The Nation Newspaper

Tag: INSECURITY

  • Signal of insecurity

    •When an ACP dies and we cannot do anything about it

    When an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) dies after a gun attack by mysterious gunmen, it is a sure signal of insecurity. The death of ACP Usman Ndanbabo, who was in charge of Ughelli Area Command, should trigger a security alarm. A report said: “Security sources said the late Ndanbabo was shot twice by a gang of gunmen in a Toyota car who trailed him to the roundabout opposite the palace of the Ovie of Ughelli while driving in his Nissan SUV.” He died two days later.

    This is a grave development that deserves an urgent response. It is reassuring that the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Zanna Ibrahim, relocated to Ughelli in a rapid response. The police chief was quoted as saying: “I have relocated to Ughelli and moved a Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of about 57 personnel there. There is nothing for now and no arrest has been made. We have to be very discreet but we have a very good lead, and, by the grace of God, we will apprehend the perpetrators.”

    The tragic incident of May 7 is particularly alarming because it reportedly “came on the heels of kidnappings, armed robberies and cult-related activities in Ughelli.”  Two recent incidents that highlighted insecurity in the state are still fresh in the public consciousness.

    This report gives an insight into the chain of security minuses: “One of such attacks on policemen is the November 6, 2016, incident when a policeman from the Ughelli Area Command was shot dead at a roadblock along Agbarha-Otor Road, following an assault on them by a gang of suspected armed robbers apparently returning from an operation.”

    The report continued: ”Two months after that incident, precisely January 23, 2017, Ndanbabo took a bitter pill as a gang of herdsmen engaged him and a team of policemen in a gun duel at Ohoro in Ughelli North Local Government Area when they went to implement an ultimatum by residents of the community issued to herdsmen to vacate the community.”  A police officer at the Ughelli Area Command was quoted as saying:  ”A gun duel ensued between the herdsmen and the police team. At the end of the incident, we could not account for two police officers and three rifles while the late ACP, who mysteriously slumped, was rescued from the scene of the incident and taken to a private clinic in Ughelli for medical attention.” Two days after this clash, locals discovered the remains of one of the policemen; the decomposed remains of the second officer were discovered some days later.

    Evidently, the authorities need to tackle the developing climate of insecurity in the state. The situation suggests embryonic anarchy; it should not be allowed to degenerate into something worse.

    It is thought-provoking that the level of insecurity indicated by the killing of ACP Ndanbabo is connected with a state regarded as rich on account of its status as a major oil-producing state. It bespeaks a poverty of ideas at the leadership level, if the state, despite its resources, lacks a social plan that will discourage crime as well as ensure security.

    The government must respond to the undesirable insecurity not only by adopting tough measures against criminality but also by conceptualising and implementing a social development agenda that will help to prevent criminality.

    It needs to be emphasised that the police must take the investigation of Ndanbabo’s killing to a logical conclusion, which means his killers must not be allowed to escape justice. Apprehending the killers and making them pay for their violent crime are non-negotiable; the police must pursue these with focus. This must not happen again.

  • Rivers PDP chides Ortom over insecurity

    Rivers PDP chides Ortom over insecurity

    The Rivers State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Felix Obuah, has called on the Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom to throw in the towel, if he cannot cope with the task of leading the state.

    He lamented that the embattled governor has failed to curtail the activities of herdsmen, adding that the state is also owning 10 month salaries to civil servants.

    He berated Ortom for failing to take advantage of an earlier call on him by the PDP to visit the Rivers State for some tutorials on leadership and development strategies under Governor Nyesom Wike.

    Obuah allegedly that 15 local government areas of Benue State out of the 23 councils have been overrun by the Fulani herdsmen, leaving governor Ortom helpless.

    He said: “Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue is owing over nine months salaries to civil servants, 10 months salaries to local government employees and 12 months of pension arrears to pensioners.”

  • Criminality, insecurity and judicial quandry

    We are in a maze of path mired in criminality, insecurity and political brigandage.  Corruption is at the root of criminality and other national malaise which we have been grappling with and unable to tackle.  Some President once upon a time tried to define corruption and stealing but left the word more confused.  In spite of what appears to be a quaint understanding of our developmental problems, we have not been able to deplore the right tools and political will to arrest the situation.  The nest of corruption is at the heart of the bureaucracy of different levels of government.   Government officials swim in the cesspool of corruption, stealing monies meant for providing infrastructure and other developmental programmes for the wellbeing of the people.  The government is not able to deal decisively with the felons because of weak institution and politicking.

    How can an anti-graft agency of government tell the world that they recovered sacks containing huge sums of money at an international airport and are not able to apprehend the person behind it? Not even with the aid of security cameras in the vicinity of the airport.  Strange things indeed happen in this country!  There have been other hauls since that time and it increases in its mind-boggling harvest each time.   The latest is the $43 Million (United States Dollars) found in a high brow apartment building in Ikoyi Lagos.  The government appears complicit unveiling the identity of the owner.  If indeed it was an agency of government that owes the money, it speaks volume of the ways and manners we run government.  In the first place, machinery would have been put in place to secure the building and give notice to any other government agencies of their presence.  Secondly, it would beat any sound security thinking to keep such money for government agency in a private apartment building; this sounds too good to be believed.

    There is armed banditry in our neighbourhoods and on the highways because the rich and powerful have denied the ordinary citizens the opportunity of living by stealing monies meant to provide basic infrastructures.  There is kidnapping and militancy across the country because the poor have since discovered that it is only the force of arms and violence that will bring our leaders to their senses that those on the fringe of society have the right to live.

    It is not in doubt that President Buhari has a resolute commitment to the fight against graft in the country especially those in government.  The major problem is that he does not seem to have people around him committed to the same course; so, he is a lone ranger.   It is a vain wish for the people to expect the federal government and its officials to engage in a true war against corruption.  The reason is that those behind the graft are the same government officials and their minions who control institutions and agencies of government fighting the war.

    We have no reason to be borrowing money from London or Paris Clubs or the World Bank. The loots that our leaders have frittered away properly harnessed would be enough to make our country one of the richest in the world. We should ask the right questions and drop the divisive sectarian consideration of ethnicity and religion.  Look at the political leaders; they are Muslims and Christians, northerners and southerners alike in the same parties.

    While our leaders compete to outdo one another in stealing public fund, other countries have since left us, carving out territories in Space, including those that had the misfortune of the same historical and colonial experience as Nigeria. The return of crime is so huge in Nigeria that it has become a thriving enterprise; stealing in government offices, armed robbery, kidnapping just name it.  Everybody is involved, including the security agencies.

    Insecurity did not begin and will not end with the defeat of the Boko Haram insurgents.  The arteries of insecurity have spread to all nooks and crannies of the country.  Insecurity manifest all around us as we travel the roads around the country where you see street urchins and bandits mounting road blocks and harassing road users and extorting money from them while the security agents look the other way.

    Who is to be blamed?  As saying goes, the fish begins to rotten from the head.  The government has failed to play its part in tackling issues of criminality, corruption and insecurity.  What people in government have done and continue to do is to equate their personal safety and security to the security of the citizens and the entire state.  That is why almost the entire personnel of the Nigeria Police Force have been turned into personal guards and security details to government officials and their minions leaving the whole country at the mercy of the criminal gangs.

    For those who are regular commuters on road Abuja – Kaduna, the import of this will make some impressions on you.  As soon as the Abuja Airport was shut down for the so-called repair of the tarmac, the Abuja road that was a death trap and nightmare to travellers was quickly fixed and with armed security at every other kilometre.  This is complemented by Police and the Nigerian Air Force aerial patrols and surveillance.  As if that was not enough the government took it upon itself to charter vehicles for commuters between Abuja Airport and Kaduna Airports with tax payers’ money.  These are people who can and are ordinarily able to pay because they have the wherewithal.

    When ordinary citizens die daily on that road due to lack of maintenance and blind sports created by robbers and kidnappers, it mattered not to the government.    The same government cannot provide and sustain mass transit for the citizens at a subsidized rate.  This is the same government that would not allow ordinary citizen to enjoy fuel or kerosene subsidy.

    Do we blame the people?  The people have failed to take the government to task. The Civil Society and Non Government Organisations including organized labour are not serving any useful purpose of ensuring good governance and accountability.  They allowed themselves for pecuniary consideration to be used to protect the interest of appointees of government and contractors holding the short end of the stick having fallen out of favour with the government of the day.

    The Nigerian judiciary has been the weeping child over the failure and inability to rein in the criminals on the streets, the thieving government officials and their minimal pairs in the National Assembly.  The lawyers and judges do not see themselves as any different from the maddening crowd.  The philosophical and intellectual bearing associated the Nigerian judiciary of the past has atrophied as merchants and traders have taken over as lawyers and judges.   The people cannot go to sleep and expect miracle, we have to occupy Nigeria as the civilized world is doing and put our demand for a true change and purposeful leadership.

     

    • Kebonkwu Esq is an Abuja-based attorney.

  • Insecurity vote

    Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu recently stoked the embers of a rankling national debate: he thumbed down ‘security vote’ that is widely known to be routinely drawn by officials in the Executive arm, and proposed its replacement with ‘contingency vote’ that would be duly appropriated and accounted for by beneficiaries. Security vote, as it presently operates, is neither appropriated nor accounted for; the cost line is opaquely funded from the public treasury and whimsically expended by officials concerned.

    Ekweremadu’s proposal, penultimate weekend, was part of a shopping list of reforms he canvassed when he delivered the 4th National Public Service Lecture of the University of Ibadan Alumni Association. Speaking on ‘Federalism and the Legal Framework for Combating Corruption in Nigeria,’ he reportedly decried the national minimum wage pegged at N18, 000, whereas state governors pocket as much as N2billion for security vote. Note: not much is known with exactitude by anyone but the beneficiaries as to the actual or average size of the security vote; but with Ekweremadu’s vantage office, it should be conceded that he is well positioned to make an educated guess.

    To boost the war against corruption, the Deputy Senate President advised a number measures, among them decentralisation of federal anti-graft agencies and establishment of counterpart agencies by states, state domestication of anti-graft and other auxiliary federal laws, enthronement of fiscal federalism, devolution of police and prison services, establishment of state social intervention / security schemes, and enlistment of active public participation in anti-graft efforts. A statement by Ekweremadu’s media aide quoted him saying: “When a man who earns N18, 000 cannot buy a bag of rice, how can such a person take care of his family? Does it make sense to him if you tell him not to find alternative means of catering to the needs of his family? Is it not also possible to abolish the security vote and replace it with contingency vote, so it can be appropriated and accounted for?”

    You could ask whether it was inadvertent or just self-interestedly convenient for the Senate principal to omit calling for abolition of so-called constituency projects by legislators, which though are appropriated in government’s financial plans, have been a cesspit of pork barreling and budget padding over time. But that shouldn’t take the edge from his observation that security vote is crass sleaze by another name.

    Ekweremadu is by no means on solo flight with his proposal about the security vote. Actually, there is perhaps no other feature of our public financials that an overwhelming majority of Nigerians would have discarded than this controversial cost line. Only last week, a Lagos-based lawyer, Adedokun Makinde, approached a Federal High Court, seeking an order stopping the disbursement of security vote as well as allowances for constituency projects from the public treasury to designated political office holders.

    According to reports, the lawyer wants the court to declare that payment and / or drawing of funds for security vote by the President, Vice President, Governors or Deputy Governors, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister and other officials from the Consolidated Revenue Fund is unconstitutional, illegal null and void. And he wants a declaration that payment of monies for constituency projects to legislators, either at the federal or state level, is illegal, unconstitutional, null and void. Besides the President and Vice President, Makinde joins the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Senate President, House of Representatives Speaker, all State Governors and Speakers of State Houses of Assembly, FCT Minister as well as the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) as other respondents in the suit that has ben slated for hearing on April 26 by the sitting judge.

    Again, because of the hood on the cost line’s operation, it is difficult to pinpoint with certainty officials in the Executive arm that are beneficiaries. A report in February 2016 by online site, SaharaReporters, cited unnamed sources in government as saying President Muhammadu Buhari had blocked out security vote from Federal expenditure. “Government sources confirmed that as soon as the Buhari administration took power, a clear indication was given of the new direction…Subsequently, the President directed that there would be no routine allocation of security vote to he or anyone else as had been the practice since 1983,” the site reported.

    But even if it is the case that the Presidency has scrapped security vote for its officials, there is little doubt that most state governors till date take from the public treasury for the vote.

    An insider clue into what goes down as security vote was given by Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha in 2011, when he announced that he was cutting back his yearly allocation from N6.5billion to N2.5billion to mobilise funds for the free education programme he promised at his first term inauguration on May 29. The catch here is: it simply fell beyond his contemplation to give a clear account of what the amount being retained would be used for. In January 2016, the Imo governor also told journalists in Owerri that he had sacrificed up to N16billion from his security vote since 2011 for the development of the state.

    Former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso and his Ekiti State counterpart, Kayode Fayemi, were reported to have publicly renounced the cost line during their tenure. But not so – at least on public record – any other member of this power elite.

    A recent controversial application of the slush fund was by Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, who reportedly approved the disbursement of N260million security vote in the first week of his assuming office in January 2016. An investigative account in May by online site, PREMIUM TIMES, showed that the governor approved serial memoranda on “Request for Security Fund” totalling the amount at short intervals upon his inauguration. And the report also cited the governor’s spokesperson, Kingsley Fanwo, as confirming the spending but saying it was warranted to urgently tackle security lapses inherited by his principal.

    Another report by The PUNCH in July 2016 relayed state governments’ rebuff against calls for security vote to be scrapped. Among other spokespersons, Delta State Information Commissioner Patrick Ukah told the newspaper that the fund enabled the government to act proactively during crisis and to assist security agencies. “The fact that the economy at the moment is in a bad shape doesn’t mean we should live in a state of chaos. Nobody should advocate cancellation of security vote,” he was reported saying.

    Well, the advocacy that Ukah forbids is exactly what Ekweremadu has done, and he has many like-minds among Nigerians. Truth is, security vote in their Excellency’s hands makes the rest of us insecure. For one, with the primitive tendency towards violence and other ill practices by our political actors, you really can’t vouch for the causes to which the unaccounted fund is being applied. Then, the bogus drawdown from the common treasury is simply unhealthy for the public economy. While we await a break in Nigerian laws to stop its disbursement, citizens should perhaps begin to demand account for the vote’s application with the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA).

  • Insecurity: Group urges govs to prioritise prison decongestion

    Insecurity: Group urges govs to prioritise prison decongestion

    •Seeks NHRC’s probe of deaths in police’s custody

    State governors in the country have been urged to prioritise the need to end congestion in the nation’s prisons in view of its negative implications on security, inmates’ rights and national image.
    This request is contained in a letter to the governors, written by a group, Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE-Nigeria), and addressed to Chairmen of the Governors’ Forums of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – Rochas Okorpcha (Imo State) and Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti).
    CURE-Nigeria, in the letter signed by its Executive Director, Sylvester Uhaa, noted that almost all the prisons in big cities in the country are currently holding thrice their designated capacities, triggering frequent jail breaks.
    It added that out of the over 69,000 inmates across the country, more than 46 thousand are awaiting trial, making Nigeria the 5th country with the highest pre-trial detention population in Africa, trailing Libya, Benin Republic, DCR, and Central African Republic.
    CURE-Nigeria argued that the congestion in the nation’s prison did not only pose significant health, economic and social consequences for the inmates, their families and the states, it also constitutes a serious security threat to the host communities.
    The group, while contending that states could no longer afford to abandon issues relating to justice and prison reforms to the Federal Government alone, asked all the governors to urgently initiate justice and prison reforms programs and invest in prisoner rehabilitation and reintegration in their states.
    Part of the letter reads: “the continued detention of suspects without trial for many years, clearly represents the cruellest and most brutal means of human rights abuse and the abuse of power by those entrusted with power to protect human rights and dignity.
    “Prolonged pre-trial detention is a colossal waste of human potential that comes at a considerable cost to your respective states, taxpayers, families, and communities, as some of those who have been detained unjustly would have engaged in one form of economic activity or the other, contributing to economic growth of your states and that of the nation
    “Consequently, CURE-Nigeria asks your Excellencies to demand that all those who are charged with the responsibility of ensuring justice delivery in your respective states to do their job.
    “In particular, we request your Excellencies to ask the Attorney-General and Commissioners of Justice in your respective states to work with the House of Assembly to domesticate the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.
    “We also ask your Excellencies to liaise with the Chief Judge of your states to pay frequent visits to prisons to review cases of those awaiting trial and make recommendations for speedy trial of cases unduly delayed, and free those who are unjustly detained for periods exceeding the allowable time.
    “We also request Your Excellencies to provide logistics and other forms of support to the prisons in your states to enable them perform their constitutional obligations optimally,” it said.
    The group urged the governors to fund legal aid for the poor; support prisoner education and other rehabilitation and reintegration programs in the prisons, “as this will impact heavily on your efforts to fight crime, spur economic and social development and achieve peace.”
    CURE-Nigeria, in a separate letter dated February 28, 2017, urged the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to urgently investigate the reported death in the custody of the Nigeria Police Force, two Nigerians – Ifedolapo Atansuyi and one Tope – arrested by policemen in Lagos.
    Media reports had it that while 20-year-old Ifedolapo, a gospel musician, died on February 25, 2017 at the Oko Awo Police Post, Tope, who was suffering from ulcer, died on February 27 at Lion Building (both in Lagos).
    Part of the letter reads: “It is our hope that the Commission, in its usual character, will take immediate steps to establish the authenticity or otherwise of this report and will conduct thorough and transparent investigations into the remote and immediate causes of the alleged deaths if the reports are true.
    “We equally hope the NHRC will hold anyone found responsible for the deaths to account, award commensurate compensations to the victims’ families and put in place mechanisms to prevent the reoccurrence of such ugly incidence.
    “Also, we want to use this medium to remind the Commission that Nigerians are still waiting for the outcome of its investigation into the alleged killing of six inmates in Abakiliki Prison last August.”

  • Bello: Taming the tides of insecurity in Kogi

    Bello: Taming the tides of insecurity in Kogi

    As we journeyed from Lokoja to Okene enroute to Akure for the swearing-in ceremony of the Ondo State Governor-elect, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), my mind dwelt on a number of things that have changed in my journeys along the familiar road with deep reflections on the innate capacity of purposeful leadership to fully transform failing infrastructures for people’s benefit. I realised once again how much our everyday life is affected by governance, anchored on leadership or the lack of it, and how inexorably linked our access to infrastructure is to our living standards and what difference a visionary leadership could make in a short period of time.

    Being from Ogori, Kogi State the road is one I had plied very frequently. And as we moved smoothly and swiftly for that matter, I recalled how torturous transiting through this road used to be few months down the fading past. The experience was always a nasty one with intermittent descent into wide gullies bestriding the un-motorable road amidst insecure grunts of apprehension. As my mind lingered on the ease and comfort now experienced on the road, compared with what obtained in the not too distant past, I became suddenly overcome with emotions and overwhelmed with deserving appreciation to His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello from the hordes of social commentators who are frequent users of the road.

    Of the several journeys through that road that I can remember, there has never been one that felt like this one. The journey was smooth and quick. There have been several leaders at the helm of affairs in our dear Kogi State, but I make bold to say none has given this road this much attention at renewal, no one, not even close. Never mind the question of the consistent window dressing of majority of our prominent roads by successive administrations with purchased or rented crowds to cheer the leaders for variegated political plaudits at the bogus commissioning –those are plays upon the stage. What is truly unprecedented in the mind of the patriotic and discerning Kogi people is the propelling love of the people by the governor, the desire to improve on their access to functional road infrastructure, and the sheer magnitude of quickening heartbeats in millions of Kogi people who are filled with appreciation for the uncommon transformation of their once ruined road networks which they hitherto plied largely buffeted within and without by the simmering ache of dread.

    In a similar vein, I have never seen transformation so vivid with clear evidence of committed work and applauded performance so unencumbered by questions of divisiveness, tribalism, and other base considerations.

    One thing about performance is that it cuts across all the people as ultimate beneficiaries without undue interference by a tangled web of conflicting interests. Despite the pageantry of unity that accompanies any accomplishment that cuts across everyone in Kogi State, there is a piercing sense of fulfilment that touches close to home that the one doing these exploits is the revolutionary game-changer governor.

    Apart from the cogent and limitless benefits to travellers on this road and many others in form of easy and comfortable drive, less wear and tear on vehicles and the tyres, faster and safer travels, there is a more important reason why people of good conscience continue to applaud the Governor Bello for working on the road: this is the improvement brought on the security apparatus – something that earned him recognition as the governor with the greatest strides in security improvement in the country in the past year.

    It should be recalled that these bad roads hitherto contributed to the insecurity challenges faced by the state as they made it easy for robberies and kidnaps to happen unfettered on that axis. Journeys on that route were previously characterised by reasonable apprehension, palpable fear of imminent danger over carefully orchestrated robbery ambushes and hostage-taking owing to the slowness of journeys accentuated by structurally defective road infrastructure.

    This move to further improve on security which the Bello administration considers as priority was informed by intelligence reports that criminals hide behind bushes along the roads to perpetuate crime. And so in line with the Kogi State government’s unalloyed commitment to ensuring security, the governor directed a construction company to be engaged to clear five metres on both sides of the roads from Kabba Junction to Otite in Okehi LGA; Check Point in Okene LGA to Okpela; from Check Point in Okene LGA to Ajaokuta to assist the road networks, open up the lingering hideout of criminals on that route and ultimately contribute to nipping insecurity challenges in the bud once and for all.

    The second phase of the road clearing and widening project is billed to commence from Kabba Junction through Odo-Ape to Kabba Town while the third phase will equally commence from Lokoja through Ganaja to Ajaokuta Township and the link road between Igalamela/Odolu to Ofu and several internal road path in Omala LGA which have been previously considered to be flashpoints for the unbridled infestation of crime in the state.

    It is instructive to note that the Kogi State government has completed the clearing of the roadsides between Koton-karfe and Abaji in fulfilment of the administration’s strides towards delivering on its promises to improve on the road networks and ensuring the security of lives and property of the commuters in a continuous bid to making Kogi safer and more secure.

    The fact that one of the multi-dimensional approaches the Bello-led administration is taking to curb insecurity challenge in Kogi State is to improve on the road network confirms his faultless genius as solving the people’s peculiar infrastructural challenges and delivering the dividends of democracy to all Kogi people irrespective of their political affiliation despite the limitation of resources. It is worthy of note that these worthwhile huge investments in the road and security infrastructure is already paying off as seen in the substantial improvement of security in the state.

    One can only wish the hard-working, diligent, extremely focused governor, Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello, more wisdom, strength and sound health as he continues in his laudable efforts towards repositioning the state as contained in the New Direction Blueprint in the years ahead.

    •Onyegbule is Chief Press Secretary to Kogi governor.

  • Insecurity: Navy to establish three bases in Lagos

    Insecurity: Navy to establish three bases in Lagos

    THE Navy has said it will establish three bases at Lekki-Epe, Ikorodu and Takwa Bay, all in Lagos State.

    The Flag Officer Commanding  (FOC) Western Naval Command  (WNC), Rear Admiral Fergusson Bobai, broke the news when participants of German Armed Forces General Staff College (GAFGSC) visited the command’s headquarters in Apapa.

    The bases, which Bobai said have been approved by naval headquarters (NHQ), are among efforts to contain rising cases of kidnapping and other maritime crimes.

    Bobai said a Forward Operation Base  (FOB) would be established near the Lekki Free Trade Zone (FTZ) to ensure that vessels sailing beyond Takwa Bay are monitored.

    He said: “The NHQ has approved a Forward Operation Base in Epe axis, a base at Takwa Bay and one at Ikorodu.

    “The importance of the three naval bases within that vicinity is that if you are going to sea, you must pass through Takwa Bay. Sailing onward, you must pass through the Lekki Free Trade Zone. Essentially, all the sea routes have been factored in.

    “Now, we have to open up these units with patrol boats and, maybe in the nearest future, with bigger capital ships.

    “Besides the military hardware, we are also looking at human capital development. So, if there are other ways they can increase the slot of personnel to benefit from their training programmes, it would be beneficial to us. We could look at other areas and expand, in terms of vacancies.

    “They are from military academia. I believe that when they return, they will write reports and make presentations to their political masters. I believe that there would be take-homes for the political masters and, if need be, through the Defence Adviser to West Africa (DA), they will extend some help to us.”

    The FOC praised the team’s drive to explore security architecture of other continents.

    Rear Admiral Bobai, who had spent a year in Germany during his General Staff College course, welcomed the team in Dutch, eliciting smiles from the delegation.

    He said: “It’s good you want to see the security architecture of other nations, because global security is not restricted to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).”

    On anti-piracy operations of the navy, especially within the Gulf of Guinea’s Zone E arrangement, Bobai said information was shared between sister navies.

    He said: “We share information and there is synergy between navies in the zone. In the arrangement, the navy with the most capabilities tend to take the lead, especially one with more capital platforms. In this case, it is Nigeria.”

    The DA, Colonel Thomas Brilli-Sawa, said Germany had pledged to donate some epenal boats to the Nigerian Navy as well as train some of its engineers.

    Asked if Germany had plans to assist the Navy in refitting Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Aradu, which was bought in that country over 30 years ago, Brilli-Sawa said a German team had been sent to examine the vessel.

    He noted that it might be impossible to refit the Frigate to 21st century stand, adding that German was considering the option of assisting the NN get another capital ship.

    Leader of the delegation, Colonel Manfred Ertl said a visit to Africa becomes more realistic for deployment of operations. We are here to see Africa security architecture.

    Some of these participants have spent one year on the course, with focus on European security structures. So, we decided to show them other structures, especially in Africa as the region is the future of military stabilisation.

    We are visiting two countries of Africa-Nigeria being the regional power of the region because they are major troops contributor to the United Nations, and Ghana because of the Kwame Nkrummah Security Institute.

  • Three months blackout: Community laments economic losses, insecurity

    Electricity consumers in Ijegun Egba Community in Lagos State are counting their losses to three months power outage.
    An investigation by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) shows that the community has been in blackout due to a faulty transformer.
    Some members of the community to NAN that the power outage was fuelling criminal activities.
    A youth leader, Mr Taofiki Rasak, said that there had been attacks on some residents by criminals due to the blackout.
    Rasak said the outage had paralysed socio-economic activities in the community, making life difficult.
    “Hoodlums are attacking us at night due to the darkness. Some residents have relocated from the community to Festac Town and Orile Iganmu because of the insecurity.
    “Some youths in the community wanted to destroy EKEDC’s equipment in the area but I stopped them. We are imploring EKEDC to restore power supply,’’ he said.
    Alhaja Tawakalitu Balogun, the Iya Oja General of Ijegun Egba Market, told NAN that traders were losing about N10 million monthly to the outage because of decay of frozen foods.
    Balogun said on many occasions buyers of frozen foods had returned them after discovering that they had spoilt.
    “I now act as a mediator between angry buyers and sellers anytime buyers return spoilt frozen foods bought from the market.
    “On behalf of traders in Ifelodun Ijegun Egba Market, I am appealing to EKEDC to restore electricity supply to the community. Traders are not at peace with their customers any longer.
    “The situation here is frustrating; there is no shop in the market today that does not have its own power generating set; the noise emanating from each generating set is affecting one’s hearing,’’ she said.
    A landlord, Alhaji Isiaka Olorunnisola, noted that the outage resulted from a faulty transformer.
    Olorunnisola said the residents had reported the blackout to the EKEDC District Office, Agboju, but had yet to get a relief.
    “The management kept making promises. It is annoying to see neighbouring communities enjoying electricity while we are in darkness,’’ he said.
    Contacted, EKEDC General Manager, Corporate Communications Mr Godwin Idemudia, told NAN that the company would look into the outage as quickly as possible.
    He assured the community that the company would send its personnel to come and rectify the problem.
    “We sincerely apologise for the prolonged outage,’’ he said.

  • Insecurity: Ebira wants kogi security apparatus overhauled

    Bothered over the persistent security situation in kogi state,the Ebira peoples Association has called for an immediate overhaul of the various security apparatus in kogi state in order to stem the tide of insecurity in the state.

    The President -General of the  Association, Musa Abulrahman Adeiza who spoke with newsmen Tuesday in Abuja on the worrying situation said members of the association both home and abroad are seriously concerned about the rampant cases of mindless killings,kidnapping, robberies and other violent crimes that have come to define everyday life in the state.
    “We are under siege in kogi central, the situation is so bad that nearly everyone in kogi central now lives in absolute fear, sons and daughters of kogi central who live outside the state are now scared of coming home
    ” Both federal and State government should make concerted efforts to reinforce and review security measures in terms of material, personnel and modus operandi in order to safeguard lives and properties in kogi central
    “Security should be intelligence driven and surveillance should be on 24 hour duty across the land instead of the present situation whereby most hotspots are left unmanned through most hours of the day,” he said.
    Adeiza added that for peace to be restored to the state, the Federal Government should urgently complete the moribound Ajaokuta steel company to reduce youth unemployment  which is partly responsible for the rising crime.
    “The state Government should construct police posts at various dark spots in districts so that criminals will no longer hide there,” he said
    He also urged the state government to look into all issues of state civil service screening exercise so as to reduce the frustration arising from their and the non payment of salaries.

  • The creeping insecurity

    On Friday January 20, I was traveling from Ibadan to Lagos when others and I ran into what seemed to be armed robbery some kilometres on our approach to old Ogere toll gate. The time was half past five (5.30pm) in the evening. From about 100 meters to where the shooting was going on, we saw cars, trucks and tankers turning back to face us and we too quickly turned colliding with each other as we struggled to reverse and turn back. After some anxious moments, we could not move and like sheep, we all waited to be slaughtered. After a while, vehicles from Lagos suddenly started moving on their way to Ibadan and beckoned to us that all was clear. The only evidence of what had transpired that I saw was an old Toyota estate that was riddled with bullets. Who were these marauders?  Only God knows. Later the following day, I heard that they were the proverbial herdsmen. I won’t bet on it unless I had concrete evidence. I say this because before the menace of these so-called criminal herdsmen, I was in November 1995 shot at towards the approach to the Sagamu junction on my way to Lagos. The following year at the Ibadan end, a huge stone meant for my head shattered the windscreen of the Toyota Camry I was driving. I remember Sunday my personal assistant screaming at me saying  “ Oga no stop” to which I angrily replied “Na today de born me?” Since that incident the Ibadan-Lagos express way has been reasonably safe. I can say this because I travel on the road quite regularly. However may be I have been lucky because I have heard my friends tell me their harrowing experiences on the road. I have always tried not to travel too early in the morning or late in the evening. My golden rule is to sleep in whatever town I find myself at six o’clock in the evening. The problem now is that our country is becoming unsafe no matter where you are.

    I remember with nostalgia several trips either from Ibadan to Jos or from Maiduguri to Lagos or from Lagos to Calabar and on to Jalingo, Yola and Maiduguri, Kano, Zaria, Kaduna, Tegina, Kontagora, Jebba, Ilorin and finally to Ibadan. I did some of these trips alone or with my wife and children just soaking up the beauty of Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s. Those were probably the golden years of Nigeria. I can attest to the beauty and goodness of the ordinary Nigerian. He was not envious of other people neither did he covet what others had. He just wanted to be left alone to eke out a precarious living as a farmer or fisherman. When I read about the Boko Haram tragedy, I weep because I know the terrain where the bombing and fighting is taking place and I fear some of my former students in  the universities of Jos and Maiduguri may have fallen victim of the insurgency in some parts of Plateau, Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe Adamawa, Taraba and Borno itself

    Some three or four years ago, a friend and colleague of mine from Bauchi State told me he was going on a flying visit to Azare. Knowing the terrain, I told him to go to Jos and then Bauchi and then to Azare. He laughed and said that would be suicidal of him to take the road to Jos because on seeing him, a Fulani man, the local people would kill him because of this he said he would drive to Kaduna then Kano and from there to Bauchi. This was some kind of Israelite journey. To be sincere, I did not know things were this bad. Now even driving from Abuja, the seat of the federal government to Kaduna has become problematic because I am told the road is infested by all kinds of highway robbers and ethnic militants. The picture is not good at all. The north-east is not safe because of Boko Haram. The Delta is unsafe because of Niger – Delta militants. Cattle rustlers are making the north-west problematic, the Biafra militants are challenging government’s hold on the south-east. The Fulani herders are making life difficult in the north-central zone. It is only a matter of time for peace to disappear in the south-west. The area is now under threat of Ijaw militants from the Niger Delta and herdsmen from the north. The picture of countrywide insecurity is complete. In this kind of environment, we should forget about foreign investment without which the problem of unemployment will become more acute.

    What is responsible for this? The first answer is poor policing. The centralized federal police has failed and states or zonal police should be encouraged. This will be local people who would know the terrain, the language of the people and who will be able to collect information and intelligence unlike the Abuja police that suffers a disconnect with the people they are policing.  Secondly, we have to find a way of devolving political and economic power from the centre to the states /zones. This country cannot be successfully run by a poohbah from Aso Rock  The wretched states that cannot pay workers’ salaries have exposed the futility of state’s creation and we must consequently revert to viable and sustainable regional or zonal governments . Thirdly, the present government must seriously set in motion a process of designing a social welfare package for the poor and the unemployed. The present plan to give N5,000 monthly to the abjectly poor must be broadened to include the unemployed, the infirm and the handicapped. I find the plight of cripples lying across highways risking their lives while begging dehumanizing. It cheapens life in my view. A country is judged by how it treats its dead and its handicapped. We are failing on both scores.

    If everybody is made to partake in the commonwealth of Nigeria, anti-social behaviour will be reduced. Fourthly, we must create jobs through direct state intervention. There is so much to do in this country that I find it galling to be told there are no jobs. We need to build railways, roads, sea and airports, schools and universities, hospitals, homes, factories and farms and many other social infrastructure. We can print money, which will lead to inflation but this will be taken care of by the value of the labour of millions of people building the country. Some of the cost can be recovered through reduced corruption or no corruption at all. We can also reduce the yawning gap between the salaries of those at the top and the slave salaries being paid to the poor. We can also downsize the bureaucracies and deploy those who are willing and able to work to fields and factories of production. Fifthly, we must take a second look at the transhumance that is at the root of herdsmen/farmers problem. We must collectivise, with all the problems it will involve, the activities of herders in ranches so as to prevent these constant clashes that are destroying our country and exacerbating inter-ethnic conflict. Every effort must be made to affirm the rights of indigenes to their land whether in the country or in the city. If land is needed, it must be acquired within the context of a willing seller and a paying buyer. My assumption is that all Nigerians have ancestral land and it will be unfair to deprive any one of his God-given right to the land of their forefathers.

    In the interim, before constitutional changes can be effected, the Nigerian Police must take the following steps. Highway patrol in shifts of six hours duration in a 24-hour unbroken chain must commence on all federal high ways and major cities. This is what the thousands of cars donated by the states to the police are meant for and not for convoys accompanying police officers wherever they go. All guns in the hands of unauthorized people, including herdsmen must be retrieved and called in. If this is not done quickly, it will give fillip to those advocating strategy of the grave by asking everybody be allowed to carry arms as they do in America, I say God forbid. There ought to be a federal law imposing life imprisonment for crimes of kidnapping, highway robbery and assassination.

    Finally our religious leaders should be charged to admonish all their followers to respect the teaching of their religions as to the sanctity of human life. Anybody going out of this narrow path should be dealt with expeditiously by the state. The capital punishment imposed on people who commit these crimes by Lagos State should be adopted by the federal government. Punishment must be sure and swift. This is the only way we will put an end to a state of countrywide insecurity where life is becoming nasty brutish and short.