A Cauldron of Insecurity

A country slowly and tragically bleeds to death when its citizens become easy targets for criminals of all shades and stripes. 

Nigeria is haunted yet again by profoundly depressing news involving two  women professionals. First to haunt the airwaves was the case of one Onyesom Peace, who was called to the Nigerian Bar between 23rd and 25th September 2025. Still drenched in celebrations at what is not an easy feat in a country where dysfunction is an unnatural disaster, she was abducted alongside her sister by kidnappers on her way back to her base in the southeast. They spent about four days in the den of their kidnappers. 

For 29-year-old Somtochukwu Maduagwu, death came agonizingly on Monday, 29th September 2025, during an armed robbery attack during which she is said to have gotten severely injured and passed away as she tried to escape. It was also said that life-saving medical attention did not arrive on time.

In the circumstances, there can be only one fitting description for a country where death is easier than life. Such a country can be fittingly described as being disastrously dysfunctional.

The boldest stamp a state can leave on its territory and on the consciousness of its citizens is security. When the citizens of a country know that they are safe within a country,  trust wells within them in the capacity of the state to protect them. This in turn transforms into patriotism and many other good qualities that every state cannot do without. Alas, in Nigeria, the opposite is true.

It Is constitutional that the chief responsibility of the Nigerian state is the welfare of its citizens. Yet, every day in Nigeria, Nigerians are killed, and unaccountably too. The grim  list of Nigerians killed with no one held to account continues to grow by the day to put Nigeria on the spot and firmly establish it as a country without justice.

A country boils more fiercely than a cauldron when elected government officials appear impotent and impassive before the scalding rage of ragtag criminals and ragged non-state actors.

For all the current administration assures Nigeria that it is irreversibly on the right track, for all that loquacious government officials howl to the rooftops that the peace and prosperity of old have made a resounding return to a thoroughly parched land, the gaps remain, stressing the gulf between Nigeria as it is today and the country it aspires to be.

Criminals operate, saunter away, and return only because measures are not in place to check them. For more than a decade now, Nigeria’s suspect security architecture has continued to disintegrate, worn down by government dereliction and  the newfound audacity of criminals.

These criminals strike at will, cut lives short, and cart away valuables only to rest, rinse, and repeat their crimes all the while unbothered by what a fairly toothless state can possibly conjure.

A country where citizens cannot sleep with both eyes closed is a country cooking its demise. Such a country can hardly ever make any meaningful progress.

Nigeria must do more. It is tragically shameful that Africa’s largest democracy cannot guarantee the basics of statehood, thus exposing its citizens to ruthless criminals.

Kene Obiezu,

keneobiezu@gmail.com