The ugly menance of banditry in Nigeria is truly worrisome. Today, many communities in the country are living in absolute fear. It is on record that for years now, many lives have been lost to this social menace. There is no doubt that this is a major setback to Africa’s most populous nation at the verge of coasting along the path of finding her way to further new frontiers of development.
As the twenty-first century progresses, the dream of every nation centres mainly on how to move ahead with time. There is no nation that does not desire to be a big player in the Sustainable Development Goals, Nigeria inclusive. However, given the entry of banditry at this point in Nigeria, which is a bad entry and a bad omen, can one still be patriotically hopeful that we would catch up with rest of the world? Another question begging for an answer in this discourse is, what must we do to tame this threat to our national development?
It would be recalled that in the time past, this great nation never had any challenge as regards to banditry. There was peace in our urban and rural communities, with farmers and dwellers having the best of their time. Then, people could travel from one state to the other without any fear or threat of banditry. There were no reports of people abandoning their farmlands or communities because of incessant attacks by bandits. Then, people could travel at night with their comfort and security guaranteed. Consequently, the nation was able to attract more business opportunities across various communities. The rail transport system was equally booming with high patronage, as people could move their farm produce conveniently from their farmland, fresh to the urban areas. The tourism sector equally received its own fair share of booming era, due to relative security in the country.
Guaranteed security is one major factor that promotes and attracts tourism and investors. Moreover, no country can attain development without having a well-structured-security architecture. As is well known, fear is psychological and emotional. Fear goes with threat as well as torments. Therefore, absence or partial guarantee of security in any place is a-no-go area for any reasonable tourist or investor. This clearly explains one of the reasons that some Nigerians prefer travelling to Dubai or other peaceful places as tourists. This is quite ironical in the sense that we now spend so much for the satisfaction that could easily and cheaply be got at home, no thanks to the prevailing insecurity and chaos caused by bandits in our communities.
The challenges of banditry in Nigeria are so enormous and quite disheartening considering the status of Nigeria among other nations of the world. The challenges include loss of lives and property, psychological trauma due to all forms of abuse, emotional imbalance on the people due to fear, famine due to interruption of farming activities, lack of interest in tourism, low revenue from the transport system, high level of brain drain due to massive relocation, displacement of communities/settlements due to attacks, among others.
Despite the challenges thrown up by the sudden invasion of Nigeria by bandits at this crucial point of charting a new course in our developmental journey, there is no problem without solution. All we need to do is to critically and sincerely look forward to solving the problem. Any country can be fixed, once the impending problems are well identified. In this case, the problem of banditry is already identified here along with its effects on our society. To this effect, this piece cannot be complete without some recommendations towards solving this social quagmire.
Recommendations
To save Nigeria from banditry, the following steps are recommended:
1. Government should deploy sizeable number of armed personnel to affected communities.
2. Adequate security surveillance should be put in place using technology to enhance alertness of attacks.
3. A well-funded and armed community vigilante group should be equally established to work along with other armed personnel.
4. All boundaries in the country and in communities should be well guarded against security breach.
5. Financially well-positioned individuals should be encouraged to render their support in fighting this social menace.
Conclusion
Nigeria is a great country, but it can only remain great through collective responsibility. Security is everyone’s responsibility. The needful must be done in order for Nigeria to take its rightful pride of place. The citizens cannot just fold their hands and watch the glory of the country being ruined by banditry. Nigeria’s hospitality industry and economic well-being must be put in place. Above all, lives and property should be protected in the communities. To achieve this, all borders should be well checkmated against unauthorised entry into the country and within the communities.
*Aboloma Christian is an ethnographer at the National Museum, Benin City.