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Just when many were beginning to have a feel of relief and a tinge of respite from fear of travel, and getting the feeling that after all they can sleep with all eyes closed, they suddenly woke up to the grim reality that they are mistaken in their assumption of safety. Nigeria seems not to be isafe.
Days back, gun- touting bandits allegedly numbering up to hundred stormed Tsiga a serene rustic township in Katsina State and abducted Major General Maharazu Tsiga, the former Director General of the National Youth Service Corp and nine others in what looks like a sting operation.
Yesterday the decomposing body of a member of House of Assembly in Anambra State was found somewhere close to Niger bridge.
Tsiga’s abduction is the most significant reminder that security is still tenuous at home and on the streets. Gradually before our very eyes, the country is skipping into a failed state that could no longer guarantee the security of lives and property despite billions sunk into security budget annually.
Nigerians are facing multipronged challenges that makes life in the country the eight wonder of the world.
Buffeted on all sides by rising prices of basic commodities which have shot up cost of living, electricity hiccups amidst rising electricity tariffs, high cost of transportation, school fees and rents which have hit the rooftops, Nigerians are still not safe to worry about these existential threats.
NATIONAL WAVES is of the view that the growing dysfunction and the state of anomie which have enveloped the country, including security challenge which has heightened could have been better handled with right leadership, political will and deadlines for the armed forces to end the game of Russian roulette that insecurity has become.
Bandits are not spirits, they are flesh and blood, and the military recent successes in taking out top hierarchy of these outlaws ought to have led naturally to a significant reduction in their ability to attack and abduct innocent Nigerians, and not to escalation of their capacity to cause further harm.
In the Tsiga incident, reports in the media quoting locals indicated that the security operatives were forewarned of the gathering of bandits moving in motorcycles around Tsiga. Why did security operatives not take a proactive measures based on the intelligence provided by locals?
A country can not continue to operate at the mercy of a few outlaws. This newspaper is of view that time has come for a rejigging of the strategy the security operatives is deploying to fight this endless, seemingly intractable war against a band of untrained but determined outlaws. No investment can be guaranteed safety once abductions are rife in an economy struggling for inflow of foreign direct investment.
President Bola Tinubu must as a matter of urgency gives a timelines to the secutity operatives to end banditry. We can not continue like this.
