We are going to open the rural and semi-rural areas that are used as
hideouts for criminals – Peter Mbah, Enugu Sports Club, January 15, 2023.
Let me tell you a brief story that bears out the remark by Peter Ndubuisi Mbah. In 2023 I arrived Aberdeen, North-East Scotland, UK for a Doctoral programme. For a whole four years – between 2016 and 2020 – I was travelling from Aberdeen to London on what was popularly known as Mega Bus. On average, I spent 13 hours on the road on each leg of the journey.
What an amazing experience coasting through Glasgow, Preston, Manchester, Birmingham, Watford and then London in the dead, ghostly quietness of the night. Even today, I still remember those days with a lot of nostalgia.
In all those four years, not even on one occasion did I ever have any reason to fear that I might be attacked by armed robbers even if (and that was very much unlikely) the vehicle packed up on the highway in pitch darkness.
Now contrast this with the situation in our beautiful country, Nigeria. In October 2019, I had a reason to fly back to Nigeria. When I got to Abuja I was told that Akanu Ibiam Airport, Enugu was undergoing repair, and flight operations were suspended. So, I was left with no choice but to board a bus at the ATM Bus Terminal at Utako. At that moment all the frightful stories of armed robbery and kidnapping that run riot on the internet played back in my head. And then I remembered my Rosary. For good three years my Rosary was stowed away in my bag. But here was I frantically rummaging my bag for my talisman.
Why is this so? Jobs! Unemployment! Today, the rate of unemployment in the UK is 3.7 per cent, in Nigeria it has soared to 45 per cent, with youth unemployment estimated at 60 per cent. And don’t tell me it is because of our high population. US has a higher population than Nigeria, yet their unemployment rate is about 3.5 even lower than the UK.
No matter how hard we pray, we will necessarily have a higher crime rate than the developed countries simply because our rate of unemployment is higher.
We are all witnesses to the fact that all the grandiose plans about checking insecurity in Nigeria have amounted to nothing because unemployment, especially youth unemployment is steadily rocketing. A hungry man is more than an angry man, he is a dangerous man.
For Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, youth unemployment and concomitant poverty is the first of all negative trends in Nigeria. The ‘non-kinetic’ approach to insecurity targets behavioural change through job creation; the non-kinetic approach shifts attention from amassing military hardware and increasing security personnel to creating opportunities that will suck up the energies of youths.
Still related to the non-kinetic approach is the recovery and industrialisation of criminal hideouts. Places such as Agu Ibeje in Igbo North LGA, or the massive, long-stretching forest from Okutukutu in Igbo Eze South to Idah in Kogi State, or the extensive forest from Uzo Uwani to Kogi State or the forest areas around Akegbe Ugwu in Nkanu West etc. Once these places are put to good use, they will cease to provide safe haven to social deviants and we will all be safer.
A new era is about to be born in our dear State. What is required of us is simple: to put our PVCs to good use and deliver ourselves from age-old crushing impoverishment.
God bless Enugu State!
God bless and prosper Mbah/Ossai 2023 Project!
Dr Hyginus Eze
