Insecurity in Nigeria: The Way Forward

"Militants kills five in the south of Sudan."

The above stated sentence was the headline news broadcast via Channels Television on Thursday, the 25th of June 2015 and was one of the very many attacks recorded in recent weeks launched by the dreaded militant group dubbed "BOKO HARAM".

There have been many of such attacks carried out by this group in time past. They have been terrorizing the citizens of the northern part of Nigeria, not only have they succeeded in sowing the seed of fear in the mind of the residents of those states, they have killed, maimed and displaced thousands of people; fathers, mothers, children etc. This has affected deeply the economy of those states as a result of the dastardly acts and savage activities of the insurgents.

Businesses have been brought to an abrupt end, investment opportunities has seen a tremendous negative spiral downward and social activities has received little or no attention.

Truth be told, no human being would like to do any kind of business in a non-conducive environment.

Little wonder, there is a palpable downturn of business, social and other related activities in such states.

The activities of these militants aren't just limited to the northern states.

They now carry out attacks on neighbouring countries as earlier pointed out in this article assuming the state of guerrilla fighters.

They operate in different forms; they engage in kidnapping; the adoption of the highly media publicised Chibok girls is a classic example, they engage in bombing, both suicide and public; the suicide bombing which occurred in one of the country's institution of higher learning some time ago is an example.

Also, the bombing which took place at Potiskum; a northern part of the country is a testament to the various public bombing the Boko Haram insurgents had carried out in the past few years.

The activities of these insurgents have tainted even more, the already negative image and perception of the country to the outside world. It has put up Nigeria as a country in the limelight for another wrong cause which is terrorism.

More to that, it has driven away prospective investors and entrepreneurs who would have wanted to invest and do business in some of those states where activities of these insurgents has been highest thereby limiting the growth of the country's GDP.

These activities of the insurgents and many more parallel issues not stated here are one of the various security challenges that has bedevilled the country in recent years.

Thus, it becomes expedient for security measures to be put in place to combat and checkmate these insurgents and their activities in order to bringing to end or at least minimal level their negative impact on the country.

The following measures should be ensued if the country is to move from her present state of insecurity to a future near perfect state of security if not perfect.

The government should partner with its citizens, diplomats and neighbouring countries for the purpose of information gathering and sharing.

Empowerment of the military is very vital and hereby becomes imperative to getting the right manpower to fighting the insurgents.

Asking for advice from the world powers that be, on how to go about fighting and combatting militants of the dimension and size of Boko Haram since they have experience in the fight against terrorism.
Training and retraining of top officers in the military and other intelligence department on the handling, sourcing and management of intelligence reports and also in the operations involved in tackling and combatting the insurgents.

Educating the public on how to be security conscious and alert in order to create an awareness about things happening around them.

Provisions of good employment opportunities for the youths in order to discourage them from being lured by unscrupulous and deceitful sponsors of the insurgents.

Arrests, investigation and the prosecution of individuals found guilty of aiding in any capacity the insurgents.

Proper investigation should be carried out on any information gotten about any individual whosoever said to be aiding in any capacity the activities of these insurgents.

Necessary arrests should be made followed by the prosecution of the guilty ones.

Strict and very grave consequences should be meted out to those convicted in order to deter others from trying to tow the same line.

With these few measures taken, I think the wind of security change will blow over the country and in no time, Nigeria will become a safe haven for her citizens and visitors alike than she has been in a very long time.



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