OFTENTIMES, I wonder why things have gone terribly wrong with this country called Nigeria; a nation endowed with abundant natural and human resources, yet everything seems to have gone wrong. There is hunger throughout the land and those that are feeding fat see nothing wrong with the plight of the less-privileged. The people urgently require to have a life worth living; water, electricity, health system, while the federal roads are in deplorable condition, no security, and justice is a priced commodity. If the FG fails to provide the above for the citizenry, ours will be seen as a failed state. When a situation like this continues, the different ethnic groups would prefer to go their separate ways just for survival. How did we get here? God made everything perfect for us, but we destroyed the Garden of Eden due to greed, bad leadership and irresponsible followership.
My particular concern is on the security situation in Nigeria, as we have become a laughing stock in the comity of nations. No responsible and reasonable investor will invest in a country where the security of her people is endangered. A country that cannot guarantee the security of its citizens is not worthy being called a country in the true sense of it. One begins to wonder where the huge money that the FG is spending on security is going. Why has the country under the APC degenerated to this shameful level?
To be fair, the Delta State Government since the inception of democracy in 1999 has made commendable efforts in the area of infrastructural development, especially in the area of assisting security agencies in the state with both financial and material needs. It is an established fact that states do not control the Police, but most of their needs are provided by the various state governments since the constitution does not recognize state police. The states do this in order to ensure that their states are adequately protected, and that their people sleep with their two eyes closed, and also move freely without fear. Unfortunately, in recent times, we have heard of serious security concerns in various states in the country. Some states have already been taken over by bandits and other criminal elements.
In various parts of the country, Police check-points are in every nook and cranny, dedicated to searching perceived yahoo boys and other innocent citizens, extorting huge sums of money from them. Some policemen go along with POS machines for easy transfer of money to their bank accounts. You need to see them demonstrating and threatening to shoot their victims if they fail to cooperate. The same Police demonstrating power to innocent civilians that they are meant to protect, will retreat when armed robbers and kidnappers are having a field day. One begins to wonder what is happening and where this irresponsible and criminal acts will take Nigeria to. The Nigeria Police lack intelligence that other countries in the West African Sub-region have been able to build over the years. Stories abound of how people were kidnapped even in front of some police stations, close to police checkpoints, and so on and so forth. What a disgrace and shame to this country called Nigeria.
There is no doubt that we have some responsible policemen and women, but the bad eggs in the system seem to outnumber the good ones. The question is, “when will the police force be cleaned up to remove the bad and rotten eggs?” Ask any Nigerian who is not a police officer and they will tell you that Nigeria has no police. How can you boast of a police that cannot defend and protect the citizens, but rather bully and extort them on daily basis, through various criminal ways? It is really a shame to the biggest black nation. My pain is that innocent citizens cannot move freely on the streets because of police checkpoints, but criminals are having a field day in various parts of our country.
The policemen themselves have argued that their salaries are nothing compared to the work they do and that they lack adequate equipment, claiming that criminals have better arms than the police. If that is the case, who is “eating” the money meant for the police equipment and welfare? The federal government and Police authorities should answer this pertinent questions. Nigerians are no fools, they must ask questions when things are not working well. We had the EndSARS protest some years ago because the citizens felt the police was turning against them instead of turning against criminals.
