Nigerians are clamouring for various solutions to the numerous socio-political, economic and security challenges besetting their nation


In recent months, strident calls for the devolution of powers and ‘restructuring’ of the Nigerian State have gained traction, heightened in the midst of numerous socio-political, economic and security challenges besetting the nation.

The calls are further buoyed by spiralling secessionist agitations by regional groups who have latched onto citizens’ disenchantment with the political class, economic downturn, rising insecurity, crimes and violence wracking swathes of the country.

PREMIUM TIMES recently reported how intelligence failure has largely crippled the abilities of the country’s security outfits to respond to crimes and violence even as they too have also come under deadly attacks by non-state actors especially in the South-east and South-south.

On the precipice?
Today, Nigeria is regarded as one of the most dangerous places in the world to live in. The 2020 Global Terrorism Index identified it specifically as the third most ‘affected’ by terrorism.

More worrisome is that kidnappings carried out by non-state actors also increased in the past five years. A recent report noted that over $18 million was paid as ransoms for victims abducted between 2011 and 2020. More ransoms have been paid in 2021 for abducted persons, even as many such cases are unreported. Many victims, whose families were unable to pay such ransoms, have also been killed.

PREMIUM TIMES also reported how mass kidnapping of schoolchildren in Nigeria in the last seven years has increased. Due to the inability of the authorities to curb the trend, over 618 schools were closed in recent months by states in the north.

The pervasive insecurity has led to the formation of regional security outfits, which were initially birthed to tackle the perennial armed herders’ incursion into the southern flanks of the nation, but are now used to check other forms of crime.

While the South-west region now has the Amotekun corps, the South-east recently announced a plan to set up the Ebube Agu.
Other regions are mulling the same approach even as the central government totters while combatting horrendous crimes and violence.