Who to Blame for Nigeria’s State of Insecurity

It is appalling to observe social media and see some of the most spiteful people who cannot even broker peace within their own families call serving Presidents all manner of names and insinuate all manner of conspiracies committed by these figure head leaders for all the insecurity and killings in the land.

From examining the criminality trends, it is clear Nigerians are losing their morality on a daily basis as the drag the country from a civilized state to a Hobbesian state of nature where life is nasty, short and brutish after inheriting a peaceful country after the exit of former colonial masters, Britain. 

Barely six years after Britain left, Nigeria descended into a bloody civil war after a section of the country, went on a state sanctioned reprisal killing spree and ethnic cleansing to avenge political murders committed by a few. The tragic events prior, during and after the war played havoc with individual moral codes and instituted moral laxity in the execution of state policy, particularly regarding ethnic and reprisal killings.

The war ravaged defeated east became ground zero for some of the most enterprising criminal schemes like group armed robbery and other dubious acts to earn money known to Nigerians at the time. Over the years a system of regional and tribal neglect, allowed for that criminality, based on extreme poverty, to seep southward to the Niger delta and upwards and now Nigeria is engulfed in a near state of anarchy. 

From kidnapping for ransom that used to be a seemingly exclusive preserve in the east that has now filtrated up to the North West particularly along the Kaduna to Abuja expressway and many parts of the north to the activities by “Boko Harem” that has broken all precedents and taboos including bombing mosques and carrying out suicide attacks, a group who rose from the ashes of the extra judicial execution of its leader by state agents who have not been brought to book the nation is engulfed in criminality. 

While the massacres by the all-encompassing “Fulani Herdsmen” in the north central states of Plateau and Benue have been horrendous and ongoing, the Nigerian public has not been sensitized to the killings in Southern Kaduna or the banditry, cattle rustling and genocidal killings in Zamfara (carved out of the caliphate state of Sokoto) forcing the Governor to declare his helplessness and relinquish the ambiguous title of “chief security officer”. 

Nigerians will point to the killings and blame the President for his lack of leadership as the very well should, but these same Nigerians will quickly produce the fuel and join in the lynching and bon-firing of a thief who might have stolen a phone. School children gang up and beat up classmates without institutional consequences and Soldiers and police brutalize arrest and detain citizens for perceived slights and kill citizens extra judiciously on a daily basis.

Armed Robbers invade homes, steal life savings and proceed to maim their defenseless victims for equal measure as if they have not been traumatized by the robbery enough. Kidnappers collect ransom and deliberately execute their victims leaving a family without a breadwinner. Nigerians cry about the scourge of kidnapping yet an outraged nation is unable to prosecute Evans because he is protected by high profile co-conspirators.

In Otta, bank robbers fire live bullets into hapless citizens even after the have collected the money from the vault. Worshippers at a church in the east were shot dead allegedly by a gang because of drug dealing gone bad in far-away south Africa, an event that would have triggered a national day of mourning in advanced countries, but in Nigeria the security forces are too lazy and have displayed a lack of political will to bring the perpetuators to justice, it has been since forgotten, except by the family of the victims.

Subsumed in all the news of Fulani herdsmen are the constant communal and gang clashes in riverine areas of the Southeast resulting in gruesome mass beheadings. Alongside, the body parts business, confused with “money rituals” is booming, with many dismembered bodies missing vital organs found on the streets almost every other day. Human trafficking is on the rise particularly of young girls into the pipeline of prostitution.

Court cases abound over simplistic issues, politicians hire thugs and armed robbers to intimidate and to sometimes kill opponents. Blood is spilled on university grounds in fights between rival gangs. Lecturers demand sex before passing and in some cases withhold results.

Politicians and state executives commit the most heinous crime against citizens by misappropriating their  salaries leading these unpaid workers toward criminality andown the road of mental agony, grief and eventual suicide triggering a devastating multiplier effect of wrecked families even though they have collected distributions from the federal government to pay workers.

Nigerians regular share stories and revel in the accomplishments of their associates who cheated and defraud each other and no one speaks up and reports them so as not to spoil market. 

At the end of the day no President, because he is not God, can stop Nigeria’s natural inclination to commit evil bloody acts.

For a people supposedly so religious and who pride themselves for having traditional values, Nigerian are they most disagreeable people on even the most basic values based on ignorance, poor education and a belief in sorcery, altogether an UNGOVERNABLE bunch of individuals with a mass of moral contradictions despite their outward protestations of being “God fearing”.

At the end of the day, with all the killings one has to wonder about the ethics of individual Nigerians from Fulani militia who mindlessly kill women and children to the police commissioner or soldier who turns a blind eye to the mayhem in his district because of tribalism, religion or to maintain the status quo. 

Clearly, Nigeria is descending into a state of anarchy driven by insidious hatred and the need to feed an insatiable blood lust at the individual level and no amount of restructuring, ranching or policing can deal with the present day, NIGERIAN, unless the Nigerian develops a  new set of values and a different non-violent moral code.

By Terhemba Osuji