Adams not real name is aged 57 years and had been residing in Melborne , Australia where he was born over thirty five years ago by a Nigerian parent and had been married and was blessed with two lovely sons. Last month , he decided to visit home, to spend his holiday vacation alone without his family. At the Muritala Mohamed lnternational hospitcal, he experienced what he described as the worst experience of his life. According to him, the taxi cab that drove me from the airport to the hotel, had pretended to be friendly when in actual fact, he is a criminal and this has further ceiled my belief of what l have been reading om social media about my country.
Apart from ripping me off financially, he also made away with two of my hand luggages containing land documents and other very important items that are very close to my heart . In his words, “ Infact, l would have approached a police station, but because of what l had read on how corrupt the system was, and haveing read your security column, l decided to notify you of my ordeal on sighting your phone contact.
Mr. Adams had asked a very vital national question: “Is Nigeria truely safe?
If this question is tabled before politicians, security agencies especially the police, government officials and members of the public, their responses would vary base on either personal experiences like Mr Adams, while others would want to justify their official existence and others would see the question as an attempt to cast aspersions on the ruling government and the security institution. There are those who would be thinking if the question was not aimed at sending wrong signals to foreign partners and investors. There are many Mr Adams in the country.
They had severally experienced worst scenarios with criminals of diverse operational modus. People had been either scammed or physically attacked by armed robbers, bandits or terrorists. Unfortunately,, the country is not one that is proud of history and keeping statistics of number of kidnapped victims, number of victims of armed robbers and other similar statistics related to various patterns of insecurity. Nigeria is considered to be a country with a high level of crime, ranking 17th among the least peaceful countries in the world.[1] During the first half of 2022, almost 6,000 people were killed by jihadists, kidnappers, bandits or the Nigerian army. In addition, Nigeria is the eighth country most affected by terrorism, based on the Global Terrorism Index.
As of the end of 2023, Nigeria was the fifth country in Africa with the highest risk of genocide and the twelfth worldwide.
During his inaugural speech, President Bola Tinubu said clearly that security will be the topmost priority of his administration and he promised to reform the nation’s security doctrine and architecture. According to the Sultan of Sokoto, Sir Mohammed Abubakar, who is also the chairman, Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council, had during the sixth executive meeting of the council in Arewa House, Kaduna, on Wednesday, declared that Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder due to poverty, hardship and ravaging insecurity bedeviling the nation. According to the statement, “it is important for our leaders at all levels, be it religious or traditional, to demonstrate commitment to bringing solutions to the table at this crucial point in our history. Our problems as a nation are foundational. Despite all these pointers, there are those who still strongly believe that classifying the country as unsafe is far from the truth that indeed, the country is still safe notwithstanding the noticeable insecurity being brandished by those they easily classify as “ enemies of progress”.
What then are the indices that Truely point at a country as an unsafe country.
Nigeria has been ranked 143 among 163 independent nations and territories, according to the level of peacefulness in the 16th edition of the 2022 Global Peace Index. Apart from these verifiable statistical informations, many patriotic citizens like the founder and President of Human Rights Radio and presenter of the popular radio program known as “Brekete Family “, Mr Ahmed Isah, believes that Nigeria is safe despite the global information that portrays the country negatively. .
He noted, “I completely disagrees with those painting the country in this light, that Nigeria is unsafe. No, not at all, my view is that Nigeria is presently safe. Considering the hard work being put in securing the country by our gallant security personels, then, you will agree that the country is presently safe unlike past years”.
Those toeing the part of Mr Isah further argue that insecurity is infinix decimal in number considering the argument that with such a large population, that few number of people fall prey to insecurity should not be used to classify the country as being unsafe. Afterall, only a few local governments experienced insecurity out of over three hundred other local governments spread across the country. To go further dispute this assertion, the question should. Be asked, how many cities have beeen occupied by bandits yet governments and businesses are functioning at their optimum level with no disruption.
The question, then should be, why must a pocket of insecurity or disturbances be over exajurated to a level where every other person would then swallow such misinformation hook line and sinker. The truth is that, if the country is not safe, even this writer would not be safe to write this column. So are the businesses that are flourishing including educational institutions, market and other components of a society. That one person was attacked does not mean the entire populace have been attacked. By praising the government and its security agencies helps in re energizing these gallant and patriotic citizens.
Whenever a wrong opinion is formulated and disseminated around, that the country is unsafe, it sends jitters across the country as bad news and such has the ability to demoralise both the security personnels , government and even the citizens.
Such information affects the economy and many other societal businesses. Such information impedes progress in any society.
So, if Truely the country is unsafe, how come many people are transversing the length and breath of the country transacting businesses and sleeping with their two eyes closed?. If the truth must be tabled, the national orientation agency must help to set the record straight and reorientate the citizens not with falsehood but with the truth. Afterall, it’s only the truth that can save the country. —————————— According to an American journalist and educator Ida B. Wells “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them”.