By Ray Ekpu
In Nigeria today bandits, terrorists and other criminals who are known by different names have made each day imperfect for Nigerians. We have lost count of the number of people killed or kidnapped in various parts of Nigeria daily. Now the major scene of killings and kidnappings is Plateau and Benue States while a few other states also record minor and not so minor incidents of killing and kidnapping. That is why many people are surprised, infact shocked, that the decision makers are postponing taking a firm decision on State Police. Governors of the southern and northern states have agreed that State Police is the answer to the present insecurity problem. Traditional rulers, civil society organisations, the media and serious-minded Nigerians have also come to the inescapable conclusion that state police, if implemented, is the formula for tackling this present level of high insecurity in the country. There are several reasons why the efforts of our security personnel have not yielded the desired results of effectively combating insecurity in the country. One, there are not enough police and military personnel to cope with the problem in such a vast country as Nigeria. It is estimated that out of the 450, 000 policemen in Nigeria today at least 150, 000 of them are attached to very important personalities and not so important personalities who have the cash to get such personnel assigned to them, whether they merit such favours or not. That is why it is easy to find policemen being used as houseboys who carry handbags, agbadas, wigs, wallets, gele, and bottled water for their ogas as if these ogas have no hands with which to carry their personal items. This is disgraceful, something that you don’t see in other countries. But this is Nigeria where anything, almost anything, goes.
Two, most of our security agencies – policemen and armed forces personnel – operate largely in urban and semi urban areas. The terrorists and bandits are smart. That is why they now target rural areas where our security personnel are absent. They just move in there in okada, kill and abduct as many people as possible and vanish into the forests and bushes and leave us gnashing our teeth and throwing the country into the abyss of grief every day.
Three, the telecommunication companies still sell their sim cards to all kinds of persons without recording their correct identities. In an age of technology such as this it should have been easy, very easy, to locate who are the terrorists and where they are operating from if their phones were properly registered.
Four, it seems that our security personnel are using poor and outdated technology. With superior technology it would be easy to trace and arrest or destroy these criminals. In China, almost every problem is solved with modern technology. Why don’t we go to China and ask them to fashion out for us appropriate technology for dealing with our insecurity problem. Mr President what stops you from visiting China specifically for the purpose of getting help on our security problems. China has appropriate technology for solving problems in developing countries.
Five, the government has made this fight against insecurity a government only fight. That ought not to be the case. The people ought to be involved in it. These terrorists live near people. If they live in the forests people know where these forests are located. Is there a three digit number that people can call to give information? If there is, is that well known to Nigerians in our towns and villages? I have no idea. The fight against these criminals ought to be a major campaign in which all the media platforms ought to be used in all the states, local government areas and villages. This campaign can only be successful when there is a massive sensitization of the public. The fight doesn’t belong to the government alone. It belongs to the people as well.
Six, this is a fight in which it will be useful to utilize the services of whistle blowers. If there is some kind of compensation given for accurate and timely information given that can lead to the foiling of a planned kidnap attempt or the location of the den of the criminals, the fight will yield good results. So I see no harm in rewarding people who supply vital, accurate and timely information that helps the country in this fight.
Seven, in most of the cases of kidnapping the victims are taken into forests where the criminals keep their arms, food and their ransom. If our forests have now become a source of unhappiness for Nigeria, why are we keeping them? Environmentalists may lecture us on the merits of keeping our forests but the forests are not more important than human lives. If there are known forests where these terrorists use as their sanctuary we should reduce those forests to bare land where no criminals can hide without being seen. That is better than our continuing to yelp like puppies every day as our loved ones are taken away and killed.
Eight: I do not see the wisdom in pampering terrorists who have kidnapped or killed people. The idea of treating them with kid gloves is revolting to me. We rehabilitate and send them to live with their victims. What kind of society are we trying to build? We pamper terrorists while we send people who still goats or yams to prison. Double standards cannot help us. Criminals must be punished, not pampered.
Let me repeat for the umpteenth time, that State police is the answer to this nagging problem because of its obvious merits. State Police will increase the number of policemen available for duty. That increase in number means that they can be assigned to duty in rural areas where the criminals have made their soft targets. State Policemen will come from the states, will speak the local language and will know the lay of the land. They will be able to gather information easily and that easy means of gathering information will improve their work tremendously. They will be authorized to carry sophisticated weapons, the type carried by terrorists. Eventhough the Buhari government approved the establishment of Amotekun in the South West and Ebubeagu in the South East as regional security outfits none of them is as effective as expected because they are not allowed to carry sophisticated arms. So their creation has turned out to be an act in futility. Now they only arrest those they can arrest and hand them over to the police for appropriate action while the criminals continue to fire on all cylinders.
In my view, it is the State Police that will fill the gaping gap, it is they who can do the heavy lifting. Why the decision makers are pussy-footing on this matter is unclear to me, while scores of people are being killed or kidnapped daily in various parts of the country.
We need State Police now, not next year.
