Security Challenges in Nigeria dates back as far as during the colonial era and down to this present time. we have heard various forms of security issues and we have even fought a civil war but none has threatened the unity of Nigeria compare to the contemporary security challenges we are facing now starting from Niger Delta militants, Independent people of Biafra, Boko haram , Fulani Herdsmen Oduwa People’s Congress and The Niger Delta Avengers.

There are Four basic things or reasons that gave raise to this and this includes the following

1: ILLITERACY

2: UNEMPLOYMENT

3: OUR SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

4: DISREGARD FOR NATIVE SECURITY OR LOCAL POLICING

1: ILLITERACY: – Illiteracy has contributed in a great measure to the security challenges we are facing in Nigeria and other Third world countries. With the advent of Boko haram in 2007 many of the fighters or almost all the fighters are stack illiterates been manipulated with religious doctrines to perpetrate various crimes in the name of Islam which is not supposed to be so, Many of our leaders particularly those power drunk use this set of people in our society to carry out one form of crime or the other. Even the Niger Delta militants are predominantly illiterates and cannot ask the right questions on why they are engaging in militancy.

It is said an educated country is half civilized because the citizens know what is expected of them. we in Nigeria cannot make any reasonable transformation if we do not raise the literacy level of our citizens, by so doing many people will be able to ask questions and demand answers on why things are going on wrongly. Can we say that the Fulani Herdsmen are educated people, take a look at the way they slaughter our fellow citizens without remorse. If we have these Herdsmen educated and well informed I believe the crime they are carrying out won’t have been in the first place.

The solution to this Illiteracy menace is for us to over haul our school system, offer scholarships to deserving student and remove the quota system from our school system, we should also have a standard for both north and south schools where by encouraging health educational competition.

UNEMPLOYMENT: – This is the greatest threat to a nation or people. It is said that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop and so applies to Nigeria teaming youths who are unemployed and they engage in all manner of social ills to keep body and soul together. How can Nigeria tackle its security challenges when we can’t even create jobs for our youths, our present leaders lack the vision and the will to be creative? All that our political class in Nigeria is after is how to collect National allocation and share it and share contracts among themselves without having vision on how to move this country forward. We can’t even boast of 4 thousand megawatts of electricity and we are talking about solving security problems. The problems of unemployed youths in a Nation cannot be over emphasized because the youth are the engine house of a vibrant Nation and economy.

For us to avoid the calamity posed by unemployment the government should declare emergency on power, education and job creation. We should look towards the Asian Tigers to copy what they did to move their country from a third world country to the statues of emerging markets and developing Nation.

OUR SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT: The Nigerian system or structure of government is very bad and poses greatest threat to our security challenges in this country, we operate a federal system of government by theory and a unitary system of government by practice and this is not good for a multi ethnic and religious country like Nigeria. We have more than 250 ethnic groups and two predominantly religious groups and practicing a unitary system of government cannot in any way work because it tends to make one section of the country to dominate others. Nigeria needs a weak center and strong federating unites. The various arms agitation and unrest been witnessed in this country can be attributed to this.

The best and better way to go about this is for our country to restructure and give greater autonomy to local government and states because they are the government closer to the people. We have an insensitive federal government that is also over bloated and this is causing serious strain on our scarce resources.

4: DISREGARD FOR NATIVE POLICING AND LOCAL POLICING. This is very important because Nigeria with over 250 ethnic languages and various religious beliefs do not need a strong central policy but rather we should look towards community policing as been practiced in other advance countries. We should restructure the police system and decentralize our police to give room for traditional means of policing and also local policing. With this form of policing it is very very easy to keep track of individuals because the police in every local government must be people who has been living in that place for more than 5 years and they are familiar with almost everyone in that particular locality there by making it possible for them to police the area very well. Our present system of government and policing is totally out dated and wrong and cannot guarantee effective policing. We should act fast because the rate of obscurity in this country is raising at an alarming rate.

We should also provide a data management center to help keep record of individuals and their records for future purposes. Every local government area, every state and federal government should have an effective data management centers, where by the local feeds the state and the state feeds the central or federal data management center and records are kept. With a good data management and a decentralize police we can be able to keep track on everyone within the territory integrity called Nigeria.

We should also have or restructure the police system to make room for better welfare packages, access to good schools for our officer’s children. Any police officer that dies the government should be able to train all the children to university level, good packages for them this will encourage the best from our police unit.

We should also take vetting of our officers both in the armed forces and local police to fish out the bad eggs within and show them the way out.

Discussing Security Challenges in a contemporary Nigeria is endless but we can start with these basic ones and as time goes we keep perfecting on what we have achieved and build a strong institution that will last long. Finally, our judiciary and police should be totally independent from the federal or state or local government. We should have laws that will make the police and judiciary totally free from the executive influence.

Also the security of lives and properties starts from we the Citizens. We have to be vigilant and report any suspicious activities within our surrounding.

Michael Chidiebere – Shadow Minister Of Defence