The extent of the destruction and the detrimental effects that insecurity has had on the country have been condemned by experts.
In a recent study profiling the entire security situation in Nigeria, particularly on pastoral banditry, vandalism, and other forms of terrorism, Nextier, a leading think tank in the country, found that for more than 20 years, violent insecurity increased in scope and sophistication, posing an unprecedented threat to valuable assets, including lives, investments, and the territorial integrity of the state.
According to the experts, statistical mapping based on location and event data from armed conflicts and the Nextier violent conflict database shows that 16,328 people died as a result of 2,203 occurrences of hostility between and among ethnic-based militia groups between January 1997 and March 2020.
The report also gleaned that for the same period, 1,473 incidents of pastoral banditry killed no fewer than 9,971 persons (55 percent from 2015).
It also observed that between 2000 and 2018, 19,896 cases of pipeline vandalisation and 320 cases of rupture were recorded in the Niger Delta, resulting in the loss of 2.45 metric tons of oil worth 125.4 billion naira and 375 fire outbreaks.
The experts also asserted that between 2000 and 2019, the Gulf of Guinea region recorded 987 piracy and armed robbery against ships (52.6 per cent occurred in Nigerian waters), stressing that in addition, between 2009 and March 2020, Boko Haram and its different factions were involved in 3,283 incidents of armed conflicts, claiming 33,127 lives in Nigeria.
The comprehensive report made available to reporters in Abuja on Sunday, also indicated that recently, between January 2021 and April 2022, 6,961 murder cases were recorded in the country (6,895 in 2021 alone).
Also worthy of note was that civilians, state security personnel continued to pay the supreme price.
‘For example, between January and April 2022, 158 security officers were killed. Efforts by scholars and policymakers to explain and mitigate violent insecurity have been wide-ranging, although with little success.
‘Some driving factors such as Nigeria’s youth bulge, arms proliferation, high unemployment level, mass poverty rate, the politicisation of security agencies, poor funding of security agencies, and poor use of Information, Communication, and Technology in policing crime and violence, were identified as major causes.
‘While these explanations are compelling, little attention has been given to Nigeria’s need to strengthen community policing as a mitigation strategy,’ the report noted.
As a way of proffering solutions, the report suggested that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) can be sufficiently devolved to the community levels to enhance optimum performance.
While buttressing its argument on community policing, the report said the discontent over centralised policing was unnecessary, especially as the Nigeria Police has been a national institution since it was established in 1820 as a principal law enforcement and security agency by the British colonial masters.
It noted that the Nigeria Police was federalised in 1930 when the Northern and Southern police forces merged, adding that between 1999 and 2016, four police reforms were undertaken by different administrations, but they were not implemented.
In August 2020, President Buhari, following a National Economic Council decision, approved the sum of ₦13.3 billion to launch the Community Policing scheme, with the aim of rejigging ‘the security architecture in the country and delivering a more effective policing’.
‘Under the scheme, 10,000 police constables were recruited, trained, and deployed to their catchment areas. However, this planned reform became a contention between the Police Service Commission, the Nigeria Police Management Team, and some state governors.
‘The reform has remained unimplemented, making the 371,800 staff of the police working in 17 Zonal Commands, 37 State/FCT Commands, 128 Area Commands, and 1,388 Divisional Commands, and 1,579 Police Stations federalised.
‘Police operatives at the zonal, state and divisional levels take ultimate instructions from the top echelon of the NPF in Abuja. Even though state governors are said to be the chief security officers of their states, the police commissioners in the respective states do not take instruction from the governors. Despite this anomaly, state police commands still receive enormous financial and logistical support from state governors in a clear case of ‘funding without authority’ by state governors.
‘This federalisation of the NPF is not in line with global policing best practices that underscore the devolution of functions to security communities at the grassroots, as currently done in the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and India, among others.
‘The centralisation is also inconsistent with the spirit of federal practice. Furthermore, the centralisation of the NPF is at variance with the dynamics of insecurity in the country. Crime and violence have become sophisticated in recent years,’ the report also signified.