NIGERIA is wallowing in blood, inundated consistently with killings and avoidable deaths. The bloodshed spilled over from late 2023 into the New Yr, which is just every week outdated. No area is resistant to the killings, deadly highway accidents and lethal boat disasters, as residents proceed to grapple with benumbing stories of Boko Haram massacres, violent Fulani-herdsmen plunder, constructing collapse, pipeline explosions, arson, and armed theft. That is the precursor of a collapsing state through which life has little worth. The Bola Tinubu administration and the state governments should prioritise the protection of lives and property as a cardinal responsibility of presidency.
A neighborhood authorities space of Plateau State, Bokkos, has change into a hotspot. Simply days after the bloodbath of practically 200 individuals in three LGAsof Plateau throughout the 2023 Christmas festivities by suspected Fulani herdsmen attackers, recent killings and arson rage there after gunmen murdered the chief imam of Ndun Village, Tangur District, Muhammad Idris, alongside a motorcyclist.
Earlier than this, Nigeria ranked fifteenth within the Fund for Peace’s Fragile State Index 2023 with a rating of 98. In 2022, Africa’s largest economic system and probably the most populous nation scored 97.20 factors to finish on the sixteenth spot. In 2023, Finland completed prime with 179 factors.
Other than Plateau, different North-Central states are stricken by violent killings. Bandits cum terrorists are killing there wilfully. Moreover, all the Northern area is beneath a siege of violence, significantly additionally from terrorism and banditry. Abuja-based Beacon Consulting stated no fewer than 5,060 Nigerians have died in violence beneath Tinubu, who assumed workplace in Might, a continuation of the mass deaths beneath his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.
This excludes the early December drone bombings by the navy that killed over 125 individuals in Tundun Biri village in Igabi LGA, Kaduna State. Boko Haram reportedly slaughtered no fewer than 15 rice farmers in Borno in early November, the identical state the place the jihadists beheaded 78 farmers in November 2020 throughout the rice harvest.
Coincidentally, the Southern states will not be exempted from the scourge of violence. Killings are rampant from cult actions, armed theft, secessionist agitations within the South-East, extrajudicial killings,and ritual killings.
In Lagos, stories said that two individuals misplaced their lives throughout a cult conflict in Ojota, in November. In Anambra, 5 individuals, together with two members of vigilance teams, have been killed in a nightclub taking pictures in December. In Rivers, an illegally tapped pipeline in Omoku, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA exploded, killing at the very least 20 individuals in December.
Rampant highway transport crashes worsen the harvest of deaths. A report said that 11 individuals died in a highway accident at Ayere village, on the Ilorin-Jebba freeway this January. In Imo, a household of eight reportedly died at Amanwozuzu junction in Ikeduru LGA on their method dwelling to have fun the New Yr.
In Oyo State, the normal rulers of Odogbo, Bowula and Ayetoro communities died in an auto crash in Ogbomoso. Statista says greater than 11,800 highway visitors casualties have been reported in Nigeria throughout the fourth quarter of 2021. The Federal Highway Security Fee confirmed over 40,000 annual deaths from highway crashes in Nigeria. It is a enormous burden. The WHO stories an accident demise price of 27.25 % per 100,000 for Nigeria, akin to the charges in South Africa, Mali, and Angola.
On this, water transportation can also be fraught. Information from the Worldwide Centre for Investigative Journalism said that 1,204 lives have been misplaced to boat disasters between January 2018 and October 2023. Incidents occurred in 25 out of 36 states with excessive prevalence in Niger, Kebbi, Kwara, Sokoto, Lagos, Anambra, and Bauchi states. Essential classes should be learnt by the states and LGs.Requirements and enforcement of worldwide finest practices and the infrastructure to have interaction boat transportation as a viable enterprise should be emplaced.
Many Nigerians die beneath the rubble of residential and company buildings. Lagos accounted for 20 out of 62 constructing collapses in 2022, and 59 % of 533 constructing collapses between 1974 and April 2023, per Constructing Collapse Prevention Guild. Taraba, Bayelsa, Gombe, Zamfara, FCT, Enugu, and Ebonyi have additionally suffered infrastructural losses. Subsequently, Nigeria wants stricter constructing legal guidelines, and requirements, higher authorities oversight, and transparency in issuing constructing permits.
Sadly, Nigerians are additional endangered by the prevalence of substandard and adulterated meals merchandise. The Nationwide Company for Meals and Drug Administrationand Management says 200,000 Nigerians die yearly from the consumption of contaminated meals.Just lately, the company seized and destroyed a big cache of counterfeit and repackaged expired consumables from the Eziukwu Market in Aba, Abia State.
Whereas that is commendable, NAFDAC ought to collaborate deeply with the Requirements Organisation of Nigeria, and the police, and enhance its whistle-blowing coverage.
That’s not all. Epidemics like diphtheria, Lassa fever and meningitis rage within the nation. As of December, the Nigerian Purple Cross revealed that 32 out of 36 states have been affected by diphtheria with Kano, Yobe, Katsina, Sokoto and Enugu talked about.
Studies state that Nigeria has greater than 15,000 suspected circumstances, 9,772 confirmed circumstances and 530 deaths have been brought on by the unfold of diphtheria. Revamping major well being care, incentivising medical personnel, investing in vaccine manufacturing, enlightenment and imposing a hygienic tradition are germane interventions wanted from the federal government.
Authorities should reform its safety structure, and successfully coordinate new initiatives to push again on the wanton killings. Mere issuing of press statements with out visits and ample actions lacks empathy and accountability, Nigerians should protest this.
As for Plateau, Governor Caleb Mutfwang ought to cease lamenting. He ought to set up and equip native policing throughout villages and cities within the state.
For the federal government to harness the complete potential of the nation and its residents, acquire traders and enhance overseas direct funding, it must resolve the components that make Nigeria liable to violence. This may be achieved by state policing, not like the subsisting single police construction that’s delivering deaths, disasters, and distress.