NEW YORK – For decades, citizens of the United States believed that the country is protected from international troubles, because two massive oceans flanked it. Unrecognizing that the oceans are not a barrier to those that wish it harm, “we used to be able to sit back here in America and feel safe and confident because there’s two vast oceans to protect us from potential enemies,” said formal President Bush.
He followed that, “In order to protect the American people, we must see clearly the threats we face. We can’t have any fuzziness anymore, because the oceans aren’t there.” It took the destruction of the twin towers at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the killing of over 3000 Americans on September 11, 2001 for the country to wake up from this faulty reasoning that an ocean is a buffer against foes with heinous intent.
More surprising and with utter dismay was that, the terrorists offensive was masterminded from the caves of the wilderness of Afghanistan. The terror was meticulously planned, with precision, penetrated, and struck the command center of the world’s most muscular and conventional military. It was quite a cringe awakening.
That was 20 years ago.
What happened in Aso Rock?
The American experience should inform the Nigerian leaders that there is no hiding place for the supercilious high and mighty or the powerful if it fails to confront or deal with threats outside its zone of comfort. For years, the occupants of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa and the powers surrounding the Aso Rock in the National Assembly and the Supreme Court, have paid lip service to the security problem in the country. They have erroneously thought that they are safe under and around a rock.
Reports surfaced a few days ago that the neighorhood seat of the highest office in the land has been breached. “Burglars storm Buhari’s chief of staff Aso Rock Residence”, Vanguard reported, “Aso Rock Robbery: Presidency confirmed attempt to rob chief of staff”, BBC plarcarded, “Robbers attack Aso Rock, attempt to burgle Buhari’s chief of staff”, headlined on MSN News.
The Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, was lucky not to have been harmed. While the headlines howls at this profoundly lapse in security in the nation’s supposedly ‘most secured’ real estate, the citizens scoffed at the attempted robbery. Many derided the President for his ineptitudes and affirmed the notion that a president who is unable to protect his house is manifestly unfit to protect the nation.
When the tantalizing news first broke, it lit up social media with innuendos. Many were suggesting that the President have it coming because of his willful negligence to the nation’s deplorable security condition. It appears that the troubles he ignored or failed to address have now come to his doorstep.
Yet, the attempted raid at the CoS’s compound calls for dutiful sobering thoughts from all Nigerians. At this junction, it is foolish and reckless to continue to look up to the government to assure the safety of lives and properties because it is evident that they cannot solve the malignant security situations. One can safely conclude that they are either bereft of solutions or are complicit in the spoliation of the country. Their intentional disregard for the pain and wailings of the people they swore to protect is now considered criminal.
The primary responsibility of a government is to protect the citizens and their properties, whether a community, state, or national government. The people must feel secure in their space against enemies – foreign and domestic. In this basic function, the government of Nigeria has failed. By flunking their core role, they are now lacking purpose and should be discarded.
Repairing a social upheaval
From all indications, it appears that the situation is perilous, where even the most protected compound in the nation is porous. And because the government has abdicated its responsibility, the citizen must take their security into their own hands. The currently flawed top-down approach to policing should be replaced by a bottom-up scheme energized from the grassroots.
No more should the people look up to an apex figure for a solution or a centralized authority for a cure; instead, they should look out for themselves, where one has the other’s back. The country should return to the pre-colonial age of the “village life,” where much of today’s social-political and economic ills were a rarity, where bonds between individuals and families were high.
They should embrace and return to the concept of “I am my brother’s keeper.” Where everyone gets to eat and not just a few well-placed, “where there is enough for one, there is enough for all”.
Regions, communities, vicinages, villages, and even small clusters of settlements must take charge of their security. They should have organized militias to tackle marauders parading as herders, resist incursions of Boko haram and other blood-thirsty brigands, organize small clandestine groups of locals to expose hideouts of kidnappers, armed robbery, and bandits. Citizens should take refuge within themselves. This, they must do now to prevent a full-scale bedlam and protracted anarchy.
The absence of governance infrastructures
Nigeria has never been this ungoverned in almost a century since the installation of a central governing body in 1914. Thus, It is now evident that the Nigerian arrangement is unworkable, and the people should now act as if they have no government. Look to each other for support.
If the potential short-term cost is the sacrifice of our current republic, so be it. After all, countless nations with a similar form of government in our present-day settings had survived without a government. Northern Ireland went without a government for 13 months in 2016. Germany got by without a government for several months in 2017. Belgium did not have an elected government for over a year in 2010. Somalia had gotten by without a government for over 15 years in the 1990s. Others are Iraq, Spain, etc.
Nigeria had no elected politicians before the amalgamation, yet the people did just fine. With this, I posit that they go back.
Replacing this government with a new one will not remedy the current security problems; doing so is equivalent to eating the “fruit of the poisonous tree.” But, taking the measures discussed above will undoubtedly bring some sense of safety to the beleaguered citizens.
The solutions proffered herein are practicable and some regions have already started putting such measures in place. However, it seems the Government of the day has a proclivity to use the security agencies at its disposal to interfere with the efforts of the locals in securing the lives and property of their people.
Now it just need to spread like wide fire where no region is exempted