IT'S another sweet bitter season. There is a huge imbalance in the gains and pains of our country in 2011 at the dawn of Christmas. While we must show gratitude to providence for all his mercies and kindness for keeping us alive, the frightening security challenge facing us as a nation is a sufficient damper to the season of joy, happiness and benevolence. And because security is a serious business, no sane society like ours, I suppose, believes that it is the sole responsibility of only those whom the state has employed to protect lives and property, to provide security.Thank God, Nigeria's Inspector-General, Hafiz Ringim, is as edgy as all right-thinking fellow countrymen over the deplorable security situation. In a departure from officialdom, he admits that there is a blazing inferno in the roof. At a meeting with state command chiefs on December 16 in Abuja, he was unequivocal about the seeming overwhelming security problem from Lagos to Maiduguri, and from Port-Harcourt to Maiduguri. 'This period is critical for the police and the nation; there is severe security challenge before us.Terrorism is being perpetrated against the police, other security agencies in the North-East, and third tier militants are clamouring for amnesty which the government said it would not do. In the South-West, armed bandits are robbing banks, there is bunkering and illegal refining of petroleum products and some people are inciting individuals against the nation,' he stated.Another indication of the official discomfiture about the problem is the decision by the Jonathan administration to pump money into security next year. Out of the N4.749 trillion 2012 Federal Appropriation, the government plans to spend N921 billion on security alone. The huge allocation is eliciting scathing remarks because of the general belief and possibly conviction that the current security challenge is more about our attitude and how we manage human and material resources, and not largely about funding. We seem to have serious crises in the area of intelligence gathering, coupled with patriotism, dedication and honesty in discharging our statutory duties as public officials either in uniform or agbada. There is also complacency on the part of the political elite in service delivery, as their energies are hugely being expended on personal aggrandisement and using the unemployed children of the deliberately impoverished majority as canon fodders.At the dawn of Christmas again, we have wealth, poverty and fragility intertwined in the land; wealth, because of the abundant resources of the country; poverty, because of the wanton looting of state treasuries and other misplaced priorities of a heartless section of the political class. All these have aggregated to some international organisations, including the World Bank and the United States branding Nigeria a fragile state, a term used in describing a country, where the government cannot or will not deliver core functions to the majority of its people.The indices for such categorisation indicate the risk of conflict, accountability of government institutions, capacity to manage public resources, levels of poverty and ability to protect the poor. There are other parameters like the lack of effective political processes to influence the state to meet social expectations. Thus, for instance, the World Bank was reported to have published a report some years past in which it described Nigeria as a fragile state. The Washington-based American Bipartisan Centre in a report tagged: A stitch in Time: Stabilising Fragile States, has also categorised Nigeria alongside Yemen and Pakistan in among fragile states.The way out of our current quagmire is not about a stupendous funding on security. It is about attitude change. If we are against the policy of state police, we should be ready to guarantee quality personnel in the present system. It requires a radical surgical operation with intent to flush out bad eggs, who failed the cardinal and primary responsibility of the security apparatuses. We must tackle all those factors that act as catalysts for disaster and loss of public confidence in the existing security network. Security is part of the pre-conditions for development and progress, but we should not think that security is the only means to an end (development). According to a former United Kingdom Secretary for Development, Hilary Benn, 'Development without security is impossible; security without development is only temporary.'Unbridled corruption has contributed to the rising wave of unemployment in the country. Monies that should have been used in creating more jobs have been misappropriated by a wicked few. Most public institutions and agencies that hitherto provided employment have become houses of fraud. The incidence of violent crimes is therefore part of the fallouts of the continued fleecing of the country by Nigerian leaders.Oderemi, 08023501874 (SMS only)
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