Issue bothering on security in Nigeria has been a recurring menace. In the past few years, the rise on insurgency, kidnappings, robbery attacks and even assassinations and mass murders especially within rural areas and major highways of the federation and it has behave become a thing of worry both for the citizens and leadership of the country.
Numerous tactics and recommended solutions have been sort by security agencies and experts within and outside the country all to no avail as the problems keep lingering.
Lots of Nigerians are livid angry and of the opinion that the security officers and Arm forces put in place are not doing enough to tackle the situation as they are continually overwhelmed by these criminal elements and insurgents. Many feel that the president Buhari led administration needs to replace those at the helm of security and in extreme cases, other citizens strongly opine that the president should resign owing to the fact that he can’t seem to handle the pressures of insecurities faced by the country.
However, the spokesperson to the president Femi Adesina, begs to differ as he claims that President Muhammadu Buhari has made enough efforts to fight both insecurities and corruption in the country.
He insists that Nigerians should be grateful to Buhari for fighting insecurity. In his words:
“Let’s be thankful for small mercies. Any mercies we receive, let’s be thankful for it, and let’s not dwell on negatives alone.”
Mr Adesina said Mr Buhari has done well in ensuring the security of lives and properties in Nigeria, despite evidence of widespread insecurity in the country.
The presidential aide made this comment on Sunday December 20, 2020 during an interview session on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme. He explained that like Nigerians, most countries of the world also face security challenges.
Quizzed on the prospect of whether president Buhari has been triumphant on the war against insecurity and insurgency, despite the recent happenings in Katsina and many other parts of Nigeria, Mr Adesina responded saying “Yes”.
“Yes, there are times, a week, two weeks even a month that you don’t have all these things happening. There was a time in the immediate past when they happened daily several times. You talked of one bombing within three or four days. There was a time in this country when bombs went off like firecrackers every day.
“There could be five, six bombings in one day. Now, you can have two, three months with no single case of bombing. Let’s be thankful for small mercies. Any mercies we receive, let’s be thankful for it, and let’s not dwell on negatives alone.
“Life is taking the rough and smooth together. So, sometimes we see when things go on for days, for weeks with no negative developments, let us emphasise those ones. We have challenges but these are not the constants in the country.”
“Patience must be elastic, it’s not something that you get to a point and say patience has run out. Patience must be a continuous thing. There are certain things in which you don’t have control of all the variables. If you don’t have all the variables, you don’t then begin to give timelines. And security is not one of those things that you will give a timeline to say by this time to this time, we will achieve this”
“All over the world, security is a continuous thing and even the most advanced countries are still working at it,” he said.
Recall that one of the major campaigns promises of Mr Buhari prior to the 2015 election was to fight insecurity. It’s been however obvious that this war seems to be eluding the grasp of the president as it’s unending.
Just recently news sources reported that about 300 schoolboys in President Buhari’s home state, Katsina, were kidnapped and only released six days after negotiation between the government and the kidnappers.
There are also many cases of killings and kidnappings across the nation, with particular emphasis on the northern part, which led to the hashtag #SaveNorth trending on social media.
It is indeed a fact thar efforts by the government to curb insecurity since 2015 have gone unnoticed due to deteriorating security situations.
Despite the clarion calls by many Nigerians for removal of service chiefs, Mr Buhari appears not to link their overstay in office to the insecurity witnessed by citizens of the federation.
Gift Joseph Okpakorese
Staff Writer
