It is obvious that Northern Nigeria is the epicenter of the terrorism, a phenomenon that’s bedeviling the country. Not only that, seeds of destruction like banditry, kidnapping, communal clashes, disputes between herders and farmers are, among others, the malaises plaguing the region for more than a decade now. Along the line, thousands of innocent citizens have lost and have been losing their lives, honour and humanity.
However, Southern Nigeria is not immune to these afflictions, they too have suffered a lot from social unrest in an unfortunate similarity to their northern neighbours. The matter of concern now is what efforts is the government putting to tackle the unrest?
Well yes, the government is trying its best to curtail the above-mentioned problems but there’s need to double-check these issues and the government at all levels should double their efforts. It is imperative that protecting the lives and properties of the citizens should be paramount for every responsible government.
In the same vein, few days ago, there’s a quite an uproar in Nigeria whereby thousands of people in Lagos, Abuja and other states are protesting against the brutality of Special Anti Robbery Squards (SARS). There are also a lot of efforts puts in place by the government to bring an end to the protests being led by some youths for demanding the disbanding of the SARS. Though a statement released that the squad was disbanded, the inspector general of the police announced a new unit of Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT), which may possibly bring another symbol of unrest. The federal government needs to take an urgent action of providing security to the people and introduce ways of maintaining law and order around the nation, if we really want to meet our peace of mind again.
There is another chaos when the IG of police announces the new unit that will replace the dissolved SARS which is “special weapon and tactics” SWAT, it’s good move but the IG shouldn’t have to announce the unit while people are still protesting, we do hope that government at various levels will fought this issue to a stand still.
While on the issues of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the government needs to attend to them, look after their demands and reconcile to bring the end this prolong strike. The students spent a long time at home, their focus is being shift to something else, and that leads some of them to engage into various undesirable acts without considering its adverse effect. The schools keep the students busy with different programs, that’s why the government needs to consider them and negotiate.
Therefore, I want to remind President Muhammadu Buhari that people solely voted for APC because of the insecurity that bedeviled the country in 2015. Nonetheless, President Buhari has failed in many scenarios, it’s part of his campaign promises that he will protect our lives and property, but he failed to fulfill his promise resulting in banditry, kidnapping, and the Boko Haram fundamentalists killing people on a daily basis. I appeal to the president to not overlook these issues and provide a lasting solution.
Having said that, I should also commend the president on his tireless efforts to end terrorism. Yet, there’s need for more efforts in tackling these terrorists.
Kasim Isa Muhammad,
Kaduna
