The costs of social insecurity are incalculable: insecurity is detrimental to business and social activities in the society as no reasonable foreign and even local businessperson would invest in a society where lives and properties are not secured. The same is applicable to education and learning because no one would learn effectively in an unhealthy environment. Insecurity also affects political governance and democracy. Social insecurity is already affecting governance, by disrupting information and wasting human and material resources. Governance is a serious business and anything that affects information, freedom of movement and expression impacts negatively on governance. For instance, many people stayed away from voting during the recently concluded local council elections for fear of being mobbed. For the nation to feel strong and secure security arrangements must be made and implemented at multiple levels of (local, state, and federal) governments, with each working in conjunction with one another. With that if one level fails the other layers would provide the needed security. A multi-layered security arrangement requires resources because it is expensive to procure the necessary security technologies and to train the personnel to manage them.

And for Nigeria’s security arrangements to be effective it should be proportional to the threats the nation faces. Thus, security experts have noted that it is important to study the security situation in a given environment to determine its security needs. This is because each security situation is different with different levels of security threats. Given the unresolved and rampant crimes and political assassinations in the society, one could rightly argue that our security arrangements are not meeting the challenges. For that, Nigeria needs advanced security technologies and motivated personnel to tackle the unrelenting crime rate in the society. Rules and regulations are impossible to enforce if those in charge are not adequately trained and motivate to enforce them. Because the main objectives, if not the only objective, in building robust security gadgets in both business and public establishments is to secure the human and material resources of the organization. As Dike (Nov 20, 2003) has noted with appropriate security technology in place privacy of information and access controls are addressed and monitored. Without this threats to lives and properties (and to information in the form of interception and modification by criminal hackers) would continue.

However, for any security arrangements to be successful security policies must be enforced. Once the levels of threats are ascertained, it is appropriate to create and implement detailed security policies. Also the police and other security personnel must be trained, equipped, and motivated to perform their duties. And with the rapid changes in technology ‘making changes in a security system are essential to keeping a system secure.’ In any security-conscious organization or nation security policies must ensure that those given access to sensitive areas are monitored to ensure that they abide by the rules governing security policies to avoid any security breach; and those found wanting are accordingly prosecuted. In reality, the strongest security policy means nothing if those in charge of implementing the policy violate it. For that policy implementation must include sanctions for those who make it ineffective.

Therefore, to effectively combat crime in the society the citizens must work with law enforcement agents to counter any social engineering (tricking individuals/organizations to reveal their secret) criminals might engage in to circumvent security arrangements. Let’s note here that there are no fully secured systems in the real world, but there are systems that ‘are hard and time-consuming to break into.’ Unfortunately, those in Nigeria are not among them! But to assist the police and other security agencies in their battle with criminals the nation should improve its intelligence gathering and analysis by equipping the agencies that are responsible for these functions. More importantly, only educated and morally upright police officers should be recruited into the force; and the corrupt ones must be fired without delay. Community policing and state-based police could resolve the insecurity situation in the society because the de-centralization of the system would bring the police closer to the people; enable them to trust the police more; allow for a better division of labor; management of the police and additional level of security. There are allegations and general feeling that the Nigerian police are crude, rude and insensitive to the people’s problems and that some of the officers connive with criminals to rob and kill the people they are supposed to protect and, therefore, are part of the insecurity problem in the society. In fact, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo recently alleged that criminals are being recruited into the police force.

As the insecurity situation worsens, it is appropriate for the nation to regularly conduct audits of the security systems so as to find and fix security flaws. Without a regular security audit (conducted by trusted individuals and experts), the nation could wrongly assume that everything is all right. Panko (2003), Verton (2001) and other security experts have noted that ‘complacency prevents security from being treated more seriously.’ Thus, to resolve our insecurity problem the society must control corruption because the nation’s penchant for corruption is, as it has been noted the major cause of the passive behavior of Nigerians in terms of accepting corrupt behavior from their political leaders. Closely related to corruption is poverty, which could also lead some individuals into behaviors unbecoming of a good citizen. It has been noted that the general feeling of insecurity increases with rising youth unemployment, hardship, poverty, human rights violation, rising uncertainty and corruption in the society.

There is also need to create appropriate and comprehensive plan for handling incidents relating to security. For that appropriate security policies should state clearly what should be done if any security compromise were dictated. Thus, to reduce the fear of insecurity the authorities must move quickly to restore the system to proper order in the event of any security compromise and prosecute criminals and ‘lawbreakers’ without fear or favor. It must be admitted that corruption and the multi-ethnic composition of the society have made the prosecution of those that run foul of the laws of the land a difficult political decision. This is because ethnic groups are protecting their ‘home boys’ even if they are found guilty. Corruption in the police and the judiciary create other bottlenecks. The ‘big politicians’ who are believed to have contributed to the insecurity situation in the society (it took the IG - Mr. Balogun - and the federal government years to admit the fact) should be arrested and prosecuted, as it could deter other. And they should show the general public how to develop unflinching love for their country by espousing good moral leadership and character. Nigeria, as presently governed, is a society that belongs only to the few with connection to those in the corridors of power that live above the laws of the land.

The foregoing analyses and history show that insecurity is very unsettling, socially, economically, and politically. To meet the security need of the population it is imperative for Nigeria to develop appropriate security philosophy, recruit, train, and assemble security professionals and incident handling teams that could resolve security breaches without undue delay when, and, if they occur. Until this happen, and until the nation devices effective sanctions for the ‘big and corrupt political godfathers and their godsons’ that exacerbate our insecurity situation, social instability will continue to threaten the corporate existence of Nigeria.

Victor E. Dike, CEO, Center for Social Justice and Human Development (CSJHD) Sacramento, California, is the author of Nigeria and the Politics of Unreason: A Study of the Obasanjo Regime [London: Adonis & Abbey Publishers, Nov 20, 2003].

April 2004