Punch
Security and welfare of citizens are the primary purposes of government so says section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, as amended. This regime of the President, Major General Muhammdu Buhari (retd.), promised an onslaught against the monster called insecurity six years ago. Unfortunately, much as it tried, it has not succeeded. Should the verdict of history come today, the president and his lieutenants at the state and local government levels will definitely be rated very low. The truth is that Nigeria is faced with worsening insecurity on a daily basis.
Let’s look a bit at statistics. According to 2020 Global Terrorism Index rating by a group known as Vision of Humanity, “Nigeria is the third country most impacted by terrorism. Yet, total deaths from terrorism in Nigeria fell to 1,245 in 2019, a 39% decrease from the prior year. Terror-related incidents also fell by 27%, marking the lowest level of terrorist violence in Nigeria since 2011. Boko Haram, Nigeria’s deadliest terrorist group, recorded an increase in terrorist activity mainly targeted at civilians by 25% from the prior year. Additionally, Fulani extremists were responsible for 26% of terror-related deaths in Nigeria at 325 fatalities.”
While Nigerians await what the 2021 Global Terrorism Index will show about the country, there is no gainsaying the fact that while herders/farmers clashes, the Indigenous People of Biafra’s violent agitations and insurgency may have receded, banditry and kidnapping for ransom have substantially escalated. To buttress this point, yesterday, December 14, 2021, your darling newspaper, The PUNCH reported in a news item that no fewer than 3,125 innocent persons were killed and 2,703 abducted by bandits in Northern Nigeria in the last 11 months. The figures were obtained from the Nigeria Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank as well as quarterly reports released by the Kaduna State Government from January to September. According to the latter, no fewer than 888 people were killed and 2,553 others kidnapped in Kaduna State between January and September 2021.
