One of the privileges of citizenship is luxuriating in the belief that the state would protect your life and property; except, of course, that life or property becomes a threat to others in the same country. But when citizens resort to self-help, such as seen in the upward swing in the demand for bulletproof vehicles in Nigeria, it shows almost a total loss of confidence in the capacity of the state to protect its own.

In The Punch’s report of Tuesday, February 07, 2024, it was reported that business was booming for sellers of bulletproof vehicles, despite the depressed economy. Although the sellers complain of lack of access to adequate forex, and so are unable to meet demand, still, they are all smiling to the bank. It is not just bulletproof vehicles.

You see it expressed in people retreating to communities where access is limited, or gates installed in streets that were hitherto thoroughfares only a few years ago. Some people are raising the walls around their homes, topping them up with electric razor barb wires and CCTVs.

While the economy bleeds and disposable income for most Nigerians is largely wiped off by the policies of the current government, people providing security services are doing well. Life, as it were, is precious. No matter how tough the economy may be, those who can afford it will find the means to protect themselves.

Hard as people with means try to secure themselves against all forms of undesirables, it is an exercise that is largely futile. How secure can you be in a most insecure environment?

No matter how high your fence is, you’d come out sometimes to either go to work, or for leisure. If you don’t, your loved ones will, except if you decide to send all of them abroad to a more secure space. But, what about when they return for holidays?

The same conundrum besets bulletproof vehicles. Even if the tyres are impenetrable to bullets, the windows and windshield are tougher than steel, the possibility of these highly secured vehicles getting hijacked and hacked, capturing the occupants, is high.

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This brings up the question again: Can you be more secure than your environment?

Until we address collective security; that is, security for all Nigerians, irrespective of social status, rather than individual and elite security, the insecurity situation will keep deteriorating.

The gated communities Nigerians are retreating to offer a glimpse of what could be if the right things are done.

One of the first things you’d notice is that residents prioritise collective security over and above individual security. This entails hiring good security personnel to man the gates and vulnerable spaces. The number of people required to secure the space is hired. Second is that everybody, virtually everyone, is involved in matters of security. If you see funny characters at a home close to yours or some strange, boorish characters in common spaces, you take them up, or at the very least, report them to the security committee.

At the micro level, Nigerians are largely investing to secure themselves, albeit with limited success. But as a nation, the factors necessary for general security are sorely lacking.

First is the lack of trust in the general collective, with tribe, religion and political affiliations, among others, as factors pulling people apart. If you report to the police about a possible security breach, and because of some tribal connections, the police move against the complainant, rather than nipping the situation in the bud, as it has happened many times, what will the citizens do?

Second, is the over-centralisation of the security architecture of the country. Estates’ security delivers value because they are closer to people paying for the service. Imagine the estate executives have to take instructions from a state commissioner in charge of security before responding to issues. What would become of the estate?

The Nigerian security system is not as responsive as it ought to be, so citizens would rather not deal. State police, and local governments setting up vigilante forces, are required like yesterday, not today. State police already exist under one guise or the other – hisbah in Kano, Amotekun in the southwest bar Lagos, and others with names too exotic to remember. It is high time these multifarious and largely uncoordinated outfits are formalised into state police.

There have been many instances that Amotekun responded swiftly to distress calls, faster than the Nigeria police, or hisbah feared more than the regular police. Security of the 774 local governments and 36 states and Abuja cannot be managed by an Inspector General of Police reporting to the president who are both based in Sinecure Abuja.

States must have their police and local governments their vigilante forces. That way, each unit of the federation will be responsible for their security, with Abuja coordinating. It starts with the National Assembly moving internal security from the exclusive list to the concurrent. Although there will be cases of abuse of state police by governors and vigilantes by local government chairmen, it certainly will not be worse than the abuse the Nigerian police currently experiences.

Suppose the security of the average Nigerian is the responsibility of all tiers of government – federal, state and local. In that case, security management will move from a macro to a more micro level, which is a level to which most people can relate because it affects them directly.

Meiza Nigeria