The United Nations (UN) described human security as “an approach that helps in identifying and addressing cross-cutting challenges to the survival, livelihood and dignity of their people. This calls for people-centered, comprehensive, context-specific and prevention-oriented responses that strengthen the protection and empowerment of all people”.
However, this approach seems not to be at play in today’s Nigeria.
The current spate of insecurity in the country is so devastating and has, unfortunately, kept escalating with little or no sign of abating.
From the north to the south, Nigeria is faced with different forms of insecurity that if left unchecked, will end up ravaging the entire country. This negative tendencies of insecurity have multiplier effects on the potential for, not just economic development, but also human development.
With respect to this write-up, my focus will be on the insecurity challenge currently bedeviling more specifically the Northwestern part of the country, following the recent escalation of terrorists’ activities in Kaduna, which led to internal displacement, economic stagnation and, most unfortunately, loss of lives and properties.
This challenge and numerous others have succeeded in labelling the state as one of the unsafe in the country.
Both the federal and state governments have come up with several strategies and policies intended to address the multiple layers of insecurity in the state; but, unfortunately, so far, these strategies seem not to work as local government areas, notably Igabi, Chikun and Kajuru that engulf the Kaduna Capital Territory and Birnin Gwari from a far have recently seen exponential increase in the rate of activities of bandits, now classified as terrorists.
For instance, the recent bomb attack on the Abuja – Kaduna passenger train and the attack on a military base in Birnin Gwari that led to the death of military personnel while scores sustained varying degrees of injury, are enough proof of how terrorists have dared our collective sense of peace and security.
The calls for more concerted efforts to tackle the continued attacks in Kaduna and other parts of the country cannot be overemphasized. These concerted efforts require government’s response and approach to the challenge, efforts of development agencies and even members of the community themselves to stop these reprehensible actions that keep decimating citizens of the state and making several thousands homeless.
It must be stressed here that it has been established that most of the insecurity issues have local underpinnings that require local solutions to address. As such, governments, especially the Federal Government that is constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of guaranteeing the peaceful co-existence of the citizens, should liaise with the state government to ensure that more jobs are created for the pool of already angry and frustrated youths, to serve as disincentive to them in taking up career in crime, especially banditry and kidnapping.
The state government can also take a step further by implementing part of the Communique of the Northern Governors meeting of February 8, 2021 by entrenching the inclusion of certain marginalized groups in the execution of programmes, policies and projects to give them a feel of inclusion and change their thinking that government is not mindful of their plight.
For the security and intelligence agencies of government, there should be scaling up of activities that will lead to the taming of these ugly developments by embracing the use of technology which will help in generating and collating credible information on the activities of the criminally-minded.
The nation’s Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, while addressing journalists at the inspection site of the train attack, confirmed that soon the Police Force will deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in advancing policing using technology in the fight against crime.
This confirms the lack of acceptance of technology in the operations of the Police over the years, which enable terrorists to wreak havoc on innocent citizens.
Embracing and improving surveillance leveraging on technology is the new global approach in the fight against crime. However, in this light, political leadership must summon the courage to act accordingly and decisively where information is established on how to deal with these criminals.
The recent statements made by Kaduna State Governor Nasir Elrufa’i that the government hears terrorists’ conversations and even knows some of their locations but is failing in dealing decisively with them acting on established intelligence leaves much to be desired.
For development partners, they can as well contribute in the promotion of public safety and security by boosting capacities of communities on embracing early warning strategies and how to effectively collaborate with security agencies to ensure that insecurity tendencies are nipped in the bud and not allowed to escalate, as is the case in some communities that were overran by bandits.
Development partners can as well provide the needed technical support to security agencies in form of collaboration to ensure the mitigation of violent conflicts that sometimes serve as recipe for full blown terrorism.
It is important for citizens to note that those in elective public offices campaigned for election with the promise that they would change the lives of their people for the better.
As the 2023 general elections draw near, citizens can correct some of the problems facing them that political leadership is unable to address by voting out inept leaders at all levels and replacing them with those that understand the enormity of the challenges and are ready to adopt whatever strategy they feel will guarantee the peaceful co-existence of their people.
As Presidential, Gubernatorial and other candidates for elective positions intensify their campaigns to secure their parties tickets and subsequently be presented as candidates, Nigerians should engage them in a no-holds-barred conversation on how they will play their parts in ending this menace of insecurity.
For us as a people and as a country, to win the war against terrorism, the cooperation of everyone, including traditional leaders, religious leaders, youth leaders, women leaders, the entire members of the communities and more importantly, security stakeholders, is Central in the war against insecurity and all forms of criminality.
Together we can build a structure strong enough to address insecurity tendencies in Kaduna and Nigeria as a whole.
Ahmed, a journalist with Liberty TV/Radio, writes from Kaduna
