The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room has called on the country’s government to take immediate action to improve security.
The group of civil society organisations (CSOs) made the call against the backdrop of the menace of kidnapping and banditry in Nigeria.
In February, gunmen killed a school pupil and abducted 27 other children in a night-time raid on their boarding school in Kagara, Niger State. Three members of staff and 12 of their relatives were also abducted.
A similar incident occurred in the northwest state of Zamfara, as 279 schoolgirls were kidnapped from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe.
All the abductees were later released.
Also, herder attacks on unarmed farming communities and reprisal attacks in the face of government inaction and failure to bring the terrorist herdsmen and their funders to justice have been reported.
‘The security situation in Nigeria is deteriorating and manifesting in the form of banditry, kidnappings, etc., posing a major threat for the 2023 general elections’, a statement on the state of the nation, signed by the new Convener of Situation Room, Ene Obi, read.
‘Situation Room questions the actors behind the insecurity situation, which appears to be strategic, organised and lucrative’, the statement added.
‘Particularly the possible involvement or complicity of political leaders in these recurring incidents, which have been carried out unrepelled.
‘Situation Room is worried that the government has not demonstrated competence and political will to tackle insecurity threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria’.
The group called on the government to take immediate and effective steps and action to improve public safety and security as well as reassure vulnerable communities of credible measures of their protection.
The group also said state governors should be accountable regarding their utterances on the security situation, as well as the use of their state budgets to tackle insecurity.
‘It is imperative to hold state governors to account on the use of their security votes at this time’, it added.
‘Leaders who are no longer able to guarantee the welfare and security of citizens should resign from government’.
On education, Situation Room called on the federal government to address the interruption to education occasioned by the closure of schools by governors in reaction to attacks on schools and abduction of students, as opposed to tackling the incidents decisively.
The Situation Room is made up of more than 70 CSOs working in support of credible and transparent elections in Nigeria.
Source: Situation Room
Photo source: Situation Room
