Are Nigerians Safer Under Tinubu? Here’s How Security Has Fared Under His Leadership
For the past eight months since Bola Tinubu became Nigeria’s 16th President, there have been reported cases of kidnapping and renewed attacks by herders in the country’s North Central region.
On December 24, 2023, as Christians in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi communities in Plateau State prepared for Christmas celebrations, an unprovoked attack, allegedly by herders, resulted in the death of at least 160 people. Less than two weeks later, in Durbi, Jos East LGA community, gunmen invaded the home of Victor Itse, killing his 35-year-old cousin as his eight-year-old daughter watched in absolute shock.
“For four days, she was unable to speak,” Victor told Neusroom in an exclusive interview.
In a recent attack on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State, 30 persons were killed, sparking a new wave of tension and panic.
During his inaugural speech in May of the previous year, Bola Tinubu assured Nigerians that security would be his administration’s “top priority” because “neither prosperity nor justice can prevail amidst insecurity and violence.”
“To effectively tackle this menace, we shall reform both our security doctrine and its architecture. We shall invest more in our security personnel, and this means more than an increase in numbers. We shall provide better training, equipment, pay, and firepower,” he said on May 29, 2023.
However, within seven months of Tinubu’s administration, Nigeria has witnessed an increase in terror attacks.
Between June 2023 and December 2023, there were 4700 attacks, resulting in the death of 5863 Nigerians, according to data from Beacon Consulting, a security management and intelligence consulting company based in Abuja.
Although Nigeria’s defence budget has nearly tripled since 2019, with the 2024 defence and the police taking 12 percent, the biggest share in the country’s history, many Nigerians do not feel safer.
In the recent spate of attacks that have befallen Africa’s largest economy, Abuja, the nation’s capital and the seat of power where the President resides, has not been spared. On January 2, 2024, kidnappers abducted Mansoor Al-Kadriyar and his six daughters, aged from the early teens to 23. A crowdfunding effort to raise the ransom, backed by a former Minister, failed, resulting in the abductors killing one of the girls. A month earlier, the capital territory recorded 66 kidnapped victims in 24 security incidents, which resulted in the death of at least five people.
However, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, in a now widely circulated video, attributed the recent outcry on security to propaganda carried out by some “paid politicians.”
“Some politicians are bent on making sure the government does not survive. And how do you do it? By creating unnecessary tension, spreading propaganda that something just happened here, they tell you it has happened 25 times.”
The increased insecurity is believed to be a major contributor to the nation’s soaring food prices. With over 80 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty, entrenched inflation, at a 27-year high, caused by recent policies and the ravaging insecurity, is pushing more people into poverty.
While various reasons have been given for the continued deterioration in the country’s security, General Christopher Musa, chief of the defence staff, said that the “military effort alone is incapable of restoring enduring peace.”
