By Chukwudi Nweje, Lagos
Afenifere, the Pa Ruben Fasonrati-led Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation, has changed President Bola Tinubu to summon the political will to tackle the menace of insecurity across the country.
It charged Tinubu to also spell out how respective communities should be involved in the security of their areas.
The organisation stated this in a statement, Thursday signed by Jare Ajayi, its National Publicity Secretary, in which it identified major reasons why insecurity festers in Nigeria.
It also commended Tinubu for the posthumous national honours conferred on the 17 officers and soldiers killed at Okuama community in Delta State on March 14.
It also expressed serious concern over continuing attacks on security personnel across the country.
The reasons identified by Afenifere include the attitude of the people, complicity and modus operandi of security agencies, the capacity of security personnel, the judicial processes and the requisite political will to frontally confront the challenge.
According to Ajayi, insecurity festers in Nigeria because the citizenry has lost their communal sense, even as security operatives are most times unfamiliar with the terrain they are deployed to fight, and the locals often should terrorists for selfish gains.
He said, “Because of the decreasing communal sense among average Nigerians, many no longer see any need to prevent banditry from taking place by reporting to appropriate authorities that could take prompt action in that regard. Worse still, many now consider kidnapping as a lucrative business. Their appetite for the huge sums coming from the nefarious activity has grown so big that they don’t mind the incalculable harm they are doing to society or indeed the risk to their own lives. Some people, especially in parts of the northern states, are complicity partly out of cowardice, partly out of ignorance and partly out of anticipated gain if they ‘cooperate’ or shield the bandits.
“The propensity for selfish gains is ingrained in many people. A recent report said a housewife in Abuja, Rosemary Ubah, feigned her own kidnap in order to force her husband to pay N2 million.
“There is also the need to allow indigenes of specific areas to form the bulk of the security corps of that area. If this is the case, the question of their not being familiar with the topography of the area would no longer be there. This is another strong case to support the establishment of state and local government police services that Afenifere and others have been advocating for a long time.
“We again call on President Tinubu to give a Presidential Order proclaiming the immediate establishment of State and Local Government Police and then follow this up with an Executive Bill to the National Assembly for the purpose.
“Afenifere strongly supports Mr President on his ‘No negotiation with or payment of ransom to kidnappers’ stand. There should be no sacred cow as the only person who cannot be touched by the arms of the law is the innocent. If ransom is paid or bandits are treated with kid gloves in the form of pardons, etc, they will be encouraged to continue in their evil ways. The judicial system needs to be rejigged to ensure that cases bordering on banditry including kidnapping are expeditiously dealt with,” Ajayi said.