In recent times notable Nigerians, amongst them are clergy men, captains of industries, professionals and even politicians have expressed worries over the heightening state of insecurity in the nation, the latest coming from former president Obasanjo who recently decried the spate of insecurity in the country suggesting that it has escalated beyond what the federal government alone can handle, in recent times, whenever you turn on your radio, television or flip through the pages of the newspaper the first thing that will strike you is the news of mass murdering, abduction, mindless killings, kidnappings and violent deaths across the nation, be it from the distant part of Akwa Ibom to the further end of Sokoto or from the creeks of Lagos to the famous Sambisa forests of Bornu, from the arable lands of Ilorin to the border town of Yola, the story is the same, tales of mass killings, robbery, kidnapping, armed banditry, suicide and all forms of criminality.

Across the globe the first and most important contract governments enter into with their citizens is the security of lives and property, Nigeria inclusive, going down memory lane in 2015, the most melodious campaign tune of president Buhari and the APC that earned him the presidency that is winding down with a renewed tenure on the 29th of May 2019 is how he will secure the lives of Nigerians given his military background, forget about the comical and impracticable promise of equaling the dollar to naira in value without recourse to the present global economic realities.

The realism of today’s Nigeria is that kidnaping and armed robbery have become part of our everyday existence that it no longer makes headline news, there has been reports of youths volunteering to join boko haram rather than the police, herdsmen are no longer selling cows but has found a lucrative business in kidnapping for ransom with a favourite past time in murdering an entire community if they dare protest against damages done to their farmlands, Kaduna - Abuja highways are no longer pliable not because of potholes but because you are almost sure you will be kidnapped, statistics have shown that the killings recorded in the last three years in the hands of insurgents and killer herdsmen have surpassed the total number of deaths recorded during the Nigerian civil war.

No one can conveniently conclude that the federal government is relaxed over the killings and criminality that has enveloped the entire nation, but the truth is that those who have handled our security under the present administration have not thought of security of the nation beyond street politics, hence the blame game, the recent debate between the military authorities and some government officials from the north “that between the military and Boko haram who is paying more” just confirmed my fear of poverty and unemployment being the propeller of insurgency in the country.

I have refused to believe the propagation that religion, ethnicity, opposition politicians as being the catalyst to crisis, insurgency and general insecurity in our nation today, Ethnic and religious strife have been common in Nigeria, inter-communal clashes, Ethnic, regional, and sectarian divisions has been and will remain with us due to our cultural and geographical marriage, our leaders today would want to make us believe that this natural boundaries that has existed from the days of Lord Lugard as the cause of the recent bloodletting, mass murdering and audacious criminality being experienced across the nation in order to create further divide along that line with the intent to hide their incompetence and leadership inadequacies.

The country and the citizenry is in no doubt endangered, the killers no longer fear the sacred dwellings of the most high when they want to strike, churches and mosques are no longer a safe place once they become blood thirsty.

No one is spared of this madness, enough of politicking with people’s lives, FG should get proactive and quit the blame game, citizens have a right to agitate irrespective of political differences, the elections have come and gone and in a few days tenure renewal will take place and the NEXT LEVEL regime will commence.

It will be disappointing to see the chief security officer and commander in chief of the armed forces make jokes of severe situations that concerns the lives of Nigerians, in saner climes people would have been resigning over their failures but here we would rather blame it on the opposition and verbally attack people for speaking out than do the needful, let me be bold to tell the handlers of Mr. president that to argue the concerns raised by Nigerians is not only primitive but outrightly insensitive.

Today if you are not affected by Boko-harm, Killer headsmen may be close to your community, kidnappers may be lurking around the corner, armed robbers now lay wait at cash machines, criminals now go about with POS forcing their victims to transfer funds under gun point, mothers are now selling their babies, Yahoo-Yahoo is now an elevated profession, the mining fields in Zamfara have today have turned to a killing field, the arable lands of Benue have become grave yards.

We all are affected, but wait……

“Sshhh” “don’t talk, if you talk you die, if you don’t talk you die” (SDM)

Aguoru
Writes From Umuahia