THE SECURITY WE NEED

There is doubt that there have been several measures and attempts by governments at all levels at different times in the history of Nigeria including other stakeholders and in recent times to strengthen the security situation across the most populous African state called Nigeria.

Attempts by the state and its agencies include international organizations; Economic Community of West African States, African Union and other countries who claimed to be interested in the country’s development USA, Britain, just to mention few as well as concern Nigerians to ensure that Nigerians is secure and its citizens can sleep with their two eyes closed have so far became exercise in futility.

The chief reason these efforts will continue to be in vain is the misplacement of priorities. Our youths are hungry and the government wants to pump more money for security, two contradictory elements that can never rime.

Security according to oxford advanced learners dictionary is “the activities involved in protecting a country, building or person against attack, danger etc. the dictionary went further to define security as “protection against something bad that might happen in the future”. From the later, we can deduct that Nigerian leaders are not interested to turn the country’s fortune around.

Security is not about when Ajimobi launched of security fund, it is beyond donation of armor personnel carriers by Ogun state government or donation of bullet proof vests to the police by Lagos or Niger state governments, security is all about our people and the social lives. Security is when people can eat what they want at the appropriate time, when graduates can have options when it come to job opportunities, when pensioners will no more regret that they have served the country meritoriously and when artisans and other professionals can practice their profession without power interruption.

Just like I wrote on my facebook wall the other time that Nigerian leaders are suffering from political alcoholism. They are being intoxicated by the power we all gave them. They kept sitting on fire that will soon consume them if they continue to deceive us. They kept on fumbling and wobbling everyday claiming to be taking their time  to find  lasting solution to the security challenges of the country  without knowing that job opportunities for the teeming youths who are productive enough to do the country  great is the number one  security measure.

Our woes have continue to increase from acute poverty to corruption , decaying in education sector , erratic power supply, floods, hooliganism terrorism, kidnapping , prostitution , electoral malpractices , unemployment, HIV/AIDS, drugs abuse , rape, to mention few and no one seems to be concerned.

Our young men have turned to yahoo-yahoo boys drugs pushers, 419 experts, thugs, area boys, gamblers, kidnappers, while ladies use what they have to bet what they want, they are now commercial sex workers of different grades because they must also survive. I can’t blame them for this because “man must eat and drink before he can pursue arts, religion and philosophy” Karl Marx (1818-1883).

Graduates who are at the mercy of original and fake recruiters are roaming about our streets from Ibadan to Maiduguri, from Sokoto to Calabar and from Otueke or Enugu to Jos or Gusau without any hope that they will soon be call by any of their previous interviewers. The trend of Boko Haram in the north, kidnapping hooliganism and vandalisation of pipelines in either southeast or southsouth will continue if youths are uncertain about their future.

MAP OF NIGERIA.

Our leaders should remember the Yoruba adage that says “work is the antidote to poverty” and also bear it in mind that an idle hand is no more the devil’s workshop but devil itself. Boko Haram members and our brothers in the southeast and southsouth are human beings who can reason if they are fully engaged and well cater for socially, educationally and otherwise. 

Many workers who have spent more than enough years in service are still culpable of age reduction because there is no proper provision for retirees. The unfriendly political, socio-economic situations of the country that have polluted minds of many Nigerians including the social critics and arm chair human rights activists have made Marx word “it is not the consciousness of man that determines his being, it is his social environment that determines his being” relevant in our lives.

They (leaders) should also be preparing for more groups springing up.  The trend has become a split over effect; killings by the Boko Haram group, vandalisation in the southeast and southsouth and the recent kidnapping of the wife of Osun state house of assembly’s speaker and mother of a house of representatives in Ogun state in the southwest will soon envelope the country if the leadership fail to provide us the security we need. Jobs for the teeming youths and no argument. We must redefine our social lives to be more meaningful than before that it is not all about money and buildings but our people who are suffering from acute poverty, diseases, simply because they are Nigerians.

Adequate care and social security packages must be provided for the unemployed youths because it is not their fault but the system, the aged, children and women must be cater for and at the same time government and other stakeholders must ensure provision of jobs for the teeming youths.

These measures will help to strengthen the security situation of the country instead of wasting tax payers’ money in embarking on exercise that will not take us anywhere. Our leaders should think deeply and stop deceiving us and bear in minds that “we will revolt when we reach the wall of the fence”.