Kaduna based Islamic scholar Dr Ahmad Gumi has listed five reasons Nigeria is in trouble due to insecurity in the country, noting that without addressing them, the problem may not end anytime soon.
Gumi spoke at the annual public lecture titled ‘Insecurity in Nigeria, the causes and youth panacea’ organised by the National Association of Social Sciences Students (NASSS) at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria on Wednesday.
He listed the reasons as follows:
1. Absent Government in most rural areas and forests. Taken over by outlaws. There is a new sharif in town. Good government is felt by its provision of social amenities (hospitals, schools, roads, security, and telecommunications). Not by bombings!
2. Excruciating poverty. The trajectory of the Nigerian economy for the past 20 years. The Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics said in 2020 that 40% or 83 million Nigerians live in poverty.
3. Low Educational level.
4. Poor leadership example. Every elected leader sends his children abroad for education, medical care, and shopping!
5. Loss of confidence in Judiciary. When getting justice becomes a nightmare then people resort to self-help.
See content of full lecture below:
Insecurity in Nigeria: The causes, and youth panacea
This lecture cannot be but a synopsis of the topic. The enormity of the problem and the solution would require not a lecture but some true scientific researches in the various fields of social sciences. We know social sciences are a branch of science devoted to the study of societies and, the relationships among individuals within those societies.
My hope is that this lecture will stimulate the desire for positive action that will translate into the public good for all citizens of this culturally diverse, democratic society in an interconnected, and interdependent world.
The Insecurities in Nigeria,
Insecurities (in plural) in Nigeria don’t need any definition. Nobody is secured socially, economically, physically, or even mentally. No personality. No institution is secured from collapse or failure. No tribe, religion, region, or section of the society that is not both a villain and a victim one way or the other. Sorry to say, we are a collective failure and we should all bear the responsibility.
Nigeria in the parable is like a leper catching HIV/AIDS.
Why speak in parables?
We saw in the Bible, how Jesus Christ when addressing the multitudes speaks in parables.
‘All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:’ ‘And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?’ ‘Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
What happens in leprosy, the CNS i.e. the brain, is disconnected from the peripheral nerves that transmit pain signals to the brain from the extremities. The disconnection is caused by Mycobacterium leprae, a chronic infectious disease called Hansen’s disease. A leper loses his fingers and extremities from injuries incurred from lack of sensation.
So, it is a physical deformity caused by a severed nerved through the disease processes. If you consider the brain to be the Central Government, then because it’s not getting the true picture of the situation outside (in the periphery), the populace would be grounded into pieces by excoriating policies that don’t consider the wellbeing of the common folk, then such nation would be ruled by the textbook standards, not by pragmatic realities and the exigencies of the moment. Hansen’s disease is the broken governance and cumbersome bureaucracy that slows it down to a halt.
When such a leper then catches AIDS which refers to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. With this condition, the immune system is weakened due to HIV infection the human immunodeficiency virus.
All the defence systems will be paralysed and the patient would be invaded by simple microorganisms like fungus etc. that otherwise the body defence system will repel. The HI Virus is the corruption in the Military and security defence system. corruption paralysis the systems, so that common criminality would become the order of the day.
Just recently, in March 2021, a high-security expert who should know better was quoted as saying he does not know the whereabouts of the $1 billion approved by the National Executive Council (NEC) for tackling the nation’s security challenges. The money was approved in December 2017 following the upsurge in Boko Haram insurgency, herdsmen killings, kidnappings, and banditry in parts of the federation.
Meaning in 43 months (three years 7 months) such a colossal amount of money cannot be traced by a person who should know better and yet, the insecurity has only worsened. This is a classical case of HIV. You don’t need HIV tests and auditing of accounts. It’s a smoking gun something is amiss.
Another example of security failure is the misplacement of priority in spending. If my figures are correct, at the moment, the Nigerian population is approximated at 220 million with the personnel strength of the Nigeria Police Force at 370,000 which is quite above the UN recommended police per capita of 230 police per 100,000 people.
However, this figure is contentious because in 2017, the IGP then said Nigeria needed about 155,000 policemen to meet up with the UN standard (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/230966-nigeria-requires-additional-155000-police-personnel-i-g.html). Nevertheless, their training and equipment are very inadequate.
For instance, in southern Kaduna, where tension is perennial, the police need about 10 APC but as of early this year when we went there for a peace mission, they have only one functional APC to respond to an emergency. You will find this vital institution of internal security lacking in basic equipment from communication gadgets, ammunitions, and protective gears, yet, the government can spend an enormous over $4oom+ on 12 Super Tucano aircraft that are neither good for warding off eternal aggression nor specific targeting an internal insurgency. If only two were bought and a whopping $330m is spent in training and equipping the police, the difference will be immediately felt.
On the other hand, in Bells University Ogun state, 48 students with Kano state scholarships have graduated in 2019, with results and certificates withheld because their tuition fees were not subsequently paid by the incoming government because of political rivalry.
These students studied engineering, architecture, quantity survey, etc. what they are asking for is just about N200m they owe the university. This is just about the price of one 2021 Rolls-Royce.
These are students that are supposed to be the ones to construct our roads, railways, and flyovers in our towns but are left to wallow in abysmal darkness of neglect and irresponsibility only to turn around and bring foreigners to do the constructions.
These are just a tip of an iceberg of the myriads of problems our security apparatus is facing making it very ineffective. We are truly in trouble and in a pathetic situation.
So, what are the causes in short?
- Absent Government in most Rural areas and Forest. Taken over by outlaws. There is a new sheriff in town. Good government is felt by its provision of social amenities (hospitals, schools, roads, security, and telecommunications). Not by bombings!
- Excruciating poverty. The trajectory of the Nigerian economy for the past 20 years. The Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics said in 2020 that 40% or 83 million Nigerians live in poverty.
- Low Educational level.
- Poor leadership example. Every elected leader sends his children abroad for education, medical care, and shopping!
- Loss of confidence in Judiciary. When getting justice becomes a nightmare then people resort to self-help.
Violent crimes have an age bracket in which they are prevalent. Adolescence and young adults from 12-35 years. When this age group is neglected and not given enough attention they deserve, youthful delinquency draws them to commit crimes.
Therefore, poverty, hunger, unemployment, illiteracy, out-of-school children, drug abuse, and hopelessness among our youth are the biggest threats to security.
As a matter of urgency, the government should spend and invest more in improving the human developmental indices especially among the youth. “these social factors are the enablers and catalysts of insecurity and unless and until they are addressed, there will never be security in the land”
There must be Justice for all!
In as much as a robust military is vital for national interest and survival, this cannot come at the expense of basic human necessities like food, health care, education, and a strong economy that can support one.
At 61 years of independence, Nigeria should come of age. May Allah The Almighty protect us and our nation from all evil. Amin.
- Being an address at the annual public lecture organised by the National Association of Social Sciences Students (NASSS), Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria on Wednesday, 29 September 2023.
