A researcher and public policies analyst, Dan Mou, has adduced reasons why the security situation in Nigeria has not improved despite government’s efforts over the years.
Stating the reasons on Monday, the Executive Chairperson of the Centre for Poverty Eradication, Development and Equal Opportunity, CPEDE, Mou said the worsening insecurity in the country is due to successive governments’ failure to proffer deeper solutions to address the problems from their roots.
Mou said, “The situation of security got worse under the last Government. And as this Government came. Aside from changing the leadership, they have not really done anything significant about this.”
“Instead of addressing the problems, the policies that have been introduced so far are the ones that have made things worse in terms of poverty and unemployment.”
Mou stated that reviewed report showed that the country’s security situation under President Bola Tinubu’s leadership worsened. He said kidnapping, for instance, continued unabated in the first year of the coming on board of Tinubu’s administration.
Quoting data gathered from the Armed Conflict and Event Data Project, ACLED, Mou said insecurity has resulted in more than 4,556 fatalities and 7,086 abductions between 29 May 2023 and 22 May 2024.
He pointed that ACLED, a global data hub that collects real-time conflict-related data, also said that when compared to the previous year’s data, the figures showed that more people were killed across Nigeria in the first year of the Tinubu administration than in the preceding year.
Also, in another ACLED data analyzed by PREMIUM TIMES, 2,606 Nigerians were killed. While 3,523 others were abducted between 29 May 2022 and 29 May 2023.
Mou also noted that another factor that the contributes to insecurity is the open grazing. He pointed out that and criminal elements among herdsmen are responsible for insecurity in some parts of the country.
He said, “Insecurity will continue as long as these herdsmen continue to move around with their cattle, fighting farmers and taking over their farms. How are the farmers expected to cope with business? And you can see the government has not done anything significant regarding that.”
The former Secretary of the defunct National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), argued that addressing the country’s high poverty rate could help reduce insecurity in Nigeria. He maintained that a strategic increase in the minimum wage based on productivity could reduce poverty.
He said, “The minimum wage will reduce poverty. But to address minimum wage, a lot of things have to be addressed. Minimum wage has to be tied to productivity. It has to be done in a way that can be easy to implement.”
Insecurity in diverse forms has plagued Nigeria. With the mass kidnappings, armed robberies and killings of, including military personnel, taking place across states.
“Last week, Glory Adekolure, a 22-year-old recent graduate of the University of Benin, was allegedly raped and killed on 13 June 2024 by yet-to-be-identified persons while on her way home from processing her clearance at the university. Her body was found in the Iyowa Community, Benin City, Edo State.
“On Saturday, a 70-year-old retired Brigadier General, Uwem Udokwere, was stabbed to death by yet-to-be-identified robbers. The assailants’ invaded Udokwere’s home at Sunshine Home Estate, Abuja.
“A statement by the spokesperson for the FCT Police Command, Josephine Adeh, said the incident occurred at approximately 3 a.m. The Police Commissioner, Benneth Igweh, had “promptly ordered a thorough and discreet investigation into the circumstances surrounding the regrettable event.”
Mou is a scholar with three doctorate degrees from Nigeria and the United States. He specialized in public policy analysis and African politics as well as international law and diplomacy,
source: Premium Times
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