Nigeria needs to reexamine state of insecurity – Rights group

By Joy Baba-Yesufu

Global Rights Nigeria, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) has said there is a need to reexamine the state of insecurity in Nigeria, its devastating impact on the lives of Nigerians, and weigh the government’s efforts to address these critical issues.
The organization further said in the past five years alone, at least 24,816 people have been killed, and minimum of 15,597 kidnapped in incidents of mass atrocities across Nigeria
The Executive Director of the organisation, Ms Abiodun Baiyewu gave the charge at the 2024 National Summit on Mass Atrocities with the theme , “A Standing Responsibility to Protect”, held on Wednesday in Abuja.
Ms Baiyewu also said these numbers are not mere statistics; they represent lives disrupted, dreams shattered, families torn apart, and communities left in anguish.
She maintained that the abducted and the dead are not the only casualties of endemic insecurity, there are over 3.4 million internally displaced people within our border, and about 100,000 refugees in our neighboring countries.
According to her “farmers are unable to tend their fields, worsening the already critical food insecurity. Parents fear sending their children to school due to rampant abductions, threatening to swell the ranks of the 20 million children who are already out of school.
“The cost of yam and tomatoes have gone beyond our reach, Our food basket communities are under siege. Hunger has caught up with the rest of us. Our energy poverty resulting from the gross mismanagement of our mineral resources means that industries are closing faster than they are opening.
“Millions have lost their jobs and we are paying a ridiculous price for what should almost be free.
“Unable to cope, hundreds of thousands of our best minds – medical personnel, tech entrepreneurs, lawyers, technocrats have fled the country or are trying to leave in a phenomenon known as “japa”. Scores of people have died from lack of access to skilled doctors or just being able afford essential medicines”
She called on government at all level to examine technological and policy innovations that can aid the monitoring, prevention, and mitigation of mass atrocities.