“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth”. – Psalm 121:1-2).
When you turn to the North, South, East or West part of Nigeria and engage the people in simple discussion, the summary of what you hear is the biblical quotation above. It is a sad commentary. A sorrowful situation we deliberately inflicted on ourselves due to complete carelessness and government carefree programmes at all level of governance. There is palpable fear in the air, on the streets and in the communities. Nowhere is safe. No where can be classified immune to safety around the country despite all the security assurance. Across the length and breadth of the country, the people are faced with different types of insecure situations. While the North continues to battle with insurgency and the government seems to have closed up the rescue operation of the remains of the Chibok and Dapchi female school girls and is focusing more on campaigns , yet attacks still springs up in the north killing and maiming the people in their hundreds. In other parts of the North, there is the vicious attack from marauders known as armed herdsmen who have been persistent in causing the death of scores of people in states around the middle belt. In all of this, both the government and the police looks incapacitated to provide the needed simple security for the innocent people. Even the head of the police seemed to have been caught unprepared and incapable to arrest this spiraling insecurity. The cry in every part of the country is that of an unarmed man sleeping in his house and was rudely awaken by the sound of gun shots from hoodlums who have surrounded his small house. All he could shout is ‘help’, ‘help’, ‘help’. Because the word ” help” is an exclamation of a drowning and needy man. It is the last word of a dying man. Indeed, it is the last word that ooze from the mouth of a dying man who wants to be rescued. Nigerians want to be rescued. They want to be helped from the vicious hands of killers that invade their communities and annihilate their wives and children. They are shouting for help from the police whose remuneration are drops of their daily sweat. The people are crying for help because they have no other country to call their own as assured them by the president. The people are crying for help because they no longer find it safe traveling on the high ways. Even in the cities, their safety is not guaranteed. For instance, the internally displaced persons (IDP) who were rescued and moved out of the Boko Haram invaded local governments in the North East, to the Federal Capital Territory instead of moving them to other northern states, are now becoming security problems to residents of the Federal Capital Territory. Today the un-catered-for young men in these camps in the FCT have turned to street robbers, attacking car owners and operating at lonely and dark parts of the capital. Snatching ladies’ bags and phones from unsuspecting pedestrians. They steal batteries from vehicles parked in estates or on the streets. Motorists held up in traffic are crying out for safety because hoodlums forcefully attack and cart away their belongings like smart phones and bags contains valuables and laptops or l-pads. Even the highways are no longer safe. The same fate is befalling passages alighting from the Kaduna – Abuja bound train as passengers are waylaid at the Abuja end of the terminus. Palpable fear erupts whenever there is politics and from all indication, nothing has been learnt from politics of hate and money where thugs are hired to disrupt electoral proc sees. The up-coming political campaign and voting processes are very important in the annals of our history. With millions of unemployed youths roaming around the streets and no job to engage them, with millions of youths ready to be recruited as political thugs, not to talk of proliferation o f illegal firearms. Security analysts believe that the political journey to 2019 would be very vicious and dastardly. It is assumed that half of the youths have had the experience of the use of fire arms. More worrisome is the build up in the Niger Delta area. All these mentioned traits of insecurity are the result of complete collapse of our internal security. I therefore wonder why scores of armed policemen are usually drafted to maintain law and order whenever labour unions, group or students unions are embarking on public demonstration while the same zeal and passion to quell insecurity becomes none existent when the people cry out for help.
The EFCC Quartet
The world class new multi billion Naira edifice of the Economic and financial crime commission ( EFCC) recently commissioned by president Muhammadu Buhari, is an architectural masterpiece to behold. It has further upgraded the diminishing beauty of the federal capital, Abuja.
The brainy and ebullient quartet of EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Farida Waziri, Ibrahim Larmode and Ibrahim Magu ,the race finisher ,needs to be commended not only in their fight against the canker r worm eating up Nigeria, which is corruption. But it should be acknowledged that they are all trained officers of the Nigeria police force. In other words, good Homo sapiens still exist in the police. The relay race was started by Nuhu Ribadu and each member of this winning quartet put in their best. The story would have been more glamorous if the former president who conceived the EFCC was graciously invited to the ceremony after all invitations were extended to former South African President, Mr. Tabo Mbeki and the Secretary General of the European Union. A young Hausa officer of the commission sitting near this writer at the ceremony, summarized everything thus, “if the president who conceived the commission and the one who funded the foundation were not invited , but the president who completed the project was invited then, ” this is corruption”.