INSECURITY AND RURAL DWELLERS

The countryside is bearing the brunt of criminality. There is need to upgrade
our security surveillance system to one that is technology-enabled

The chilling statistics from the Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA) on the number of people abducted and killed in Chibok local government area of Borno State exemplify the situation in rural parts of the country, especially in the north. According to KADA, 110 abducted Chibok schoolgirls are still unaccounted for since 2014, at least 407 persons have been killed in 72 attacks and 332 others abducted, 20 churches burnt and several houses and businesses destroyed.

While the endemic insecurity in the affected areas underlines the existing national embarrassment, Chibok is only in the spotlight as a residue of media prominence conferred on it by the mass abduction of schoolgirls eight years ago. The reality is that Nigeria’s overstretched security architecture has left the rural demographic gasping for the presence of a humane government, while Chibok only symbolises this alarming descent into anarchy.

In recent years, the security compromise particularly in the North has been underlined by persistently futile solutions that seem to yield results mostly in the speeches of politicians watching from afar. With helpless and hopeless rural dwellers submitting to payment of taxes and levies just for their lives to be spared by non-state actors, the line between governance and anarchy becomes blurry with each passing day. With insurgents in the Northeast and bandits operating almost freely in the Northwest, citizens in huge swathes of our country now live at the mercy of criminals.

Several excuses have been given for this state of affairs: Insufficient manpower, inadequate equipment, low morale, lack of intelligence, etc. To worsen matters, the federal government has resorted to mere propaganda to a serious national security challenge. Nigerians are daily regaled with numbers of unnamed persons and companies said to be financing terrorism. Yet, nobody has been brought to justice.

The federal government must understand that Nigerians live on the edge and are increasingly vulnerable in most of the rural parts of the northeast and northwest, and some parts of the north central. This is double or triple whamming for people who are mostly lacking in basic amenities and are already abandoned to their own devices. Now they can’t even live in peace, and the state is incapable of protecting them from opportunistic terrorists and bandits. Since most of our people live in rural areas the growing insecurity has ensured that they cannot even go to their farms anymore. This complicates rural poverty and food inflation.

As sundry criminal cartels mastermind destructions of lives and property in the rural parts of the country, the hope of victims in the government wanes. Therefore, policymakers must pay attention to a possible radicalisation of the disillusioned citizens across the ravaged territories under the control of these non-state actors.

At a period when bandits and terrorists are using a combination of violence and appeasement to secure local followership, the federal government cannot continue with the same strategy that has failed to achieve results. The way forward, therefore, is the prioritisation of the need for a wholesome review of the national security architecture to pave the way for the enlistment of competent hands in command positions. Above all, there is need to upgrade our security surveillance system to one that is more technology-enabled, and can capture expansive territories 24/7, and initiate necessary action. Mobilisation to own communal security will be helped if the material benefits of citizenship become more obvious and demonstrable.

We acknowledge the sacrifice of our armed forces, and we commend their efforts. But whatever they are doing is clearly not enough. We need to step up air and ground onslaught against the terrorists, coordinate more with our neighbours, regain the confidence of the communities and leverage technology extensively. And as Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State keeps saying, we may need to engage the services of mercenaries, if only for the short term.
Overall, government, at all levels, must be reminded of its responsibility not just for human welfare but for security of life and property.