Don't Miss


Home   >   Opinion - Analysis   >   Columnists   >   Incessant Bomb Blasts: Is Anybody Safe Anywhere?

Incessant Bomb Blasts: Is Anybody Safe Anywhere?

By on April 30, 2012

The 2012 budget places N 1 trillion in the hands of the executive arm of government for spending. How is the government spending this money? We see the renovations FAAN is making at airports across the country. Can you venture a guess on how many billions were set aside for the Ministry of Aviation to improve Security at Nigerian airports? As opposed to the billions that are being spent on cosmetic and basic infrastructure?

Our government needs to awaken to its responsibility of providing security for their citizens.  Nigeria needs to wake up sooner than later! How do you justify taking police patrols off the Federal Highways? And the populace having been sedated by the fact the police are not there to disturb for bribes and inspect incomplete papers have ignored this fatal faux pas.

Who then is left to protect the universities? If no man-power can be spared, then at least where is the technology? Alas, there is no power to turn on the tech.
The Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emmanuel recently removed policemen from public city buildings and put them on the street. He did this as a crime reduction policy; note that there are no regular suicide bombings in America. Or in Germany where President Jonathan recently received advice from Chancellor Angela Merkel?

We cannot solve the problem by simply racking up on ammunition, we are not fighting a war and neither should we intend to embark upon one. However in any event, let us at least have the superior technological and intellectual prowess to gain an advantage quickly and defeat the enemies of Nigeria, no matter their swelling numbers.

There are bombs exploding potentially everywhere and the superior headlines seem to be on revenue sharing and the mightiness of the Federal Government when compares to the states. Maybe the governors are not witnessing the insurgency in Kaduna or the bloodletting in Kano! Maybe they are blind to the carnage in Jos! We will never be able to tell as long as they continue bickering over the legality of the Excess Crude Account or the legitimacy of the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

In a time of increasing security lapses, we are decreasing the availability of police on Nigerian streets. Yet there is no increase in the quantum of our defense spending on technology to protect valuable infrastructure such as universities, places of worship, businesses and homes. Government will spend money protecting what they perceive immediately to be high-risk assets. Sadly these comprise chiefly of oil blocks before the halls of education.

It was Bayero University in Kano today, what stops it from becoming Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria tomorrow, or any other university anywhere in the country for that matter. After all, the Boko Haram thrive on the element of surprise whilst the security agencies are caught with their boots unfastened every time. It now seems the Boko Haram slogan is “e fit be you o” meaning nobody is safe.

The goal of this article is not alarmist by any means. Just a reminder that we are not all as secure as we ought to be. We need to ensure government is held accountable for its spending. They must not squander precious resources that can be channeled into security into frivolous things like latest model Jaguar and BMW cars that were on display at the just concluded South-South Economic Summit. I venture a guess that Delta state produces oil and not state-of-the-art exotic cars. One imagines how Rotimi Amaechi must have struggled for space to land his Private Jet, even as the Presidential plane opted for another destination due to lack of sufficient landing angles.

Government cannot be allowed to steal our money if we are going to check Boko Haram. There are way too many war chests in this country obtained from dividing up oil blocks, to paying out obscene amounts of fuel subsidy money to shell companies. Leadership conspired to milk upstream and downstream for their vain purposes and now those purposes are directed at “whose divine right is it to rule Nigeria?” Lots of Generals running around with plenty of cash and not-so-secret vendettas is not good for any country’s health. God help us if we do not ensure we properly police our government. Actions like Occupy Nigeria are necessary to remind government of those to whom they owe their biggest debts of service – their citizens.

Yet, if the Army is not committing extra-judicial killings, the police are disclosing to Boko Haram the latest breakthrough in their investigation against the sect. One action that fueled the furnace of this Boko Haram menace was the extra judicial killing of its leader. Now this inferno threatens to engulf the Nation. Paradise Lost even before it was even found. Why doesn’t anyone realize how important it is for Nigeria to be a unified strong black country? The answer is always greed. Micro- and macro-greed, in Nigeria the greed is epic.

We need a revolution and hopefully it will not be too bloody. The people who died in Bayero University in Kano today were a small fraction of the country’s population, their blood was shed for frivolous reasons. May God have mercy on their and our souls.