THE WORSENING COMPLEXITY OF THE NIGERIAN SECURITY PROBLEM

By Lucky Okoedion

We cannot fix the insecurity problem in Nigeria without fixing the core structural, social, economic and political problems in the country. Many young men and women are risking the wrath of the law to commit crime just to survive in a social system that seems to worship ill-gotten wealth. More guns and more police presence cannot guarantee security in such circumstances.

The Nigerian security situation is now such that given the several socio-economic factors that have caused it to deteriorate, firing the current security chiefs and replacing them with the best in the world cannot guarantee an improvement of the security situation in the nation. Only an overhaul of the security architecture that involves an amendment of the constitution of the nation can suffice. Here are the reasons:

1. A federal police cannot effectively function in a federation where the federating units do not trust the government at the centre, a federation that is badly divided along ethnic and religious lines more than ever before. Changing the leadership of the police and embarking on institutional reforms in the Nigerian police cannot solve this problem. And it is not realistic to expect that the situation will change dramatically as soon as someone perceived as more detribalized emerges as the president of Nigeria in the future. When a Southerner – Goodluck Jonathan was the president of Nigeria, many Northerners suspected and precipitated conspiracy theories that showed that they suspected that the president was complicit in the whole Boko Haram saga. Now they know better, but the suspicion has now shifted to the South who in turn do not trust that the current president Muhammadu Buhari is doing enough to stop the militant herdsmen. And so on.
2. Some of the deadly insecurity problems facing Nigeria today happen at the scope of attacks on whole ethnic groups, communities and settlements. Such as the wanton massacre by militant herdsmen. These attacks have over the years come with conspiracy theories and rampant suspicion of the federal government by several ethnic groups and community heads. The trust for the federal government-led security establishment that has  as its leaders men of a particular ethnicity is at an all-time low. In such circumstances, a state police system would have been better. But…
3. Our constitution does not recognize or approve the establishment of state police. 
4. The state governors to whom a state police may eventually be answerable are not going to be aliens. They will be Nigerian politicians. The same stock as those who have run the “shows” at the federal level all these years. Whereas, It has taken several decades for the Federal Government to attain a semblance of institutional integrity and international accountability required to ensure that the police is not used to brutalize innocent citizens, silent opposition, subdue peaceful protests and other forms of abuse of power through security agencies which are supposed to exist to serve the common man and ensure law and order in the society. 
5. Where there is extreme poverty coupled with a growing youth population and an equally growing unemployment rate and a fragile state, the problem of insecurity is cancerous.

Hence, unless Nigeria’s system of government  is radically restructured, and the constitution courageously amended to tackle current realities, insecurity will remain on the rise. The earlier the changes the better. 

Lucky Okoedion is a believer of a new Nigeria where true democracy and effective governance is practiced. He writes from Benin City. And can be reached on +2347038820118 .