• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

40 security personnel for deposed Emir? Our country has lost it!

Sanusi in the hands of security agents

While it is germane to canvass for a special funding for the security agencies in the country, the question remains, how has the government put the personnel to proper use in the interest of the masses? In a country where police-to-citizen ratio is abysmally too low for comfort, the few personnel are channeled into doing useless jobs other than the primary policing and protection of lives and property. For instance, in 2009, a report said that Nigeria had more than 370,000 police officers and a police-to-citizen ratio of 1 to 400. According to Wikipedia, “Nigeria Police Force is with a staff strength of about 371,800. There are currently plans to increase the force to 650,000, adding 280,000 new recruits to the existing 370,000.”

In a country where kidnappers, Boko Haram, and herdsmen are killing innocent people on a daily basis, and security personnel sent to combat these menace are developing cold feet in confronting the enemies, and instead turn back to constitute a nuisance and a menace to the hapless citizens going about their lawful businesses, a case in point being the recent Ikokwu saga in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where those recruited and paid with tax payers’ money brutally killed and maimed innocent mechanics, can only point to a nation in trouble. It is disheartening that a large number of security agents made up of policemen, personnel of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCD), were posted to a small compound where deposed Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is being held hostage. Reports had it that over 40 agents were stationed within and outside the compound. Does this make Nigeria look serious in the midst of threatening insecurity ravaging the country?

We are told that a bill has passed second reading at the National Assembly for the creation of Nigerian Armed Forces Support Fund. Ordinarily, this is a great idea, but put side by side with the news making the rounds how funds meant to fight insurgency end up in private coffers, it would simply mean that the wealth of the whole world would not solve Nigeria’s problem if there is no change of mind and attitude on the part of those who superintend over these huge funds and their allocations. It is not about releasing money; a lot of money has been pumped into the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency, yet, it is as if nothing is happening. How on earth does a nation justify the deployment of over 40 armed security personnel to stand at the gate of a deposed traditional ruler, just to turn people back from visiting him, when an attrition war is raging in Borno, and other parts of the country? Look at Benue State, improper policing has continued to encourage the killer herdsmen to overrun villages and communities without any challenge. From Kaduna to Adamawa; from Plateau to Benue; from Enugu to Ebonyi; from Edo, down to Delta, and from Ogun, Oyo to Ondo, it is all about tears and agony over the killings going on unchecked. Some highways in the country have become a no-go-area, yet, we have the conscience to waste resources and personnel. May God help Nigeria!