SECURITY

A relative of mine informed us that he had a training program in Kaduna, which was scheduled to start on Monday, March 28th, 2022.

So, by Monday evening, when we heard of the attack on the train going from Abuja to Kaduna, we were worried.

However, when we called him, he happily told us that he had traveled to Kaduna on the train the previous day. Truly, it was a narrow escape for him.

Besides, I am completely saddened by the lives that were lost and the large number of people that were adopted.

The boldness of these attackers is scary and needs to be dealt with in a more proactive and decisive way.

At the Nigerian Defense Academy (NDA) on August 24, 2021, a group of bandits killed two officers and took a senior officer hostage.

Because the NDA is where officers for the Nigerian Armed Forces are trained, I thought the attack would be seen as twisting the tail of a lion.

Unfortunately, like in other previous incidents, we heard too much talk but no meaningful action.

Mr. President, just as he did a few days ago after the train attack, quickly called a meeting of the service chiefs, but no visible action was taken afterward.

No wonder these criminals had the boldness to remove over fifty meters of the Abuja-Kaduna rail track before attacking the train last Monday.

In addition, the Abuja-Kaduna express road is notorious for its spate of kidnappings, which is why many people opted for the train, hoping that it was safer before this attack. So, what is the hope of ordinary Nigerians who need to transit between Abuja and Kaduna to run their legitimate businesses?

Is the Nigerian government helpless? I hope not.

Ibrahim Babangida, during his tenure as Nigeria’s Head of States, said, and I quote, “Left to me, the whole purpose of government is to ensure the security of the citizens, like the security of lives and property.”

I agree with him that the security of lives and property is the main essence of governance.

Chapter 2, Section 14 (2b) of the 1999 constitution also says that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”

This is very important because there can’t be any real economic or social development when there is chaos.

According to the Daily Trust newspaper on Monday, January 15, 2018, the cost of the Abuja-Kaduna railway is one billion seven hundred thousand naira (#1.7B) per kilometer. Over fifty kilometers (50km) of this rail line were destroyed by the bandits before the train attack. You can imagine the colossal loss incurred in the attack.

Regretably, this project was funded with a loan from China.

Therefore, the quest by most political office holders to embark on visible projects that will attract accolades from the citizenry while ignoring the fundamental aspect of governance and our existence as a nation, which is the security of lives and property, should be checked.

Our leaders’ priorities must change, and that has to be done quickly before the country is overrun by bandits.

In the end, I want to ask our politicians, the military, community leaders, and other well-intentioned Nigerians to put aside their differences in religion and ethnicity and fight this monster together as one people.

We will win if we are sincere about our goal.

We collectively fought Ebola and COVID-19, and we won.

This security challenge will not be different.