WAKE UP: The insecurity at lockdown in Lagos and Ogun states
By Bashir Adefaka
“Take out the Federal workers, who have been paid salaries immediately on order of President Buhari. Take out the NYSC members currently being regularly paid allowances of N33,000 each. Take out workers of state and local governments, who are being paid especially on time to cushion the effect of this lockdown. Take out the 2.6 million poorest of the poor who have been paid N20,000 each across the country, and then, you take out those in the oil and gas employ, who are well paid. What you have left should not be problem for government to handle at this critical time because, while it is compulsory for people to Stay at Home to be Saved, it is also compulsory for people to be helped against the pains and pangs of hunger.”
To me, much like several millions of Nigerians have had to pass through untold hardship during the lockdown towards preventing the spread of deadly Coronavirus in our land, it will be a great diservice and injustice to blame President Muhammadu Buhari or castigate him as the one that stopped us from going out to worship and seek our daily bread. We have better been stopped by the government than to be stopped by the Coronavirus, which most citizens blaming the government for the lockdown are not appreciating. Those whom Coronavirus stopped from going out to either worship or seek their daily bread, if asked, will today pray that it should have better been the government that stopped them. May Allah give them quick recovery and save us who are not infected from catching it. Amiin.
Having said that, I need to ask, in the composition of Nigeria, we have three major regions, or better put; six geo-political zones of North West, North East, North Central (for Northern Nigeria) and South West, South East and South South (for Southern Nigeria). There have been restrictions in parts of the country. How Lagos and parts of Ogun state have now become danger zones for fellow citizens as a result of activities of some hoodlums is yet to be understood to any common sence. All classes of the people have been brought to the same level by the inevitable lockdown. Then what is the robbery attack for, which has now turned everybody to vigilante night and day?
Of all of the 20 states now affected including Rivers and Bayelsa, many of which are doing lockdown, there has been no report of insecurity springing up as a result of it other than from Lagos and Ogun states. Why? In actual fact, despite that I have been very busy working from home even though earning no kobo and even finding it difficult now to replenish the domestic stocks, in our Lagos where the lockdown caught us, we have practically turned vigilantes because of breakdown of security.by the hoodlums. You have hoodlums surging in groups of about 100, 50 and 30 each as they look and they invade your communities in the night between the hours of 11pm and 3am breaking into houses, armed with machetes, knives, bottles and some of them with guns.
As a result of this invasion in one of the communities at Alagbado, Agbado Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area (Alimosho) of Lagos State, a woman said to have been caught in the web of the night Maroondah was reportedly killed after the invaders stormed her home on information but five of them were said to have been cut down through community response.
Another serious security problem in Lagos and Ogun states, which I am sure the police know about is that, when robbery gang members are cut down in such response especially with usual police insensitivity, the others retreat, reinforce with larger number and then come back to re-launch their attacks on the community. When did criminals begin to have so much supremacy rights that even their evils, when checked, increase the risks on the society? And many of the people who get scared from courage to defend themselves against the criminals are doing so because one victim said: “Many of those we caught and handed over to police were later released and then they made us targets.”
This accounts for the Letter from Armed Robbers reportedly found in three locations of that same Alagbado community invaded, notifying the people of their coming back. And they came back but this time every street along the Moshalasi Bus Stop/Ibari Road/Odo Pako-Merit/AIT Road axis of the Alagbado communities had prepared to now take up their security by themselves. Although Area P Command Alagbado and Alagbado Divisional Police Headquarters are near the affected areas, for over four days that people had, had to sleeplessly keep vigil overnight, no single police man presence was seen. For this reason, all classes of people living in the areas from the elderly to the youth, clerics of Mosques and Churches and women have turned vigilantes always at alert as the robbers also come in day times. The time some of us finally reported the unfortunate experience directly to the Lagos State Police Command and Minister of Information and Culture directly via their spokesmen, we then saw the Area Commander now accompanied by four DPOs. Yet people’s self effort has continued as police siren is heard only around 10pm and then they go back to stations. Who then takes care of the rest of the nights? The people are still in charge of their own security.
Price hike
This is happening even as men and women in market places and streets, whose businesses of food stuff selling are captured in the presidential regulations guiding the Covid-19, 2020 (first and the second) issued and signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, have their own way they make the lockdown an extra-sacrifice unbearable.
We all heard about the panic buying in United States and United Kingdom ahead of their own longer lockdown which has not even ended till now. And we knew that there was no report of wicked price high as a result of the mad rush for stockpiling of food and other domestic needs by people in those Western and British societies. A loaf of bread that should go for say $2 or one pound sterling remained what it was despite the mad rush. This is not the case here in this part of Nigeria (Lagos/Ogun axis), despite that government at all levels particularly the Federal Government was very highly meticulous in bringing about the lockdown to forestall such evil of man to man and despite that people in Lagos and Ogun had tactically made their buying without show of panic, the moment President Muhammadu Buhari declared lockdown on March 30, 2020 the paint plastic of gari that was hitherto sold for between N250 and N350 in Ogun and Lagos respectively, was jumped first to N600 and N700. Prices of other food items also jumped up.
What manner of human beings do we have in this Southern part?! What better time must we show deeper compassion towards one another than this time that COVID-19 lockdown has brought everybody to the same level where the poor and the rich are virtually together. Those who are in the middle class as self-employed and artisans are so affected that they too are now hungry and even no money and some fellow human beings stifle them further with their wicked hikes in prices of food items.
Now that the President, by necessity, has extended the lockdown for another 14 days beginning from April 14, price of such paint plastic of gari in Ogun jumped to N1,000 while in Lagos now N1,200. This is not to talk about rice that has sustained us against the disaster that we would have had if our national investment in agricultural production had not yielded great results for Made-in-Nigeria food. And we don’t even have access to our leaders in government to explain to them our plights. That they hear through public outcry, they come back to tell we only make false alarms. For how long do we expect the President to come Dow to our grassroots community and enforce things by himself? It means even at the level of government, officials who should ensure checks in this manner are themselves working together in coopt with the wicked marketers exploiting lockdown to frustrate us to death.
Now, we talk of insecurity. While I will not like defend those doing it, I must raise the point here that the boys, who always hang around at bus stops and corners in places called paraga/india hemp joints who are good only for motor conductor and okada riding and who have not been able to work since the lockdown, I must say that these are the guys teaming up in these community invasions that we suffer currently. Two things: doing conductor is not bad. In fact, motor conductor or bus/keke driving or okada riding is rather noble because, without their services majority of the masses cannot move around. How come in Lagos and parts of Ogun State: Sango, Ota, Ifo axis operators of such means of all-important means of mass transit are the same ones found in armed robbery, hoodlum and cultism?
Truth is, when you go to the paraga/Indian hemp joints where they smoke marijuana you find that soldiers and police personnel partaking with them. Who then will help the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) effect arrest in that situation when those, who the smokers should fear to desist from taking the destructive drugs, are themselves partaking in it? Secondly, politicians who are in position of authorities in these two states are said to be mainly the unconscious sponsors of the hoodlums but who are not even doing anything in controlling their criminalities. Ironically, these states are in the South West where Amotekun was recently established to secure the states of the region because the governors and the people believed that police had failed in providing security in the region.
Just before I end this piece, the questions the governors of the South West, particularly of Lagos and Ogun states, must therefore answer regarding these happenings are: One, with “Amotekun” set up to secure our land because of what was described as the failure of police, how come Inspector-General of the same Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu’s deployment of special quads from Abuja to the states is the only action we saw and which began to solve the security challenges? Or do we just do things wrongly and will never tolerate anybody to talk about it?
I mean, like many others, I have become vigilante for over a week now before the Abuja intervention. What are you really doing as governors of these states with a view to tackling this insecurity? Also, in Lagos, the Federal Government has sent palliatives two times. The last delivery was of 6,000 bags of 50 kilogrammes rice and two tons of vegetable oil. There should be a number of people who actually felt comfortable with the distribution but the more the palliatives are brought to the state the louder the cries of the targeted beneficiaries. And when a Lagos State government official would explain, he said they are meant only for the vulnerable but there is no single vulnerable that has testified to benefitting. What is happening? Because we do have records and evidences on television and on social media people who complained that the palliatives were distributed five derica tins of rice and a N100 worth of bread to a street each of many vulnerable.
If I am asked, a 6,000 bags of 50 kg rice, if shared at quarter bag, will get to 24 thousand people and if this number benefits from the FG’s gesture to Lagos, based on carefully generated list of beneficiaries excluding the rich, those who are yet to get will even feel like they have gotten and the state and local governments can then make up for the rest. Generally, to the Federal Government and other levels of government, there are many employed people who have not been paid salaries for five months and have lived their lives struggling. Many are also in employment but whose take home pay is not more than N15,000 and who have not been paid since this lockdown started.
There are some, whose businesses have not been able to withstand the kind of long time of inactivity like we have necessarily had to go through in this lockdown. How can you then say only the poorest of the poor that you registered before this dangerous problem are the only ones your gesture can get to? As far as this health war against Coronavirus is concern, with the exception of the super rich among us, those of us who are not rich are also vulnerable and deserve to be catered for.
Achieving successful palliatives
Take out the Federal workers, who have been paid salaries immediately on order of President Buhari. Take out the NYSC members currently being regularly paid allowances of N33,000 each. Take out workers of state and local governments, who are being paid especially on time to cushion the effect of this lockdown. Take out the 2.6 million poorest of the poor who have been paid N20,000 each across the country, and then, you take out those in the oil and gas employ, who are well paid. What you have left should not be problem for government to handle at this critical time because, while it is compulsory for people to Stay at Home to be Saved, it is also compulsory for people to be helped against the pains and pangs of hunger.
Finally, If need be, let the Federal Government declare a state of emergency and print currency to the tune of N2 trillion and pay minimum of N50,000 to each of those in the category of comprising self-employed, artisans and those who live from hand-to-month and who have bank accounts. Those are your vulnerable for this period of lockdown and they are the people your palliatives must reach and not by this method whereby the state government hands them to party members and who then take the chunk of them and give the rest in piece mill to the people whose hunger rather increases by the corruption of distribution.
*WAKE UP is opinion column of Prince Bashir Adefaka, Lagos based Journalist. Reach him via 08163323906 WhatsApp.
