WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com
Again and again, I have dwell on and will continue on the need for the country to get the security cum development mix right. Whatever we do or attempt to achieve, without recognising the interrelationship between the duo of security and development, would most definitely yield no positive result for us. It is a fact that the relationship between security and development works both ways; there is no development without security and there is no security without development. Security itself, if properly analysed, is a result of planned national development strategy, one that we must decisively build and implement to the letter, until we deliver a perfect security system for Nigeria and Nigerians.
As it has become a global reality, to achieve national development, it must be fully aided by the security and safety of not only life and property, but also the security of the strategic component of the national system which includes the economy, education And literacy, science and technology, law and order as well as politics and food provision. When it is missing in one or a couple of the aforementioned, the resultant insecurity stumps out economic growth places a limitation on development by drying out the capacity of the citizens and the government to invest, and thereby leading to increasing unemployment and dwindling national income and per capita income. Predictably, it eventually leads to poverty and more insecurity.
Currently, the Nigeria system is faced with multifaceted insecurity. Physical insecurity orchestrated by the nefarious acts of bandits, insurgents, kidnappers, and similar forces has continued to place a serious toll on the safety of lives and properties of Nigerians, and regardless of the government’s nonstop efforts, we are still engulfed with the monster. As an offshoot of the first, and the conspicuous contribution of banditry and farmers herders clashes, food insecurity has become the most pronounced expression of insecurity currently faced in the country.
Beyond the more obvious physical and food insecurity challenges, we are equally overwhelmed by several other forms of insecurity that overall describe the state of our national system. Our economy is unstable, hit here and there by factors that continuously impede the smooth running of the country; the strength of the naira continues to fall despite the attentive interventions of strong policies. As a people, we have been discussing on a daily basis the effects of unstable energy in the country; which includes the costs of locally produced goods that have been sharply on the rise because of the now common unpredictable energy cost and availability. Transportation cost has become an influencing component affecting the general price levels in the country, as it rises geometrically across the country. The heat of insecurity in the country is endless which also extends to our borders which have become unsafe and our cyber space is so prone to all forms of attacks. Summarily, multidimensional insecurity correlates directly with national underdevelopment in all ways.
As a nation, we are at the juncture where we must agree that we are besieged all round by unprecedented insecurity, and we have no other option but to find a permanent solution to the challenge. We are at that point where we must unanimously agree that absence of a stable security at the individual and community levels across the states and regions of the country derails developmental objectives. It costs us all dreams of developing our communities and nation; farmers are forced to operate below capacities, and most times, produce is destroyed or carted away by forces beyond the reach of the farmers.
Here and now, we must agree that to ensure security and peace in Nigeria, we must engage consciously, a wide range of practical efforts; some already Ongoing, and many others to be adopted, by all the stakeholders, including the government at all levels, civil societies and the populace. We must consciously visit the root causes of insecurity across Nigeria and across systems with the grand objective of sorting them out permanently. We must agree together, in words, principle and the actions we would take in response to the scourge besetting us, to do everything possible to create a society free of all threats to the sanctity of lives and safety of properties of Nigerians.
We have no other option but to come together, to discuss, promote and guarantee security as an integral and important part of our societal progress. We must revisit all our existing policies on security, and generate new policies that would realistically enhance the security of the country and promote the development we so desire. The target is to divert from the status quo, and generate radical revision of all security policies of the country.
In the last few months, food insecurity takes the centre stage, literally exposing the mammoth degradation of physical insecurity and other forms of insecurity that precipitated food shortage in the country. Access to basic staples has become an uphill task for the majority of the citizens as costs skyrocketed beyond reach and in consistent progression. Many causes have however been adduced to be responsible for this.
Of all food security indicators, two are pertinent: availability and affordability. Those two have consistently been the problem. We have had overtime to face the challenge of inadequacy, of the drop in the capacities of farmers across the country to produce food crops to feed Nigerians. Persistent violence in the North-eastern states, banditry across the North-western states and the North central states as well as the farmers herders impasses in North central states of Benue and Plateau states have on one hand been contributing substantially to the food shortage we are currently experiencing; while on the other hand, we have the challenge of weather inconsistency, and natural disasters such as flooding and drought hampering the capacity of the nation to produce food as well as the inappropriate management of the fallout of these disasters.
Recognising that physical insecurity is reducing in intensity, sustaining the efforts that culminated to the success is critical to getting to where we are going. Kidnapping incidents is also reducing; the pillaging by bandits is equally reducing. The outburst from the bandit leader, Turji, demanding for dialogue is a clear indication that the heat is upon the rings, and the onus is upon us to sustain the tempo of the onslaught against all physical insecurity across the country. The media must work to demoralise them further by complimenting the efforts of the government; ultimately to weaken and finish them psychologically. We must ginger the nation’s security apparatus to do more and keep up the attacks yielding to more success. We need more of the psychological warfare operations. If we get this done, and the farmers effectively return to the farms, then, we would be on the way to resolve our national food shortage that has been as a result of the drastic reduction of farming activities.
Another critical factor for consideration is the inconsistency of rain in the current farming season. The level of the seasonal rain in the ensuing harvests for the year has not been as expected in the country. It has been relatively low compared to what is expected and needed. This is due in part to the aforementioned, weather fluctuations, flooding and droughts in some critical parts of the country where large-scale farming takes place. Something has to be done;Elsee, the intensity of food insecurity in the country would increase.
We have to urgently prepare and invest more in the coming dry season farming to supplement the apparent shortage from the about-to-end rainy season farming – and it must begin now. We must invest holistically in irrigation farming; look critically at our river basins with the intention of turning them into strong assets for the dry season farming as well as all year round farming prospects for the country. The extant laws backing the operations of the nation’s Rivers Basins appear obsolete; manifest events this particular primary sector have unravelled the need for an urgent revisit of the 1976 laws to reflect current realities and global practices. This is however one of the best ways to attract investors and investment. We can eventually get direct investment along the corridors that make water regularly available to the farmers along the corridors at a pay-as-use bargain that mutually benefit all stakeholders.
We must revisit and overhaul the Bank of Agriculture in the country. No investor would bring money without a solid structure as the Bank of Agriculture on ground. Virtually, every country operates a bank of Agriculture. The presence of the bank, especially in an active state as an intermediary, gives investors confidence, knowing fully well that the bank has its due diligence protocols and in some cases, its equity that safeguard their investment. It is only then that we can expect the Agriculture Development Fund to function effectively and efficiently, because investors would prefer to come through the Bank of Agriculture to fund the Fund, rather than engaging directly. The bank would hold and disburse the investors’ money under set criteria that guarantee the realisation of agricultural and financial objectives.
GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA!
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