The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has expressed shock and sadness at the killing of the Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chinwike Asadu, by yet unknown gunmen, saying the death reinforces the belief in certain circles that Nigeria is fast becoming a failed state.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said if such a high ranking security officer can be so cheaply gunned down, then no one is safe!
It called on the police high command to ensure that the killers are caught and brought to justice, to prevent a recurrence.
ACN said it is imperative to catch the perpetrators and bring the full weight of the law to bear on them because nothing portrays a nation as a failed state more than when security agents, on whose shoulders lie the responsibility of protecting lives and property, themselves become easy targets for criminals.
”Because of their onerous tasks, the police personnel and other security agents deserve a reinforced level of security. They need to be alive and well before they can protect the lives and property of others. That is why one of the indices of a failed state is anarchy, which starts when security agents become targets of attacks and criminal elements overwhelm state security apparatus
”Attacks on police and military formations; killing of security agents, out-of-control armed robbery and pervasive kidnapping, just to mention a few of the security challenges facing our nation, are pointers to the fact that our country is fast becoming a failed state, irrespective of what government apologists may say or the spin they may put on things.
”No one is happy to have his/her country labelled a failed state. But the truth of the matter is that Nigeria of today is exhibiting all the indices of a failed state, whether it is group grievance, economic decline or worsening public services. That is why Nigeria has consistently been in the top 20, since 2009, of the failed states rankings – in the same class as Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Chad, just to name a few.
”Much as we have all concentrated on the Boko Haram insurgency the truth is that the spike in violent crimes, the ease with which kidnappers operate at the time and place of their choosing and rising cases of unresolved assassinations are equally, if not more, terrible, and will push us up the rankings among failed states if nothing is done urgently to check the developments,” the party said.
It called on the federal government to utilize the energy, which it has been wasting on dismissing those calling Nigeria as a failed state, to improve the security and welfare of the citizenry, aswell as to address age-long injustices and absence of governance in many parts of the country.