Insecurity: Drawing maps of regional architecture to restore peace and order in the Nigerian Federation
Security challenges in Nigeria have come to overtake the ranking of worries in the Country. Across the Federation, variant forms of insecurity formations have segmented into offsprings which have continued to ravage the entire Nigerian societal fabric. While every region within the categorical division of the Federation into geo-political zones, have some sort of peculiar dimensions of security threats, it is far becoming a reality that the extension of the tentacles of these dimensions from one part of the Federation to another, have continued to make drawing distinction lines between these unleashing of gruesome threats and attacks against humanity in the Country difficult. Hence, it is becoming more apparent that the extending tentacles of certain security menace is gradually taking trans-regional dimensions.
While the South continues to defend the region from being taken unawares by banditry and terrorism, it is glaring that some States in the North have been overrun with these menace and are struggling hard to stem the wings and waves of the storms. On Thursday, it was reported that a traditional ruler and five persons were killed in three separate attacks in Benue communities by suspected herdsmen at Tse-Zoola Village Agan Makurdi Local Government Area, LGA, Odugbeho in Agatu LGA and Mbayer-Yandev in Guma LGA. Confirming the attack on Mbayer-Yandev, the Guma LGA Chairman Caleb Aba had said the incident occurred at about 8pm on Wednesday. He was quoted: “It happened at about 8pm though my attention was drawn to the incident at 9pm that Fulani herdsmen invaded Mbayer-Yandev, Council Ward, killing two persons and injuring three others who have been moved to the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, BSUTH, for treatment.”
As rising concern continues to hover over the ravaging effects of insecurity in the North, President Muhammadu Buhari had on Thursday in Abuja met behind closed door with some governors from the Northwest and North central states suffering from the menace of banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes. The affected governors included Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto, Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, Bello Matawale of Zamfara, Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna, Simon Lalong of Plateau, Sani Bello of Niger and Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa. Governor Lalong of Plateau State, who spoke to State House correspondents on behalf of his colleagues, at the end of the meeting, said they deliberated on the issue of insecurity in their respective states. He was quoted: “The meeting is in respect of some of the common features of insecurity that we have within our states. You will recall that in many of the states some of the cases of the insecurity are very similar. So, within us here we have a lot of them that are similar – we put them together to see how we can address those issues and we felt that we must also meet Mr President about it.”
The Minister of Defence, Major Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd) had similarly on Thursday agreed to the fact that Nigeria is currently bleeding. The Minister who stated this while briefing State House correspondents at the presidential ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team at the presidential villa, Abuja, also said that the government was making a comprehensive compilation of the identified enemies of the country, which he refused to make clarifications on. He also confirmed that some individuals who fund Boko Haram have been arrested particularly in Kano state.
He was quoted: “We have made a comprehensive brief as far as the security of this country is concerned and the methods we want to use in ensuring that we strategically and tactically get rid of all enemies of this country. Be it political enemy, religious enemy, ethnic enemies and all the political enemies of this country. We have made a comprehensive report or research on that and we have taken our position, which I don’t want to preempt here, but certainly we are coming back with that.”
The extending trend of security menaces in trans-regional dimensions, constitute enough warning signal for some states in the Federation still experiencing some sort of relief from certrain terrible security woes as banditry and terrorism, to be on their toes. In this regard, while more states in the north are gradually being entangled with the extending tentacles of banditry, terrorism, and herdsmen escapades, more states in the South need to tighten their belt and guide their region from being overrun by these woeful phenomena. It is no gainsaying that the extension of herdsmen and bandits’ escapades to the South has been recording pronounced reverberation, which recently had led to some uprising in some parts of the region. The rising threat had in reaction led to the rising of some regional activism which without state authority apparatus have been vociferous and taken the bold step to rise to the defense of their region.
The prevailing state of insecurity profile in the Country, is therefore relative across the Federation. In this light, the challenge is a mixed subject with relative featural dimensions with regional and more narrowly, State-wide definitions. Hence, it is arguable that any move to addressing the prevailing security challenges in the Country must be approached with peculiarities which are more closely defined according to the pulling character of the peculiar demands of each State and geo-political zones. In this regard, drawing maps of categorical architecture to address the dimensional security threats across the Federation is key towards the overarching goal of restoring peace and order in the entire Country.
