The media and insecurity

We weaken the security forces by the liberal intellectual fraud and deceit of application of non-kinetic approach to fight against insecurity through pacification.  Nigeria is in a state of war.  Soldiers are trained to shoot and kill enemies of the state and criminals and not to negotiate with them.  The only negotiation one would say for the umpteenth time should be through the lens view of the back-site aperture of the assault rifle and feed them with hot lead.

Not long ago, reports had it that somewhere in the Southwest, bandits and kidnappers abducted villagers and killed some of them and kept others for ransom.  On top of the ransom money was included demand for virgins!  This should provoke the state into anger and revenge.  It is abomination and heresy to be making such demand in a nation state; do they need the virgins as rituals for rites of passage, you would ask?   This should not be happening in Nigeria in the 21st Century.  We are losing the country to a cartel and gangsters that have built capacity to match and withstand the state; negotiating on their own terms.   

If the state chooses to close its eyes to the dire situation, it is the duty of the media and members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm to inform the public and draw attention of the lethargic bureaucracy to the precarious lots of Nigerians.  The menace of insecurity is hydra-headed; it is growing like water hyacinth; luxuriating as you try to harvest it.

Some government officials prefer to label the media and individuals who report the state of insecurity as unpatriotic; they prefer cover up and censorship. Patriotism is not gauged or measured by the appointment anybody holds in the public office.  This is an age that nothing is hidden under the sun; there are multi-media sources of information. With information technology (IT), everyone armed with an android phone is a potential journalist via the social media.  The interpenetration of the AI (Artificial Intelligence) creating alternative reality will certainly not help matters; so let this sink into the heads of government officials that they can no longer hoard and manipulate information. Insecurity, insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other forms of criminality are stark reality staring everyone in the face in our communities, villages and on the major arteries of our road networks. 

The elites, radical clerics and politicians campaigning for dialogue and amnesty for the criminals are complicit and should be treated as enablers.  Criminals should be hated and government should not be seen to dialogue and rehabilitate criminals that have declared war on the state and grant them amnesty.  What happens to the victims?  This attitude foist on the state political helplessness for decisive action to deal with the situation. 

Don’t blame the media; the press is not the cause of the rising tides and attacks on communities and infrastructure of the State; they are only informing the people and taking government to task.  No country wins the fight against insecurity, insurgency, banditry and armed violence through the template of political engagement with brainwashed addicts.  There seems to be a correlation between election circles and violence; whenever transition programme approaches the crime wave increases.  Violence appears to be a vehicle of political machinations. 

How prepared are the security forces, the intelligence community and the police to deal with violent crimes that have morphed into full blown terrorism? It is indubitable that Nigeria has battle tested Armed Forces ready to take on any foe with the right leadership, motivation and political will.  As a fighting force also, emphasis should be on lethal force and offensive operation rather than the political sloganeering of non-kinetic approach. The intelligence community should double down on cutting edged surveillance equipment and actionable intelligence for effective engagement. They should be able to scan the enemies’ locations and delete the terrorists, bandits and kidnappers.

It is also time to equip and retrain the Nigeria Police Force for necessary reform due to self-sabotage and corruption that permeates its rank and file.  The people are still scared and more suspicious of the police than the common criminal. 

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What is to be done? The right people should be in the right places.  Officials should stop blaming opposition press; the media should not be made scapegoat. Government officials are elected to solve problems and not trade blames under whose regime the problem started.  We blame colonialism, most countries of the world were at one point or the other colonized.  We blame the military incursion into politics; Nigeria is not the only country that had the misfortune of being ruled by military dictatorship.  Leave the journalists and media alone; the press did not create the problem of insecurity, corruption and underdevelopment that we are facing. We have Nigeria today because of the tenacity and resilience of a vibrant media that set the agenda.  Nigeria is held together whether tenuous or not because of the vigilance and courage of the members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm.  That country is under the yoke and tyranny of a rapacious political class that has captured the state is not the problem of the media.    

Today, Nigeria is ravaged by terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and sundry violence and some voluble and loquacious public officials are claiming that it is the wrong narrative from the media that is giving the wrong impression.  The reality of the security situation is startling; you cannot tell a blind man that it is raining!  Escalation of insecurity is not a media creation; the state needs to re-strategize to tackle insecurity so that Nigerians can breathe. 

•Kebonkwu Esq is an Abuja-based attorney. mikekebonkwu@yahoo.com