I'm picking on this topic today because of the misguided mindset of the majority of Nigerians on this matter.If you ask an average Nigerian as per who is responsible for security, over 90% would answer that it's the government. I wasn't really moved by the widespread ignorance until I started hearing the so called security experts heaping the whole thing on the government too! It's so shocking to me!
I'm not a security expert, though, but, I feel like there's more to security than us depending on the Armed Forces only for security.
Simply put, security is the state of being free from danger and threat. Having defined the term security, discussing it extensively would be easy.
From the above definition of security, it can be clearly seen that security is everybody's business and not that of the government alone as most people tend to believe. The funny thing about security today is that we are not securing ourselves against wild animals or beast but against fellow human beings which makes the topic more interesting!
In the next few posts on this blog, I shall try to explain what went wrong and how we can fix the problem for good. Our task would be made extremely easy if we would acknowledge the fact that sticking to the books alone is not helpful .We must learn to think out of the box....as in we must learn to adapt to the reality on ground.
The Security Challenges of Nigeria
Personally, I think the Nigerian security challenges are man-made. They are entirely preventable. I shall illustrate with example.
The most prominent of all the current challenges we have in terms of security today is the Boko Haram insurgency. How did it all begin?
According to most sources, they were originally a religious movement that have been around for a while. A particular source said the religious movement was approached by a politician who sought their support and they gave it in exchange for a better societal welfare package. Unfortunately, as usual, they, the politician failed them and they, in retaliation started preaching against the politician's regime who in response had used his political powers to crack down on the group. Things got totally out of control when the politician used the Police against the embittered group. Before you can say 'Jack', the group had resorted to carrying arms and things deteriorated so quickly that the Military was called in to interfere. The group took up the full features of a terrorist group when their spiritual leader in the person of Muhammad Yusuf was murdered in Police custody extra judicially.
From what I've illustrated above, you can see that the case of the Boko Haram was mismanaged by our Armed Forces in collaboration with the political class. I want to believe that should the said politician have been brought to justice and those responsible for the death of Muhammad Yusuf were made to face the full wrath of law, Nigeria and Nigerians would have been saved the needless crisis we have at hand.
Our Sense of Security is Poor
The unfortunate part of the whole thing is that we Nigerians have heaped all the faults of our security flaws on the government. We don't think we have any role to play in securing our communities. Whereas, in the real sense of it, security is primarily our responsibility not the government's.
The Bokos are still relevant because of the several successes they have recorded over the years. A similar group was uprooted in the South West on the country. This group was known as 'Badoo'. How were they uprooted? It's simple, the residents of the area where they operated stood against them. The affected communities formed some sort of task force that fished out members of the dreaded group until it was no longer a good idea to join forces with them. They didn't wait for the Police or the government, they did it themselves! Why can't we have the same happen up North?
We must stop the nonsense! We must secure ourselves before we expect someone else to come to our aid. Let every community put up their own local security systems. It can be as cheap and simple as employing the services of Vigilante groups and it can be expensive and sophisticated to the point of using CCTV cameras and employing the services of a more corporate and professional security outfits that are springing up all over. It all depends on the budget of the community. Every community must organize themselves and act as one indivisible force. Such a community is an ideal community which would hardly suffer.
Know Your Neighbor
In some cases, the cause element of insecurity is the lack of knowledge of one's neighbor. Now, I'm not asking you to spy on your neighbors. What I'm saying in essence is that you should be able to socialize and interact freely with virtually everyone in your community. In a situation where you have a new resident who is not known to socialize, you have a duty to report such person to relevant authorities in the community that would send a delegate to find out the necessary information about the new entrant. This is what happens in a well organized community. Now, it doesn't have to be a GRA this is can happen downtown too. This, in itself is security for the community. When you combine this with night watch, you would have dealt with all forms of security threats almost 100%!
I would stop at this juncture for today. This is a burning issue today and I would love to hear from you too. It is not just the Problem of the North but that of Nigeria to which we must find a solution to as Nigerians. Please leave a comment or 2 below or connect with via:
https://www.facebook.com/proudlynigerian
Twitter : @alfajainx
Whatsapp: 07037595859
I'm not a security expert, though, but, I feel like there's more to security than us depending on the Armed Forces only for security.
Simply put, security is the state of being free from danger and threat. Having defined the term security, discussing it extensively would be easy.
From the above definition of security, it can be clearly seen that security is everybody's business and not that of the government alone as most people tend to believe. The funny thing about security today is that we are not securing ourselves against wild animals or beast but against fellow human beings which makes the topic more interesting!
In the next few posts on this blog, I shall try to explain what went wrong and how we can fix the problem for good. Our task would be made extremely easy if we would acknowledge the fact that sticking to the books alone is not helpful .We must learn to think out of the box....as in we must learn to adapt to the reality on ground.
The Security Challenges of Nigeria
Personally, I think the Nigerian security challenges are man-made. They are entirely preventable. I shall illustrate with example.
The most prominent of all the current challenges we have in terms of security today is the Boko Haram insurgency. How did it all begin?
According to most sources, they were originally a religious movement that have been around for a while. A particular source said the religious movement was approached by a politician who sought their support and they gave it in exchange for a better societal welfare package. Unfortunately, as usual, they, the politician failed them and they, in retaliation started preaching against the politician's regime who in response had used his political powers to crack down on the group. Things got totally out of control when the politician used the Police against the embittered group. Before you can say 'Jack', the group had resorted to carrying arms and things deteriorated so quickly that the Military was called in to interfere. The group took up the full features of a terrorist group when their spiritual leader in the person of Muhammad Yusuf was murdered in Police custody extra judicially.
From what I've illustrated above, you can see that the case of the Boko Haram was mismanaged by our Armed Forces in collaboration with the political class. I want to believe that should the said politician have been brought to justice and those responsible for the death of Muhammad Yusuf were made to face the full wrath of law, Nigeria and Nigerians would have been saved the needless crisis we have at hand.
Our Sense of Security is Poor
The unfortunate part of the whole thing is that we Nigerians have heaped all the faults of our security flaws on the government. We don't think we have any role to play in securing our communities. Whereas, in the real sense of it, security is primarily our responsibility not the government's.
The Bokos are still relevant because of the several successes they have recorded over the years. A similar group was uprooted in the South West on the country. This group was known as 'Badoo'. How were they uprooted? It's simple, the residents of the area where they operated stood against them. The affected communities formed some sort of task force that fished out members of the dreaded group until it was no longer a good idea to join forces with them. They didn't wait for the Police or the government, they did it themselves! Why can't we have the same happen up North?
We must stop the nonsense! We must secure ourselves before we expect someone else to come to our aid. Let every community put up their own local security systems. It can be as cheap and simple as employing the services of Vigilante groups and it can be expensive and sophisticated to the point of using CCTV cameras and employing the services of a more corporate and professional security outfits that are springing up all over. It all depends on the budget of the community. Every community must organize themselves and act as one indivisible force. Such a community is an ideal community which would hardly suffer.
Know Your Neighbor
In some cases, the cause element of insecurity is the lack of knowledge of one's neighbor. Now, I'm not asking you to spy on your neighbors. What I'm saying in essence is that you should be able to socialize and interact freely with virtually everyone in your community. In a situation where you have a new resident who is not known to socialize, you have a duty to report such person to relevant authorities in the community that would send a delegate to find out the necessary information about the new entrant. This is what happens in a well organized community. Now, it doesn't have to be a GRA this is can happen downtown too. This, in itself is security for the community. When you combine this with night watch, you would have dealt with all forms of security threats almost 100%!
I would stop at this juncture for today. This is a burning issue today and I would love to hear from you too. It is not just the Problem of the North but that of Nigeria to which we must find a solution to as Nigerians. Please leave a comment or 2 below or connect with via:
https://www.facebook.com/proudlynigerian
Twitter : @alfajainx
Whatsapp: 07037595859
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