New Telegraph

Insecurity: Time to take fight to the bad guys!

In previous write ups, I have dwelt extensively on the issue of insecurity across our beloved country and have often tried to offer suggestions as to alleviating the scourge. Of course as we all know, there is no country in the world that does not have its own deviants who opt for a life of anti-social behaviour ranging from petty crime like house burglaries, vandalism and the likes; to more violent crimes like car snatching, armed robbery and so on.

Other more high profile anti-social behaviour includes identity thief and other cybercrimes of which unfortunately Nigerians have been known to dominate. But all these pale into insignificance when one compares them to what millions of Nigerians are now facing on a daily basis, following the explosion of violent crimes across the land and the inability or otherwise of our security outfits to get a grip of the situation.

Daily, we are inundated with reports of killings, kidnappings, banditry and other forms of vices from all corners of the nation. Some years back for instance, kidnapping was predominantly located in a certain section of the country – the south south where militants ‘angry’ that they were not benefiting from the ‘black gold’ nature had bestowed beneath their soil resorted to kidnapping foreigners in an effort to get their ‘own share’ of the petrol-dollars’ booty.

In the years between 2000 and 2010 foreigners virtually ‘disappeared’ from the area once they realised that the Nigerian state could not ensure their safety. Consequently, people and businesses in the area also felt the absence of the expatriates as their spending power also disappeared. Thousands of direct and contract employment as well as contracts in oil services, well servicing, logistics, catering and other jobs also disappeared when Shell decided to give up its sprawling estate in Warri around 2003 when militants and criminals indiscriminately attacked and despoiled Shell’s staff and facilities.

Despite repeated claims by the police that money was not paid to the kidnappers before the foreigners were released, everybody knew that they were being economical with the truth and the reality was that huge sums of money exchanged hands before a victim was released. And for me, I believe this is where we lost the plot.

Had the authorities taken drastic action to nip the scourge in the bud we would not be where we are now because wannabe kidnappers would have had to think long and hard if they would want to take the risk of joining a business in which they would not enjoy their loot because they would be in jail.

But because they did not, the ‘business’ continued to flourish like mushrooms, and so after the ‘oyinbo’ source of kidnap money dried up it was only natural that those in the business would look for another source to fill the void and consequently resorted to pick up their fellow Nigerians. With the business ‘booming’, it was only natural that it would spread as others got in on the act – after who does not want to be a millionaire and enjoy all the trappings that come from being one! According to SB Morgan, a Nigerian consulting firm, using data gathered from a variety of open sources, including the Council’s Nigeria Security Tracker, between 2011 and 2020, it concluded that over $18 million had been paid in ransom.

While kidnapping was growing in the South South and South East, a new plague burst on the scene in the North East and that was Boko Haram in 2002. Perhaps had Mohammed Yusuf, who founded the group in 2002, not been killed by a disgruntled police officer seven years later then maybe we would not have been caught up in a bloody insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 2.3 million from their homes, and was at one time the world’s deadliest terror group according to the Global Terrorism Index.

The nation has also thrown billions into tackling the menace with little to for it as the group has continued to make its present known with some high-profile and very gruesome attacks and murders like last November’s despicable murder of 43 farmers from Sokoto who had their throats slit in Borno State. Although President Muhammadu Buhari, had waited for six years before finally deciding that he needed to rejig the nation’s military hierarchy with the retirement of the Service Chiefs, headed by Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin (Chief of Defence Staff), Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (Chief of Army Staff), Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas (Chief of Navy Staff) and Sadique Abubakar (Chief of Air Staff) in January; nothing has really changed with the killings going on unabatedly.

The new military chiefs, headed by Gen. Leo Irabor, (CDS), Lt. Gen I Attahiru (Army), Rear Adm AZ Gambo (Navy) and AVM IO Alao (Air Force) said all the right things at their swearing in insisting that they would change the insecurity narrative. And just eight days ago, their Commander- in-Chief, Muhammadu Buhari followed up by telling them that they “should to go out into the field and secure the country’. Speaking further he said: “You have got a few weeks to do that because by the rainy season, we expect people to develop confidence and go back to the land, so that we don’t get into trouble by being away from the field and therefore unable to produce enough food for the nation.”

However, just like I warned in a previous write up the change of guard and fresh tough talking from both their Commanderin- Chief and the new helmsmen nothing much has changed on the ground with the bloodletting and kidnapping continuing unabated. It is only when firm and concrete steps are taken to quell the low level insurgency that the alarming numbers will drastically reduce. But to this government and her agencies must take the fight to the bad guys this is the only way that they will realise that it will no longer be business as usual.

The 1987 blockbuster movie ‘The Untouchables’ captures this succinctly when a wily old police officer Jim Malone in learning that a district attorney is finding it difficult to bring famed mobster Al Capone to justice because the gangland kingpin either bribed or intimidated possible witnesses against him, told the investigator: “You wanna get Capone? Here’s how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue!” In order words the best way to get them is to go after them and inflict more anguish on them so that they will be forced to sit down to decide if their life of crime is really worth it when they may not be free or even alive to enjoy the ‘fruit’ of their labour.

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