New Telegraph-Admin 
Recent events in which almost 300 in- nocent Nigerians were sent to their early graves in Kwara, Benue and Katsina states once again, highlighted the fact that their nation failed in its primary responsibility of protecting lives and property of her citizens. Although these events predate the present administration it, however, shows how successive governments have not been able to checkmate the scourge de- spite repeated promises to do so.
On Monday, President Bola Tinubu once again, assured the nation that under his watch, the security situation would improve and people would soon be able to sleep with both eyes closed. Unfortunately his immediate predeces- sor, the late Muhammadu Buhari and even Goodluck Jonathan before him, mouthed the same words with the security situation deteriorating instead of improving. In the wake of these developments, I crave your indulgence to reproduce a piece I penned some eight years ago on May 5, 2018 titled:
‘The ‘killing fields’ of Nigeria’, happy reading: Events in the last few months in Nige- ria, particularly in the middle belt area of the country is a sad commentary about how far we have fallen as a nation, es- pecially when it comes to the sanctity of human life. Virtually every day now, there are non- stop reports of killings upon killings of innocent citizens by ‘suspected’ Fulani herdsmen and other bandits. In fact, a recent report that I read indi- cated that from January till April, more than 900 people have been killed in Benue State alone.
By the time we include mur- ders that have taken place in adjoining states of Nasarawa, Taraba and Plateau; Kaduna, Bayelsa and other parts of the country, the figures will easily run into the thousands and this is happening in a country which is not at war! Before the advent of ‘Fulani herdsmen’, the group that was associated with wan- ton killings and mayhem was the Boko Haram; but now that they have been “technically defeated”, they have appar- ently passed the butchery baton to the herdsmen.
Gloomily, what is taking place in the aforementioned Benue/Nasarawa axis can be likened to what happened in SouthEast Asia in the 70s, in a country called Cambodia, which was later dubbed the “killing fields” by the Western media.
According to Wikipedia: “The Cambo- dian Killing Fields are a number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immedi- ately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War (1970–1975).”
Although in truth, Nigeria is yet to reach anywhere near this level of murders, for those directly concerned, one murder is even too much! It just beats the imagination what could suddenly turn generally peace-loving people into monsters who take delight in the savage and brutal way they dispatch their victims to the world beyond – irre- spective of whether they are women or children
In fact, if reports and some of the pic- tures posted on social media are anything to go by, it appears the more savage the killing, the more the murderous mob gets high. If not, how can any sane human be- ing slaughter a pregnant woman, cut open her womb and proceed to dismember the unborn baby? This can only be the work of a sick, depraved and insane mind. So where is the government in this debauchery taking place across the land?
That is the million-naira question begging for answers from the millions of other law abiding citizens in Nigeria. It is given that the primary function of any government is to safeguard the lives and properties of the citizens that it governs. Unfortunately so far, virtually all gov- ernments that have been in power since the return to civil rule 19 years ago have failed woefully in this primary assign- ment.
Even if things were not this bad, when the soldiers returned to their barracks in 1999, subsequent governments whether of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which was in power for 16 years, and the All Progressives Congress (APC), which has been in power for over three years, should have made security their number one priority. If they had non-contentiously kept a firm eye on this very important aspect, the wanton and senseless killings we are witnessing across the country would have largely been curtailed.
Regrettably, this has been the bane of Nigeria over the years with each new government failing to build on what their predecessors had laid down when they were in office. It’s amazing that in spite of the massive votes for the security services – military, Para-military and police – from 1999 till date, the nation is battling to come to grips with the spiraling rise of criminality across the land.
We have heard police chiefs saying they are setting up “special squads” whose main aim is to crack down on violent crime – yet the crimes continue unabat- ed. It is the same thing with the military which heads, at various times, have also announced the setting up of “special units” which are also meant to tackle unique crimes or violent situations, which are beyond the abilities of the police. Yet, despite these “special units”, we still have Boko Haram carrying out attacks and herdsmen maiming and killing inno- cent people.
In a previous write up, I pointed out how the United States, fed up with the ris- ing wave of crime across the land, set up the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1908 with one of its core mandates be- ing, “combating significant violent crime”. And in order to achieve this, it has some of the best brains available to call on, some of the best equipment and best training.
Its Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) is its elite tactical unit and was formed in 1983 to provide full time, federal law enforcement tactical unit capability to respond to major terrorist incidents throughout the US. Today, the HRT performs a number of national security and law enforcement tac- tical functions in high-risk environments and locales and has been deployed over- seas, including military Joint Special Op- erations Command units – an indication of how good it is. So why can’t we have such in Nigeria, a unit capable of going after and taking down those that seem determined to plunge the nation into religious strife.
Inappropriately, even the troops de- ployed to help quell the situation have also become part of the problem – as was the case with the recent Naka invasion when unruly soldiers angry that one of them was killed by unknown persons – in- vaded the village in Gwer West Local Gov- ernment Area of Benue State and allegedly burnt some houses in the community. Such incidents will only turn the lo- cal community against the same troops dispatched by the government to help provide security for them.
As things stand, the sooner the govern- ment is able to get on top of the situation, the better for the affected communities and the wider Nigerian populace will then have belief in the government’s ability to properly carry out its main mandate – which is to protect them! NB: While rounding up this latest piece, fresh reports filtered in of more Nigerians (civilians and uniformed personnel) being abducted and killed across the country, further raising the million-naira question: when will the nightmare be over?!
