Height of Insecurities in Nigeria; Good Reason the Citizens Should Take their Destinies in their Hands.
As an old military proverb would say; The best form of defense is attack ie, being pre-emptive and ever ready for whatever comes at you is the best way to defend yourself’.
In a country where the security system has collapsed, the government should just own up to this fact that the insecurities have overwhelmed them and the citizenry should take their destiny by their hands, be ready for whatever comes and defend themselves against aggression and invasion.
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The insecurities and break of security apparatus keep taking extra leap with every day that passes in every nook and cranny of the nation and every geopolitical sphere of the nation. The boko haram and the herdsmen kidnappers are ravaging the North East, bandits slaughters people like chicken every day in Kaduna, Benue, Kogi and other North Central and Middle belt region, the Ipob militia massacring people in the south East, the Oduduwa separatists staging protests and causing unrest in the West and the Niger Delta Avengers causing panic in the South South while the security men are taking cover and running for their lives because they are not well equipped to combat the bandits/terrorist who are armed with sophisticated weapons.
On the 1st of October, 2021, the day Nigerians should be happy for the creation of our dear country 61 years ago and atleast take a break from running helter-skelter, over 30 people were mass-buried in Kaduna state, they were killed by bandits. The problem is that the number of people killed or buried per day doesn’t move anyone again or send cold to peoples’ spine anymore because Nigerians have seen worst and the politicians are not helping matters as they politicize everything even up till the life death of people; so waking up to bad news, hoping you don’t get killed each day that passes is the height of insecurity up till the National Youth Service Corps manual advising Corp members to save some money for ransom should Incase they get kidnapped in the course of serving their father land. Now tell me if this is not the height of insecurity in the country and the government are directly and indirectly telling you to help yourself and they can no longer help you?
Fortunately, there’s a solution to this, all what needed is for the government to adopt this solution; The Firearms Act, Chapter 146 Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1990 should be revisited. That law should be amended to accommodate more private gun ownership with lesser bureaucratic process although with stiff regulations and the executive order issued in sometime 2019 for the withdrawal of privately owned guns and withdrawal of guns permits/license previously issued should be revoked for the good of the country and for the survival of the people there in.
Citizens of Nigeria should be allowed to bear arms for self defense. Some countries of the world like the United States of America, Mexico, Guatemala etc have it as their constitutional right (ie, it is provided for in the constitution their country) to bear arms for self-defense and defend themselves against any form of aggression.
The United States of America’s second amendment rightly put; “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” While Article 10 of the 1857 Mexican Constitution stipulated that; “every man has the right to keep and to carry arms for his security and legitimate defense”, (this law was although amended in 1917 due to Mexico’s revolution which was bloody). Also, the Guatemala constitution of 1985 provided for the right of the citizens to bear arms in article 38 of their 1985 constitution.
I know the excuse will always be ‘the fear of gun and mass shooting’ as it constantly happen in some of those countries that permit gun ownership but we should also avert our mind to Switzerland. Switzerland a country in the European continent have proven that despite the number of gun ownerships in a country there won’t be any gun violence or mass shooting when their are strict regulations on the acquisition, control and ownership of guns and the citizens have the right orientation towards guns and other arms.
The country Switzerland records over 2 million privately owned guns in a nation with the population of about 8.3 million people making it the country with one of the highest private gun ownerships. It’s now estimated there’s about one civilian gun for every three Swiss people according to Business Insider report.
With these numbers of privately owned guns in Switzerland, one would think that they should be gun violence on every day occurrence in the country but no, the last time that there was gun violence in Switzerland was 20 years ago when a man stormed the local parliament in Zug shot and killed about 14 people including himself.
20 years after, Switzerland have not recorded any gun violence or mass shooting in the country up till this day because they have been able to regulate strictly privately owned guns despite the number of the guns in the country. The country also ranked one of the happiest countries in the world according to the United Nation’s World Happiness Report of 2019.
This too can work in Nigeria. Citizens of Nigeria should be allowed to acquire and own guns to defend themselves against aggressions and invasions but with strict regulations. Gun licenses and permits should be issued to the right people; which have been medically certified to be fit, socially certified to be fit, judicially certified to be fit and political certified to be fit to bear guns.
The person applying for gun license and permit should do the application with his/her medically record; a psychiatrist should vert the fellow to be mentally sound, the person should not have any crime history or social disorder.
Private guns ownership would be only way Nigeria/Nigerians can fight insecurities. The security personnels and the government are overwhelmed, hence they need help, citizens should help themselves and protect their lives, the lives of their family members and that of their loved ones.
An invader must come prepared or not come at all when he knows that someone he’s going to attack and massacre is also armed. Enough of innocent citizens going to bed saying their last prayers hoping they survive the next day and not invaded, slaughtered and mass-burried like common criminals, enough of citizens saying their last prayers before traveling by road hoping their vehicle not to be attacked and they get to be kidnapped or slaughtered like house flies.
The recent video making rounds the social media of the Minster of Defense, Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi hanging his Ak 47 riffle while going into his car to hit the road despite the fact he has security details fully armed for his protection is the clear indication that no one can protect you the way you protect yourself and the video also indicate the lack of faith in the security details, hence it will be for the good of everyone if the citizens who can’t afford security details can be allowed to own guns for self defense and defend themselves against any form of illegal attack, invasion or aggression.