Willy Eya
Elder statesman and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae has urged all Nigerian communities to design their own security architecture and defend themselves within the limits of the law.
He said Nigeria was very close to anarchy if something fundamental and positive does not happen very soon. The octogenarian gave the admonition in a telephone interview with Saturday Sun.
He regretted that Nigeria is in trouble because of the absence of security, saying that what is most frightening is that the government does not seem to come to grips with the situation. His words: “Even at the seat of government, there is insecurity. For quite sometimes, vehicular traffic could not move between Abuja and Kaduna and Abuja is the seat of the Federal Government. So, if the seat of power itself is not secure, where are we? I have no doubt at all that something needs to happen. Something fundamental and positive very soon needs to happen, because otherwise, we are very close to anarchy.
“As an economist, the worrying part is that this insecurity is impacting negatively on agricultural industrial production. In my part of Nigeria, I live in Akure, many farmers are not willing to go to the farms because they are afraid of herdsmen coming to their farms and attacking them. Government is urging people to go into farming to invest but who will come and invest in an environment where there is daily threat of kidnapping, attack and killing. Nigeria has never been this uncertain and unsafe.
“I used to tell people that when I was 14 years old, I started traveling from Akure to Lagos to attend Secondary School and alone by myself. Today at 81, the government itself has said I should not go to my farm alone without police escort. In other words, at 14, I was free to move around my country and at 81, I can only move under police escort. That summarises the tragedy of insecurity of Nigeria.
“I am persuaded that every community should now design the architecture of its own security, implement it and defend itself, within the limits permitted by the law. That is what I think all of us should do now.”