Incessant security concerns in Nigeria

Sir: For the past few years, the Northern part of the country has been convulsed by a string of hostilities and chronic insecurity. The ancient towns and villages are under threat from the savage groups. No one prays for crack on his walls, they are unwanted signs of a feeble wall. 

The palpable fissure in Nigeria is now a fundamental challenge for the government to worry about. Like the proverbial saying in my local parlance, ‘‘when the rations in the bowl were supposed to be emptied, the one in the mouth kept spiraling down.’’ When we thought that the current government has everything at its hand, the bandits are adopting new tactics and insecurity is now on a grand scale.

Today, it has been a deterioration of investment in these regions, today it has been corrosion of national security. Today, huge casualties that would once make headlines are becoming mundane as the Boko Haram and other militant groups flex their muscles against our armed men under pressure to curtail them.

Today, there remains no clear end in sight, what we have are different bandits who take cover in different areas to cause mayhem, burns or destroy farms, from Katsina, Benue, Plateau and Taraba states. The Fulani herdsmen have wreak havoc on Riyom, Barkin-Ladi and Jos South local government.
 
We have continued to apply military pressure but I am not sure if we have reached the peak. Have we tried to scuttle their financial sources? Have we tried to adopt a community or state police approach? Have we tried modern gadgets that can collate intelligence reports on the activities of the bandits in these regions?  Have we intensified effort to integrate and connect with all stakeholders in the affected areas? It will take more than a military might for the conflict in the northern part of the country to end.

If we want security concerns to be over, what we need is a concerted effort across all strata of government – from the President to the senators, house of representatives and their counterparts at state levels, until we concur that underdevelopment, unemployment, lack of good governance, lack of education and tribalism are the root courses of insurgency and insecurity in the northern parts of Nigeria, our approach will continue to crumble like a sandcastle.

Olusanya Anjorin wrote from Lagos.