By Don Okereke
Preamble:
At the risk of painting a gloomy picture, I dare submit that the tempo of social tension, political entropy, armed conflict, wanton bloodletting, ungoverned spaces, and the centrifugal forces at play in Nigeria is to say the least, ramping up every day and very disturbing. Not to be outdone, Nigeria is increasingly ticking all the right boxes of a fragile state and upping the misery index. To be sure, Nigeria increased from 94.4 index in 2006 to 97.27 index in 2020. Lest I forget, it's not all gloomy, Nigeria constructed a $1.95 billion railway from Kano state into Maradi, Niger Republic. Nigeria's Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi confirmed that he personally begged the Republic of Niger to allow Nigeria to link them with the railway. Moving on…Aforesaid upshots in Nigeria are fueled by widening gap in social cohesion, entrenched marginalization, patent nepotism, corruption, inequality, injustice, uncurbed proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW) and attendant quest for the Balkanization of the country by sundry self-determination groups. In the southwest, the herdsmen-farmers miasma has been heightened by a blustering quest for Oduduwa Republic championed by Chief Sunday Adeyemo (aka Sunday Igboho), his enfant terrible spokesman, Mr. Olayomi Koiki et al. As part of efforts to actualize Oduduwa Republic, agitators recently launched a security outfit - Oduduwa Nation Security Force, code-named “Operation Paramole’’ in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. Some stakeholders and analysts say the ongoing violence in Nigeria is a preamble to the 2023 general election. Thrown into the mix is a disturbing trend in non-state actors brazenly attacking police officers, government security agents and carting away their weapons. No part of the country is off-limits to criminal activities. Abuja, the capital of Nigeria is been encircled by bandits, and tenably Boko Haram elements. Premium Times reports that Pegi community in Kuje area council of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, is fast becoming a kidnapper’s den despite housing two government security facilities - the Navy and the police. Community leaders say at least 30 persons had been kidnapped in the area in the last two years and about N50 million paid as ransom. Writing in his column – Pendulum - on THISDAY Newspaper, Dele Momodu’s essay titled, ‘Who Shall Tell the President Nigeria is Dying?’ captures events playing out in Nigeria. In the words of Momodu, ‘’The symptoms of a failed nation are just too palpable to be missed or ignored by a reasonable people. If nobody has yet told the President, then he must hear this somehow. Our security situation is more than dire and grim. It is now catastrophic. Nigerians are now being killed, kidnapped and raped in places that used to know only peace’’. Ironically, while the United Kingdom expresses grave concern over what it described as the ‘deteriorating security situation in Nigeria’, President Buhari is vested, promises helping Niger Republic, and other neighbouring countries to rein in terrorism, insecurity.
- Don Okereke
- Nigeria Watch International
- Posted On
