Even with repeated assurances from the government, Nigeria are yet to witness an improvement in level of security around them and as features writer, ONUOHA EMEABA notes in the report, the fears are deepening day by day.
They look frail and fagged out, fidgeting like recalcitrant pupils standing before a harsh head teacher. Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State, the Commandant of the Ikeja Military Cantonment, Brigadier George Emdia, and Mr. Mike Okiro, the Lagos State Police Commissioner who bore the burden of breaking the bad news to Nigerians were all panic stricken.
Perhaps to underscore the gravity of the disaster, and the need to communicate to a heterogeneous society with different linguistic backgrounds, they had to convey the message of the bomb blast in the three major languages, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. But whether the confusion that trailed the explosion allowed them to stay glued to their television sets to decode the broadcast was another question.
Indeed the massage was terrifying. About 400 bombs stockpiled at the Ikeja Cantonment had exploded and within a narrow time frame of four , more than 2000 Nigerians who ran for their lives amid a stampede, and as Nigerians were grappling to come to terms with the incident, another tragedy struck. One of the busiest settlement in Lagos, Idiaraba was engulfed in ethnic violence between Hausa and Yorubas. At the last count, the casualty figures were still being contested. While some media reports put the figure at 100, another put at a whooping 400.
The above painted picture is that of a nation which in the last two years, has been engulfed in violence and untold tragedy. From the North to the South the nation is boiling. Tragedies occasioned by minor squabbled have become a permanent feature. Aside, there have been cases of clear assassination which many attribute to the tense political environment ahead the 2003 election.
Take for instance the South-West which has the distinction of being a hot bed of violence especially during democratic elections. In the region which harbored the often orchestrated politically monolithic Yoruba ethnic group, there are signs that before the election proper, the “wild” syndrome is bound to replay itself, and no other tragedy depicts this cycles of violence, then the brutal murder of Chief Bola Ige, Nigeria’s Attorney General, and Minister of Justics December, 23, 2001 at his house in Ibadan.
Ige’s murder, many believe, remains a disgrace to the nation, and the reason for such thinking might not be unconnected with the fact that the late Yoroba politician had a detachment of security personnel attached to him. The question many are asking up till today is “why did all the policemen attached to the Minister left to eat when it was obvious that the atmosphere within the area was pregnant with violence? The general thinking among Nigeria’s in the last four months has been that if a cabinet murder could be murdered easily, then ordinary citizens could not be said to be very safe.
Even before Ige’s murder, another elected politicians Mr. Odumayo Olabgagu was equally murdered in cold blood by unknown assasins. Many however say Olagbagu’s assassination, even as a member of Ogun State House of Assembly, cannot be divoiced from the political disagreements that have rocked the state for the past month.
Away from politically motivated conflicts, Lagos has remained a hot-bed of ethnic-religious conflicts in the past one year. It is always, either there is religious violence in Kano and reprisal actions taking place in Lagos, or vice-versa. The greatest fear here however, is that Lagos and indeed the entire South-East is fast becoming very insecure for Nigerians, and it is quite predictable and by 2003, the fight for supremacy between the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the people’s Democracy Party (PDP), will aggravate the security solution.
In the South-East of Nigeria where the Igbos inhabit, the picture is the same. Perhaps what appeared to have posed serious security threats in the whole of the South-East have been the wave of armed robbery incidents which before the advent of democracy, crippled the conduct of business. Unfortunately, the insecurity situation which was gradually being tackled is again taking the dangerous twist. The sit ration is not even helped by the growing political reveries among the various political leaders within the zone.
Now, consider Abia State where the formation of the dreaded Bakassi Boys, a vigilante group almost brought criminal activities to a near zero level in the area, especially Aba in year 2000. The irony now is that all same group formed to protect the citizens has been instigating violence on its own. The cities of Aba, Umuahia, like many others cities in Nigeria, are filled with horroful tales, whether suicide, rapes, robbery and other crimes.
Nothing perhaps epitomizes the state of insecurity than the decision of the Abia State government to engage the sevice of the private security firm to secure the government house. Many of course, regard the section as a vote of no confidence of the police, and even the Bakassi boys which the government has aided so much financially. Regartably too, the various vigilante groups that emerged spountanouesly as a reaction to the upsurge in criminal activities, and as popular alternatives to the formalized security agencies appeared to have metamorphosed into machineries for silencing the opposition, name it Odua People Congress (OPC), Bakassi boys, Arewa, or Egbesu boys all have become lame dog outfits feeding fat from political leaders.
In the North, frequent incidents of religious riots have made the area a no-go zone for those who have their lives from Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Markudi and recently, Jos, the story is that of gory tales of brazen disregard for human lives. Unlike other zone, the crises in these areas are purely religious with political undertones and that seems to have reached a crescendo since the introduction of the sharia legal system. Kaduna and Kano, in the last two years, have witness the lost of more than 4000 lives. The greatest shock came from Jos in the middle of last year, when Christian and Muslems engages themselves in a fierce battle.
At the end, the entire city was devastated and many lives lost. Even the Middle Belt which has long remained an an attachment of the north remain a tatters. Late last year, a bloody conflict between the Tivs and Jukuns inhabiting Taraba, Nassarawa and Benue States hold the country to ransom and at the last count, both soldiers and civilians were counted among the dead.
In the South-South geo-political, the conflict appear to be mostly communal and political. Although such conflicts have been ranging for a long time probably as a result of the distrust between the multinational companies and the host communities, there are equally fears that the insecurity might deepen with the incoming elections.
In Rivers State where communal conflicts have often snowballed into political crises, areas such as Okirika, Abua Odual, Ogu/Bolo and Ogbakiri have turned a ghost town in the last two years. Analysis say the situation is likely to worsen next year with the missing opposition against the ruling party.
Bayelsa their next door neighbor is not faring better. Late last year, there were reports that most commissioners and top civil servants had fled their lives residence at the Opolo hausing estate owing to insecurity. At present, many of the commissioners are said to be moving about with up to four armed security personnel.
With the sporadic loss of lives and other threats to lives and property, observers believe that Nigerians are whirling to their graves every day. They have concluded that the security system has failed and no one can sleep with his two eyes closed in Nigeria. For instance, Mr. Okey Uzoho, a legal practitioner and political scientist considers the level of insecurity as a sign of dissatisfaction with the government.
He said that what those perpetrating the crime have done is to send money to government and to Nigerians that if things continues the way it is, then violence would overtake everywhere. “When people are not given the freedom to decide on the way they want to go, such people resort to violence because they thought that with such action, they can prove their point,” Uzoho noted, suggesting that the government should open the space to that whatever grievances people have can be tabled for discussion.
“When people are not given the freedom to decide on the way they want to go, such people resort to violence because they thought that with such action, they can prove their point,”
However another lawyer and a retried police officer, Friday Nwose said both the government and the security system are faulty. He said those in government should be blamed for making efforts to effectively use available security operatives to protect lives and properties of the citizen.
Nwosu particularly indicted politicians saying that when they find themselves in governance, they behaved as if they will die with the office. “that is why they can perpetuate any crime that will jeopardise the security of the country” he said. He attributed the lackadaisical attitude of the police to lack of adequate education. “If the police are given adequate training, they would know what to do at a point in time to protect lives of the people. Police officers should have in-service training at least they should have a diploma in law or any other social sciences” the retired police officers cum lawyers lamented.
He added that it is lack of adequate training that makes the police succumb to intimidation and blackmail, thereby joepardising the security of the nation and the people. “They need to be emancioated from mental slavery in order to do their works of determing and preventing crime in the society,”he opined.
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