By Kolawole Banwo
Armed men attacked the Executive Director (Auwal Musa Ibrahim) of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in the early hours of Tuesday 19th June, 2012 at his Abuja residence and carted away his valuables and properties. The men, about six in number, forced their way into his residence in Wuse at about 1.30am on Tuesday 19th June, 2012 and made away with his laptop computers, including an external hard drive, telephone handsets, car, cash and other valuables.
CISLAC expresses deep sorrow that this incident was carried out by youths who ordinarily should be channeling their energies into productive and useful ventures that would have added value to society and facilitated the development of our nation but may have become involved in such acts due to the absence of opportunities occasioned by the absence of effective youth development strategies, bad governance, visionless leadership and corrupt administration of resources that has characterized our national life in the past 50 years, culminating in widespread poverty,unemployment and the state of insecurity that is overwhelming the nation.
CISLAC recalls later the same day (Tuesday June 19), after episodes of bombings in Kaduna and Yobe State respectively over the weekend, another (phase) of violence occurred in Kaduna and Damaturu, the Yobe State capital in which innocent Nigerians were killed and many others sustained various degrees of injury. In spite the wide spread condemnations of these ugly occurrences by progressive and well meaning Nigerians, they have continued unabated and are becoming even more rampant in the recent times.
This is in addition to increased rate of kidnappings for ransom, pipeline vandalization and political violence among others which threaten the security of lives and property of the citizens. There are countless pending cases of unresolved political assassination of high profile Nigerians, killings of innocent citizens during religious/ethnic clashes and over other trivial issues, daily increase in the numbers of militia groups and hostage-taking, that has turned into a means of survival and livelihood to the perpetrators, as well as, he campaign of terror, bombings and armed robbery.
This persistent poignant atmosphere that has in the recent time qualified the nation as being violent and a breeding ground for terrorists in the eyes of the international community is currently generating an increasing level of tension and insecurity. There is incessant wave of armed robbery cases and bombings in every nook and cranny of the nation orchestrated by unemployed youths and the religious fanatics. This is in spite of concerted efforts by the government and the nation’s security agencies to stop this dastardly acts.The situation has continued unabated, despite the huge investment to security in the 2012 budget. We are sad that the news emanating from our dear country is dominated by corruption, bribe scandals, killings and wanton destruction of lives and property.
CISLAC laments that these (incidents) have defied the efforts by the security outfits, indicating that the government seems to lack the administrative and strategic measure to deal effectively with the rising tide of violence in the country and do not inspire confidence amongst the citizens. Oftentimes, government’s responses have never exceeded the now recurrent verbal rendition of the call for citizens to remain calm and unconvincing assurances of being on top of the situation.
We wish to remind the Federal Government of her responsibility to guarantee the protection of lives and property of Nigerians on one hand and citizens a duty to hold government accountable on its constitutional responsibility through constructive engagement on the other legitimate means.
CISLAC acknowledges that the experience of her Executive Director is reminiscent of that to which millions of our compatriots are subjected to on a regular basis. Rampant cases of armed robbery, threat to life and property by hoodlums and sometimes high handed security personnel, fraud and deprivation of hard- earned resources have become pervasive. We can therefore not separate the incident which took place in the erstwhile secure location in the Federal Capital from the state of insecurity that has become a national emergency.
We therefore, charge the government to demonstrate commitment to a holistic approach in dealing with the situation at hand especially as it relates to human security. Beyond the deployment of security agencies and strategies, it should put in place a robust development programme that should be seen to be addressing the development challenges of unemployment, illiteracy, corruption amongst others facing the country.
CISLAC calls on the security operatives to demonstrate utmost sincerity, commitment and professionalism in their duties by working assiduously to bring these life threatening events to an end and justify the huge resources invested in the security sector.
Government should as a matter of urgency initiate a multi-stakeholder approach to dealing with the security situation in the country. This approach should be designed to harness the knowledge, experience and capable hands to see to the nation’s security issues.
CISLAC appreciates all well meaning Nigerians, fellow civil society activists, comrades who have communicated to us through several means to sympathize with us and our Executive Director since the incident occurred. We assure you that he is in high spirits and is resolved to continue his unwavering commitment to the struggle for a just, corruption-free and equitable Nigeria.
Signed
Kolawole Banwo
Senior Programme Officer, CISLAC
