No gainsaying insecurity in Nigeria is incessant and on the rise as even those in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and its environs have started feeling the heat from terrorists/bandits.
In recent times, there have been a series of well-orchestrated attacks, kidnappings, political assassination, and ritual killings, just to mention a few of the catastrophes in Nigeria today.
A report lately shared by one Security Risk Management and Intelligence Consulting Company, Beacon Consulting, has gone viral around various parts of the nation.
The report was actualised by a survey method carried out in the past six months to ascertain the height of deaths recorded as a result of terrorists and bandits activities.
Beacon Consulting, in what it titled “The Nigeria Security Situation” revealed solid numbers of deaths caused by violent attacks within the first half of the year 2022.
According to Beacon’s Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Kabiru Adamu, aside from the earlier mentioned killer groups, others involved include ethnic militia, political thugs etc.
How Citizens Die from Violent Attack
It may be cliche to restate or paint a vivid picture of how Nigerians are caught in the middle of these terror activities.
But the ‘How’ aspect of residents getting killed is of immense importance to this article and that’s why more would be written about the horror Nigerians have to experience daily.
In his report, Beacon CEO, Adamu, had estimated no fewer than 6,698 deaths as a result of the continuous violent attacks.
The report further revealed that fatalities shockingly rose by 35.9%, calculating from January to June 2022, as against what was obtained in the first half of 2021, where about 5000 people died from similar attacks.
It doesn’t end at the fatality and killing aspects, also, persons that were kidnapped in 2022 reportedly increased from 2540 Nigerians in 2021 to a different 3357 persons this year.
On their ratings, the Beacon Consulting report placed the rise in abductions at 23.4%, and these records merely represent that undocumented or unpublished violence in areas experiencing chaos daily/weekly.
How these people die that are now simply represented by figures is alarming. Some residents are shot by bandits, others are slaughtered like animals.
In some other cases, their houses and properties, farms, among other possessions are destroyed, leaving them completely vulnerable to various forms of attacks.
Many families are left to starve and become Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, living in make-shift camps and exposed to different vices due to their living conditions.
Why Insecurity in Nigeria Leaves Almost 40 Dead Bodies Daily
The reason why there are such high death rates in the country today, according to some security experts and political analysts, is based on the failure of the Federal and State Governments to provide the needed security infrastructure.
Knowing well that the Government, in all ramifications, cannot protect its subjects, should grant them the freedom to bear arms, just as the like of Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, ordered residents to protect themselves by any means necessary.
Also, Bello Matawalle, overwhelmed by terrorists’ activities, outrightly asked his subjects in the state to take up arms against bandits.
This option seems to be the way forward, people die every day not because they cannot protect themselves, it’s cuz they are unarmed and have no tools to respond to violent attacks.
There are reports where hunters and vigilantes successfully chase bandits away from communities with Dane guns, bows and arrows, machetes, knives, axes and other non-sophisticated weapons.
The conclusion here is if the Government has done its best and is not enough, then alternative defence strategies and protective mechanisms should be granted to citizens to enable them to save lives and address the insecurity in Nigeria.