FMCG), segment and Equinor, another global player in the upstream oil sector, giving indications of leaving the country and posting an expected loss of $335 million (about N310bn) in Foreign Direct Investments, FDI, to the economy.
The estimated N310bn amount represents the combined assets value of the two business giants. Their exit comes on the heels of relocation in the second half of 2023 by two other major multinational companies, GlaxoSmithKline, GSK, Consumer Nigeria Plc and Sanofi-Aventis Nigeria Limited, a French pharmaceutical company, which pulled out assets estimated at over $800 million from Nigeria, citing harsh operating environment.
Elsewhere, communal life is being disrupted. Farmers can no longer go to farms for fear of their life, resulting to high cost of food items. Foreign direct investments have been discouraged. The immediate consequence is more workers losing their jobs and the economy getting poorer.
The moves by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic to exit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), may worsen matters. Nigeria shares a border of about 1,668 kilometres with Niger. Our borders are porous. Without formal institutional frameworks, it may be difficult to hold cross-border criminals from these countries in check.
The situation is therefore, dire. This house called Nigeria, is falling and requires urgent steps to prevent the crash, not for the President to throw up his hands in the air in obvious exasperation. Something drastic needs to be done to contain the menace of insecurity in the land. Tinubu needs to be around to do the job for which he was elected, not taking refuge abroad on the so-called private visit, while the country burns. Security agencies should be mobilised to fish out the perpetrators of trouble in any part of the country and bring them to book. Jobs should be created for the youths.
The challenge at hand calls for bi-partisan approach to rescue the system. The President and his men seem clearly overwhelmed. It won’t be a bad idea for the government to request help from Nigerians outside the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other countries with requisite knowledge and competence on how to deal with the crisis. Time is fast running out!