THE WORSENING SECURITY CHALLENGES

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria exacerbated various socio-economic with a proportionate impact on security challenges across the country. While the world grappled with this, young people in Nigeria stormed the streets of major cities to protest police brutality by a rogue unit of the Nigerian Police force code-named Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The peaceful protest was soon hijacked by hoodlums who used the opportunity to carry out their nefarious activities. The Nigerian Army invaded the peaceful youths at Lekki Toll gate in the late hours of 20th October, 2020 while shooting at unarmed protesters. Mass casualties were recorded as the world condemned this unprofessional conduct by the Nigerian Army. Various states set up panels of enquiries to look into the extra-judicial killings and conduct of the police unit while the unit was also disbanded to be replaced by a new unit later.

2020 ended on that ugly note and other challenges. People were however hopeful that 2021 will be a better year and a time to recover from the horror of the past year, little did we know that more was still to come.

2021 ushered a fresh system of attacks on people and properties all over the country with reports of mass kidnapping, robbery, and a series of attacks on security outfits in the south of the country. These heightening attacks in the south are mostly targeted at security outlets and their personnel.

The south has been a relatively peaceful region before the activities of some unknown gunmen began early this year. For over a decade, northern Nigeria has been under attack by the dreaded Boko Haram terror group killing over 40, 000 and over 2million people displaced. 

In April, the Owerri correctional center and the state police headquarters came under heavy attack by unknown armed men releasing over a thousand eight hundred inmates, a day after the divisional police headquarters in Ehime Mbano local government in the same Imo state was attacked; these attacks formed the mother of major attacks on security outlets and personnel in the southeast

The attacks on security forces particularly the police have become a trend over the past months in the southeast, this led to the decision of the southeast governors to unanimously set up a local security outfit to combat the ugly trend.

The five Southeast governors in April launched the regional security outfit codenamed Ebube Agu meaning “a fearsome leopard”. The decision came after over 40 attacks were carried out in the region. Though a step in the right direction, the decision is more like medicine after death.

The important question is, how effective will Ebube Agu be in the face of the rising insecurity? You will recall that in 2020 the southwest launched its regional security outfit known as Amotekun but has the Amotekun lived up to expectation?

Both Amotekun and Ebube Agu cannot face the fire from these blood-sucking criminals. The Amotekun and Ebube Agu does not have access to heavy firearms to face their opponents; unless both Ebube Agu and Amotekun are permitted to carry the same quality of weapons as these criminals, the decision to set up the outfit is little to nothing.

Since the breakout of series of attacks in the south, no group has taken responsibility for the attacks. However, government and the police have accused the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) of the attacks carried out In the southeast. IPOB has since denied involvement in any attack; they described it as being fictitious and propaganda to tarnish the image of the peaceful organization before international communities. 

Unlike the attacks in the northwest where bandits kidnap majorly for ransom, their attacks are carried out on civilians and school children. The trend in the southeast leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It is worrisome that the very body responsible for protecting the lives and properties of citizens is under such attack.

According to the Global Terrorism Index, Nigeria is the third most terrorized country in the world as of November 2020; according to Nextier SPD, about 724 people were killed, 802 kidnapped in 336 incidents in the first quarter of this year.

Responding to the deteriorating state of security of lives and properties around the country, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed new service chiefs of the armed forces. The appointment is coming after much hesitation from the president. The incumbent chief of army staff was the longest-serving service chief in the history of Nigeria since independence.

The appointment of the service chiefs in January offered a possible solution to the growing insecurity, however, citizens are yet to feel the commitment to duty of the newly appointed chiefs. There is an urgent need to review the response to the security of lives and property in the country. 

It is high time the Nigerian government properly seek both local and international support to combat the rising wave of insecurity spread across the country. 

For every time we seem to have reached the pinnacle of Nigeria’s insecurity, we go even higher. The daily attacks have blurred the zenith of the violence out of focus to look like the bottom. How many levels higher can we go before we have had enough?