Why security has not improved in Nigeria – researcher

Researcher and public policy analyst Dan Mou said on Monday that growing uncertainty in the country is due to the failure of successive governments to propose deeper solutions to solve problems at their roots.

“The security situation worsened under the previous government. And when this government came. Other than changing leadership, they haven’t really done anything significant on this issue,” said Mr. Mou, executive director of the Center for Poverty Eradication, Development and Equal Opportunities.

The author of various books focusing on governance, security, poverty and national security said that instead of addressing the problems, “policies introduced so far have worsened the poverty and unemployment situation.”

According to the latest report which Rated the country’s security situation under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, for example, kidnappings continued unabated in the first year of his administration.

This is according to data collected from Armed Conflict and Event Data Project (ACLED) led to over 4,556 deaths and 7,086 abductions between May 29, 2023 and May 22, 2024.

ACLED, a global data center that collects real-time conflict data, also said that compared to the previous year’s data, the figures showed that more people were killed in the first year of Tinubu’s rule in Nigeria than in the previous year.

According to other ACLED data analyzed by PREMIUM TIMES, between May 29, 2022 and May 29, 2023, 2,606 Nigerians were killed and 3,523 others abducted.

What to do

The author of the books “National Security and Democratic Governance in Nigeria” and “State Power, Agrarian Policy and Peasant Welfare” also highlighted the impact of open grazing and criminal elements among herdsmen on insecurity in the country.

“As long as these herdsmen continue to move their cattle, fight farmers and take over their farms, how will farmers cope with the business? And you can see that the government has done nothing significant on this issue,” said Mou, former secretary of the now-defunct federal government’s National Poverty Eradication Program (NAPEP).

Mou, a triple-doctoral scholar from Nigeria and the United States specializing in public policy analysis and African politics, as well as international law and diplomacy, argued that addressing the country’s high poverty rate could help reduce insecurity in Nigeria.

The researcher found that strategically increasing the productivity-based minimum wage could reduce poverty.

“The minimum wage will reduce poverty. However, to address the minimum wage, there are many issues that need to be addressed. The minimum wage must be linked to productivity; it should be done in a way that is easy to implement.”

Insecurity in various forms has plagued Nigeria with mass kidnappings, armed robberies and killings, including of military personnel, taking place in various states.

Last week, Glory Adekolure, a 22-year-old graduate of the University of Benin, was allegedly arrested raped and killed on June 13, 2024, by yet-to-be-identified persons while she was returning home after attending university. Her body was found in Iyowa Local Government Area of ​​Benin City, Edo State.

On Saturday, 70-year-old retired Brigadier General Uwem Udokwere was stabbed to death by yet unidentified thieves who broke into his house in Sunshine Home Estate, Abuja.

A statement by FCT Police Command spokeswoman Josephine Adeh said the incident occurred at around 3 a.m. and that Police Commissioner Benneth Igweh “immediately ordered a thorough and discreet investigation into the circumstances surrounding this regrettable event.”