Before I put pen to paper, I ask that the souls of every Nigerian we have lost to insecurity and kidnapping — including those from my own Kogi East — rest in peace. It is unfortunate that this keeps happening. And it is even more unfortunate how it keeps happening.
Not long ago, I watched a group of army officers ride past on motorbikes, several of them, moving fast. Hours later, news came that a traveller along that same route had been killed by kidnappers. I remember smiling bitterly and asking, out loud, to no one in particular: officers, why do you only come after the deed is done?
That question is the whole of this letter.
What Are the Checkpoints For?
If the primary business of soldiers stationed at checkpoints across Kogi is to stop vehicles, search them, collect their token, and wave travellers on, then we have misunderstood what security means. Worse still is the excuse we hear when tragedy strikes barely a kilometre from where these officers are stationed: that leaving the checkpoint to respond to an attack “isn’t part of the job.” No officer trained to protect Nigerian lives should ever say those words.
If soldiers can mobilise on bikes in numbers once an attack has already happened, why can’t that same mobility be used to patrol continuously — moving between towns like Itobe and Anyigba, up and down the Ofu axis, before an attack occurs rather than after? If they were working hand in hand with forest guards on active patrol rather than static duty, they would reach the scene while the victims are still on the road, not after the kidnappers have vanished into the bush with their captives.
The Tools We Are Not Using
Does Kogi State have a functioning aerial patrol — helicopters that can be scrambled the moment a distress call comes in? If we do, why are they absent when it matters most? If we do not, then the state government must acquire that capacity now, not after the next attack.
And what became of the drones the state government procured with public funds not long ago? Where are they, and why are they not deployed against the insecurity ravaging this state — Kogi East in particular? Nigerians deserve an answer, not silence.
Has the state posted dedicated security personnel to villages and communities across all three senatorial districts? If it has, those personnel must be proactive: the first to raise the alarm and escalate a threat, not the last to hear of it. If it has not, that must change immediately, and the villages closest to the forests must be properly equipped.
Which brings me to the forest guards. It has been observed that many of them are now stationed alongside the army at checkpoints rather than patrolling the forests they were recruited to protect. Why merge two armed units at the same static point when the danger lies in the bush, not on the tarred road? Forest guards belong in the forest, doing the job their title describes.
A Strategy Worth Repeating
There is a precedent worth learning from. Former Governor Yahaya Bello, through the FGYB initiative, ensured that roadsides along the major expressways and across the three senatorial districts of Kogi were regularly cleared of the bush that gives kidnappers cover. I call on the present administration, under Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, to revive and sustain that strategy. Overgrown roadside bush is not a small matter; it is where ambushes are born.
A Role for Our Traditional Institutions
Security is not the government’s burden alone. Our monarchs and community leaders have a part to play in keeping records of strangers who arrive in their domains. The moment a new and unfamiliar face appears in a village, the youths should be alert enough to notify the local Gago and Madaki, and the right questions should be asked to establish who this person is and why they are there. Every community structure that exists for this purpose must be asked, plainly: are you performing this role?
The Cost of Waiting
I lay down my pen here, but not my concern. I await a Kogi State government that treats the protection of life and property as more than a line item — one that puts the security vote to the use it was budgeted for, transparently and without delay.
We cannot keep mourning after the fact while the instruments that could have prevented the mourning sit idle: checkpoints that collect tolls instead of intelligence, drones that gather dust instead of footage, forest guards standing on tarred roads instead of walking forest paths. Every question I have raised here has a knowable answer. The people of Kogi deserve to hear it before the next attack, not after.
Shall we wait until we are all consumed?
– Mawedo Joseph Nicodemus writes from Lagos State, Nigeria.
Email: Mawedojosephnicodemus1996@gmail.com
