A lecturer at the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Dr. Oludayo Tade, has said governments at all levels in the country have failed in their responsibility to protect the citizens.
Tade who was reacting to the call by Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State, on residents of the state to acquire arms and defend themselves against bandits, said acquiring weapons by citizens in the name of self-defense would increase bandit cells and deepen insecurity.
He noted that besides the issues of border porosity, states in the North West were leading in terms of unemployment and poor people in Nigeria, insisting that the two variables were triggers of criminality and social problems which the region is facing.
The don maintained that the states in the North West should be realistic and present common front to battle bandits which they reared irresponsibly.
According to him, “The North West states are facing almost same problem of banditry and should work together, formulate common policies and collectively use their humongous security votes to protect their residents and not only their families.”
Tade noted further that Nigeria was a member state which signed into the responsibility to protect but it was showing incapacity and unwillingness to tame the monster of insecurity thereby exposing security forces to danger and sending civilians to early graves.
The security expert and communication specialist admonished governors in the North West region to fight unemployment, poverty, and illiteracy which he described as the tripod upon which banditry had been nurtured to their monstrous nature.
“The statistics from the region from the National Bureau of Statistics in the last quarter of 2020 showed that Katsina alone has 25.5 per cent unemployment rate with about 438,808 people unemployed; Jigawa has 565,978 (38.69%), Kaduna has 1,111,091 (44.35%), Kano has 717,086 (25.5%) while Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara have 213, 570 (17.25%), 162,349 (14.48%), 202, 568 (12.9%) respectively. The statistics on poverty rate from the region is a sign of danger and failure of effective leadership. Who will you give weapons in a state like Zamfara with poverty rate of 73.98 per cent or in Sokoto with 87.73 per cent poor people? The least in the region has 43.48 per cent of her population as poor.
“So, who will be the civilian that is not already vulnerable to bad governance and will be given arms and not also use it as an opportunity to extort? Leaders from the zone should be objective to themselves and address what they have contributed to creating the monster of banditry? How many of them are close to the bandits? Governance is not about enjoying the perks of office and shifting responsibilities to the vulnerable. Rise up and address the root cause of banditry. Weapon proliferation is already a problem and we should not add to it.”
He admonished the leadership in the region to put politics aside and join the call for state police, fight poverty, unemployment and rise up to defend their people.
