#Features

Who is safe?

The state of insecurity in the land should be of serious concern to law abiding citizens who cannot afford to make private arrangements for their security. Those who engage bouncers, thugs and assassins surely have contributed in no small measure to the army of criminals who make life unsafe. In the first place, the nature of such jobs is temporary, and seasonal. Once the project is completed, as in, when elections are over, they are disengaged. Their ‘retirement benefits’ include arms and ammunition, operational vehicles and contacts made while the ‘assignment’ lasted. They make friends among the police. They helped them to clear the way, and provided them cover from the law and opposing or rival groups.

A few decades ago, tough guys were employed to dispossess legitimate land owners of their property. As it suggested itself to be lucrative, area boys or omo onile set up their organisation to extort anyone embarking on construction. The police advised victims to go settle the miscreants. Then the witchdoctors making money rituals. In a way, home video popularised these get-rich-quick devices. Adults; educated and illiterate, even graduate and undergraduates started to adopt the means to emergency prosperity. They buy flashy cars and acquire state of the art landed property. They junket round the globe for pleasure and shopping. Sex mates, they could not have been lovers, became money making ingredients. The ritualists have penetrated everywhere. The business world, even elementary schools and churches have been invaded. Ritualists start ministries whose foundations are laid with human parts. Gone were the days boys and girls exchanged visits, spending some time together. Many of such visits now end up as journeys of no return. A parent might sacrifice the child for money or power; even children may offer parents to satan for money making. If one takes preventive measures to escape the various traps, it would be naïve to conclude that all is well.

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Kidnapping is another form of insecurity threatening the Nigerian social fabric. Islamic extremists and Fulani herdsmen are reputed for employing this weapon. Extremists use it to forcibly convert to their form of Islam or to arm twist authorities to release their members from incarceration or prosecution. The herdsmen employ kidnapping to violate women, and to drive fear into the minds of members of the community under attack, so they may possess their land. It started a long time ago and has grown in regularity and intensity. The question now is who is safe? The other day, a judge from Osun state was going to attend her friend’s swearing-in ceremony at the Supreme Court. While her driver tried to outmaneuver kidnappers, her vehicle was sprayed with bullets, and she was wasted. That was on Lokoja-Abuja road. A few weeks back, a student of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, escaped kidnap by the whiskers in Akure, apparently because her abductors were not as sophisticated, but more so because she was lucky. Last Saturday, December 15, a coaster bus was waylaid around Premier Timber factory in Ilu Abo. Two of the occupants were abducted. Some two years ago, Prof Tunde Fabunmi and wife were kidnapped at Ago Ajayi between Owo and Oba-Akoko. The gunshots he received made him lose so much blood, he almost died. Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo staff and Federal Medical Centre, Owo doctors including a pregnant woman were victims and even casualties in the hand of kidnappers. Even though there seems to be no end in sight, the police have loudly announced that they are on top of the situation.

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As insatiable materialism manifests in inhumanity, mindlessness, insecurity, and bloodletting, we must ask, what shall we do to escape the looming doom upon Nigeria? Having discovered that only the few that have extraordinary military protection are safe, what must the majority helpless citizens do to escape insecurity? The people must organize themselves into protectiles and vigilance groups. Native wisdom must no longer be discounted. Again, it must be clear to all now that individualism is a strange phenomenon in Yorubaland, even in Africa. The people must revert to being their brothers’ keepers, if we would not all be consumed by the menace.

However, a more frightening suggestion is gaining ground to the effect that with the federal government noose tightening around the neck of Boko Haram, couldn’t this spate of kidnapping have been adopted by the insurgents as an alternative means of generating funds for their dastardly project? This hypothesis must not be dismissed with a wave of the hand. Rather, government must scrutinise this line of thought and establish the true position. Indeed because of reports that herdsmen flock the road with their cattle to impede vehicular movement while they pounce on travelers to dispossess them of their valuables and capture their hostages needs a rethink of policy on animal husbandry in Nigeria. Free range of any kind of animals is no longer acceptable, the more so for cattle.

The whole society must be reorganized. A friend once told me what obtains in Kwara State. Government has farm settlements that an intending farmer goes to the appropriate government department, pays an affordable fee, and gets an allocation of farmland to do business. For an affordable fee as well, ploughing, harrowing, ridging, planting were carried out by the agric department. When society is organised, a number of crimes are limited because it is in the nature of criminals to take advantage of disorganised situations.

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Beyond this, so long Nigeria refuses to adopt modern technology in cattle rearing and beef production, so long would insecurity continue to multiply and get complicated. The technology employed in Europe and the Americas for animal husbandry and meat production is suitable for Nigerians. The achievement of Buhari Administration in railway construction would be added advantage in transportation of the animals. If the present mode of cattle rearing is not replaced with the modern type, things can only get worse.

While the police continue to assure us that they are ‘on top of the situation’, we must begin to discuss the problem at family, quarter, village, and town meetings. The traditional custodians of the earth must wake up to their responsibility. The craze for materialistic acquisition must also be addressed such that families would adopt and impart virtues of patience, contentment and humaneness.

That riches acquired by foul means do not last, and beneficiaries end up in perdition is no longer news. If a daughter of a one-time Deputy Governor could fall prey into the hands of ritualists, that should sufficiently warn that the problem at hand is collective and everyone must make contributions to solving it.

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