Nigeria made headlines globally in 2013 when the Guardian, a British newspaper, mentioned our country as the second-largest market for champagne. This merry revelation may have painted our country in the eyes of citizens of other nations as one of the most prosperous nations on the face of the earth since a significant number of our populations are able to afford an ostentatious product, which has its demographic as the elite class of developed nations. Nigerians love for extravagance has attracted growing attention globally with a recent revelation showing Nigerian tourists becoming the fourth biggest foreign spenders in the United Kingdom outdoing by four times the average UK shoppers.
However, this is the other story.
My fatherland, once a prosperous nation and envy for all has over the decades suffered a tremendous downturn. Nigeria is a country stupendously endowed not only with billions of oil reserves but also with the wealthiest individuals on the continent. Before now, many African countries idolize Nigeria as a force to be reckoned with and looked up to the nation for guidance.
Sadly, those days are behind us. Social insensitivity is now a dime a dozen and insecurity a kobo two dozens.
The militant Boko Haram group has destabilized Nigeria’s northeast killing tens of thousands and displacing about 2.6 million Nigerians since 2009. The middle belt region is faced with incessant violent clashes between the predominantly Christian farmers and Muslim cattle herders. Kidnapping for ransom has assumed a biblical proportion. Clashes between the Shiite sects and Nigeria’s security forces persist and the Niger Delta region has battled with clashes between government forces and militant groups.
Several factors have over the years given rise to insecurity in Nigeria, the most potent among them being poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and corruption.
Nigeria, the lion of Africa and the largest economy in the continent has in 2018 overtaken India as the poverty capital of the world with an estimated 87 million Nigerians affected. If this is anything to go by, around half of our country’s population is thought to be living on less than $1.90 in a day. Adam Smith, a Scottish economist once opined that “no society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which by far the greater part of the numbers are miserable”. Poverty makes people prone to predicaments ranging from lack of basic necessities to lack of access to education and ultimately resulting in their voices not being heard in decision making. In an effort to carve a niche, the impoverished have engaged in vices that have now become national threats.
Poverty is not the sole factor contributing to insecurity in Nigeria, illiteracy has painted another quagmire. In 2017, an estimated 60 million Nigerians or 30 percent of Nigeria’s population cannot read or write. The perpetuation of illiteracy has led to heavy and tragic consequences. Even our worst nightmare, the Boko Haram crisis is attributable to the menace of illiteracy. A large number of the Almajiri children roaming on the streets and facing serious neglect has contributed to the melancholic state of insecurity in Nigeria. These categories of people have low self-esteem and ultimately feel emotions such as powerless, shame, and fear and to this end, when offered guns, they jump at them since this would give them the much-needed power the society has deprived them of.
The distressing rate of unemployment in Nigeria makes one ill at ease. There are over 500,000 graduates from tertiary institutions annually in Nigeria with no reciprocal job opportunities available to them. In 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics figure shows Nigeria’s unemployment rate at 23.1 percent and that of underemployment at 16.6 percent. This figure is expected to skyrocket to 33.5 % by the end of 2020. This alarming number, of course, explains the incessant increase in criminalities perpetrated by the youth in recent times. Kidnapping for ransom, armed robbery, and political thuggery is also attributable to the high rate of youth unemployment. Surprisingly, a large portion of the Boko Haram terrorists was said to be unemployed youths who cashed in on criminality.
Unemployment, poverty, and illiteracy which ultimately led to the menace of insecurity have been precipitated by corruption. With corruption, the center can no longer hold. Public trusts are breached recklessly by officials with utmost impunity and have, in turn, resulted in social insensitivity and the ultimate ripple effect is felt negatively. Monies allocated to service projects aimed at bettering the lives of the general population are pilfered on a daily basis thereby resulting in the larger society wallowing in abject poverty, mass illiteracy, and time-bomb unemployment.
Credible solutions to the problem of insecurity are not far-fetched. The most invaluable of all is the government’s sincerity of purpose. Once the government is honest in its approach to curbing the menace, it will surely go down the drain. The government should tackle poverty by providing an enabling environment for the citizens to thrive. This includes the systematic review of policies that accommodates small and medium industries that could ultimately address unemployment. There should be a clampdown on government spending with capital expenditure given utmost priority and salaries of government officials slashed to make such offices less attractive to those who are interested in looting government funds.
The menace of Almajiri and mendicancy must be checkmated. Victims of this system should be enrolled in schools to ensure that they get a formal education. Stiff punitive measures should be applied to parents who allow their wards to engage in such practices. Massive re-orientation by the media would also go a long way in achieving the greater good. Religious leaders must also shun inciting utterances and preach a culture of tolerance to their followers to ensure peaceful co-existence among the diverse people in the country.
There is no doubt that insecurity has remained a bane to our development, however, it is never too late for the government and people of Nigeria to work towards the actualization of a better future for our beloved country.
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