Insecurity as a global menace has a devastating effect on the lives of the citizen of any nation.
A simple definition of insecurity is when one is not sure of sleeping and waking up the next morning, when one goes out and is not certain of coming back alive, when family in a dining table has their heart hanged thinking of what may happen next; if the food will be their last intake.
Nigeria as a nation have suffered he threat of insecurity for reasonable period of time to the extent that some people now have no home because of banditry, like the citizens f Borno and their neighbors caused by the emergence of Boko Haram and other security threatening groups.
The story of the Fulani headsmen cannot be forgotten so easily. A situation whereby farmers become afraid to attend to their farm land, for the fear of being killed in the process. And then their farm input will later be consumed by nomadic cows on their pasturing journey . When this happens, the table of the farmer will be left empty and the family will have no option than to retire to bed with an empty stomach. So, fear and starvation becomes the order of the day.
Across the different states of the nation exists one or two devastating security problem. This posses a challenge to the people and drive away their daily joy, while sending some into their early graves, creating an irreplaceable vacuum in the heart of their living relatives.
Kidnaping, robbery, rape and other vices cannot be left out in the counting of the things that force tears out of the eyes of the people.
While all this happens, it comes to mind that the most affected is women, girls and children.
Children are kidnapped and huge amount of money demanded from the parents, which even later graduated to parents being kidnapped and down to priests in different churches.
So many women have been left by their husbands to suffer terribly to feed the children as widows, while so many girls lose their lives by being used for money rituals by some heartless hoodlums in the quest to enrich their pockets.
Armed robbers kill so many on the high ways and even visit homes to snatch money and still waist the blood of their victims.
Brothers hunt brothers and get each other killed for greed and selfishness on a daily basis.
While all these happens, the people that are meant to put a stop to it are busy dragging the control of the national treasury while the citizen who the national treasury should be used on suffer in pain waiting for their last days.
So may have been left in mercy of their pastors searching for protection. Some have ran to native doctors to get their body charmed never to be hurt, but the question remains, what of the women, the children and other vulnerable ones who cannot make such move?
Presently the agitation for separation and other related issues has turned the south East into a bloody zone where dead bodies are found in the street every day like the time of bird flu. No one knows who is who anymore.
Just a week ago, the ugly bloody attack in a church in Ondo state got the country bleeding again, causing the people to ask “which way Nigeria?”
This is a time our leaders should go back and understand their responsibilities or convince us that they are away of what is happening because Gen. Abacha a former military head of state of this nation once said that “if any banditry lasts more than two days, it means that the government in power knows about it”.
While we cry and pray for a safe nation, let us remember that we can still change the narrative.