According to reports, seven staff of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps returning from inspecting a national grid installation in Niger State were ambushed in Kaduna State and are still missing.
The brutal attack offers a painful but timely reminder of the insecurity Nigerians face in many states and the need for nothing to be spared in the battle against Nigeria’s public enemies.
Since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed General CG Musa as the Chief of Defence Staff in a decision that will go down as a historic masterstroke, the raging fires that once threatened to burn down Kaduna State, especially Southern Kaduna under Muhammad Buhari as president, and Nasir El-rufai as governor, have largely died down.
In a house infested by rats, a cat does not need to make a kill to tell the rats that danger is palpable. All it requires is to cry out every now and then and leave its scent everywhere.
Insecurity remains a serious problem in the North. Last month, a blackout in the North which lasted days was attributed to the insecurity and the activities of non-state actors who keep attacking critical national assets.
It is a shame that Kaduna State which shares proximity with the FCT, and is host to a handful of Nigeria’s military institutions remains a stomping ground for bandits and those who share their morbid interests in death, destruction, and destabilization.
The appointment of an indigene of the state who seems to understand the security situation in the state as Chief of Defence Staff and increased security efforts in the state temporarily seemed to have stanched the bleeding. But it appears that having sniffed the air for too long and found chinks in Nigeria’s security armor, the terrorists are determined to make up for lost time.
Truth is that Nigeria has not done enough to secure Kaduna, Benue and Niger states which are some states worst hit by insecurity in Nigeria. Together with some states in the Northeast, it is clear that these states have been targeted by bandits as operational bases for their operations.
Since ordinarily, ragtag criminals are showing enough guile and sophistication to unsettle three of Nigeria’s most important states, the authorities must now shed the methods that are not working and adopt new strategies.
Insecurity has been like wasting sickness on the body of Nigeria. The humanitarian toll has cost Nigeria trillions of Naira while the cost in lives and livelihoods has been simply incalculable.
Nigeria is a country battered on all sides by many challenges. Many years of failed leadership have left the country vulnerable to shocks. There is hardly a week that goes by without one incident of insecurity in one part of the country or another. In some weeks, multiple security breaches happen in different locations to remind Nigerians of just how far they remain from having a country where lives and property are safe.
Nigeria has encountered multiple problems since independence in 1960, but especially since it returned to democracy in 1999. Solving those complex problems is part of its journey to nationhood. However, there is no doubt that of all the problems confronting Nigeria, insecurity remains the most pressing, and most complicated.
Solving it is non-negotiable if Nigeria is to make any progress as a country.
Ike Willie-Nwobu,
