There is no doubt that the dismal security situation in Nigeria today has reached alarming rate. It is a fact that Nigerians worked very hard to secure their independence from colonial rule. However, rather than ensuring its safety over the years, they have not taken the issue of security serious.

Since Independence, the rate of criminality has continued to affect every facet of the country; from the government to security agencies and Nigerians as a whole. The people have been very careless with their personal security and that of the country they worked hard to liberate.

Over the years, the country has been subjected to diverse attacks that had wearied its collective energy. The story has been the same with each passing year throwing up its own type of criminality. A time was when burglary was the in-thing. Houses and property were burgled in a whisker and police stations recorded many cases across the country.

As development increased and security was upgraded, criminals delved into car snatching and petty robbery. Fear gripped many people. Then, the military were in charge of government and they reactively introduced summary execution of convicted armed robbers. Even at that, robberies became the order of the day.

Many states introduced their security outfits, including ‘’Bakkasi Boys’’ to address the rise in armed robbery. Both the people and the police had sleepless nights, all to no avail.

Just as the spate of criminality seemed to abate, the criminals took to ritual killing, as human parts were severed for rituals, and cultism surged in various higher institutions across the country. Again, the increase in population and unemployment opened other windows of crime as desperate politicians went haywire to recruit unemployed youths, arming them and transforming them into political thugs. They killed, maimed and raped innocent women.

This changed the security narrative in the country. It became a veritable trade to illegally import arms into the country. Within these periods, many innocent lives were wasted and properties worth billions of naira lost.

Then, came the Niger Delta militants, whose firepower and strategies almost depleted the oil earning capacity of the country.

In their hundreds, they took refuge in the creeks, armed to the teeth, kidnapping and blowing up oil pipeline. This brought about the era of daylight kidnapping, as retired armed robbers took solace in the new crime. These terrorist increased the criminal terminology in the country. They abducted students, women and old folks while still engaging in conquest mode.

Regrettably, this terror and armed brigandage has skyrocketed to every nook and cranny, especially in the Northern part of the country where schools are invaded and hundreds of students abducted. Commuters are not equally left out as well as other passers-by, who are kidnapped by armed bandits for ransom, and, sometimes, for rape.

Similar security threat is the invasion of farmers and communities by bandits suspected to be herdsmen. These have created massive national uproar and President Muhammadu Buhari had summoned courage to change the security chiefs. Extracting their commitment to ensure better security for Nigerians is gladdening.

However, the truth is that Nigerians have lost trust in the security agencies sequel to past sour experiences. The 2020 #ENDSARS protest is a true case study. But, the security agencies need members of the public and the media to help restore confidence in their work. Nigerians are needed to provide necessary information on corrupt persons and criminals operating around their communities. This is because these people live among us.

It is such involvement of members of the public that the security agencies need to heighten their morale. However, such information must be held sacrosanct by the agencies. Nigerians should be educated that securing themselves and the country is their right; while securing the country is the constitutional duty of both the government and the security agencies.

The time has come for a new mindset in Nigerians to see the country as their personal project that must be protected at all cost, with the assistance of the security agencies and government at all levels. By so doing, it shall be recorded in history that there was a time when securing Nigeria was the duty of everybody.

WRITTEN BY DR. TIMOTHY IFEDIORANMA

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