Living in fear

Living in fear
By
Abdullahi Dahiru
Nigerian society is recently experiencing deterioration in security situation in the country leading to proliferation of some criminal activities that were not common in the society.
Some of these criminal activities include high profile murders of prominent personalities and common people, kidnappings in demand of ransom, armed robbery, ritual killings and ethno-religious conflicts.
Recently, I read a story in one of the national dailies of a man butchering his father with an axe to death, and another frightening and absurd one in which a man killed his own wife and son. Several politicians, journalists and high ranking government officials have been murdered without the perpetrators been identified and punished.
Ritual killings have also become rampant in many parts of Nigeria. Young children and sometimes even adults are killed and parts of their body like the eyes, tongue and genitalia used for ritual purposes.
I recently managed a case of a 10 year girl who was abducted by unknown stranger in front of their house and was found by a Good Samaritan raped and abandoned by the abductor. Sometimes even toddlers are raped by adults; and some of them become infected with diseases like HIV and hepatitis or even lose their lives in the process. The father of the girl later told me that he now live in perpetual fear because he is afraid that the girl or his 2 other young daughters may be abducted and raped again.
We all now live in fear like the father of this poor girl because we are afraid of what may happen to us. We live in fear of armed robbers attacking us in our own houses in the night. Politicians, wealthy businessmen and high ranking public officials, and their relations are afraid of being kidnapped in demand of ransom. Travellers on dilapidated Nigerian roads are also afraid of falling victims of armed robbery attack or loosing their lives to road traffic accidents, because the roads have become death traps where thousands lose their lives annually.
We also live in fear of ethno-religious and civil disturbances. Several Nigerians have lost their lives and their properties looted or destroyed due to ethno-religious conflicts that have become common because of increasing intolerance and deep-seated hatred among Nigerians .A minor misunderstanding or altercation between 2 people of different ethnic or religious belief can lead to loss of several lives and properties.
I believe these criminal activities continue to happen because of deteriorating security situation in the country; and also because the perpetrators of these heinous crimes are not usually identified and punished. When ethno-religious crisis occur for example, probe panels are constituted by governments; the recommendations of the panels are not utilized and the perpetrators go scot-free.
Government should ensure that the security agencies are empowered to pre-empt and prevent the occurrence of some of these atrocities like the ethno-religious conflicts because mostly there are security reports indicating possibility of occurrence of these conflicts which are not utilized to prevent their occurrence. Perpetrators of all these criminal activities should be identified and punished to serve as a deterrent to other people. Dilapidated roads should also be repaired to reduce the carnage on our roads. Nigerians should also have the courage to free their minds from deep-seated hatred, animosity, excessive greed and avarice; menaces that have shackled the country for several years.