Insecurity: Government is Only on Top of the Situation when Blue Bloods are Involved

By Jefferson Uwoghiren Esq

The truth of the matter is that we pay lip services to issues of insecurity and personal safety of Nigerians.

Unfortunately, Nigerians are too believing and in a hurry to believe the lie called government is on top of the situation.

Every month, national and state security councils meet to discuss security issues affecting Nigerians, ending with the usual photo sessions.

But the truth is that very few states are determined to end insecurity with proactive measures.

How do we explain the proliferation of small arms that is the play thing in almost every village around us and always the means of settling boundaries disputes in many communities?

The primary business of government is the safety and well-being of citizens.

Building of hospitals and construction of roads are ancillary to this primary duty.

Yet, how many states or governors are consciously and deliberately making effective efforts to retrieve all these illegal arms in our communities and urban warehouses?

Possession of firearms is no longer seen as a serious offence because the welders of these arms, surprisingly known to the authorities concerned, are programmed goons for winning elections.

Every day, we hear of kinetic security incursions by our security agencies.

What is kinetic in a policing system without human and artificial intelligence? How many police stations have CCTV coverages?

How many filling stations have CCTV coverages? How many hotels have CCTV coverages?

How many restaurants and eateries have CCTV coverages?

How many motor parks and bus terminals have CCTV coverages?

How many banks and financial institutions have CCTV operations outside their banking halls and vaults?

How many schools, primary to tertiary, have CCTV operations?

How many churches and mosques have CCTV operations in spite of the cheap costs of purchase and installation?

How many of our markets and so-called supper markets have CCTV coverages? How many of our courts and court premises have CCTV coverages?

Why is it possible to travel from Benin to Lagos and return without the journey being captured on camera at least once?

Installation of cameras do not stop criminals from committing crimes, but it helps in their apprehension.

Besides, criminals don’t like to be captured on camera committing crimes. This is not rocket science but elementary commonsense.

Yet, in all the parliamentary committees, police and security committees are one of the juiciest because of corruption. They are not asking these questions.

Travelling by roads in Nigeria is now a serious and dangerous adventure, except embedded in cow and tomato trucks!

Our residential streets are dark and evil alleys, where rich folks await government street lights, as criminals parade freely.

Our public and commercial transport system is in the hands of criminal elements with minimal regulation and registration by the government.

Just anybody can ply the streets picking up passengers in the name of kabukabu. So many people have been driven to their deaths through patronage of these mobile evil gangs.

When last did a senior government official enter any of these intra city public transport modes to get first-hand knowledge of what millions placed in their care are going through?

All they do when serious crimes occur is to issue the bland statement proclaiming that the government is on top of the situation, even when it’s evidently clear that the government is handicapped and languishing under the situation! It’s all double speak and lip services.

We all live by grace now!

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