The Price of Power: How Insecurity and Political Ambition is Shaking Nigeria’s Leadership -By Joe Sikeroghene

According to the Nigerian constitution, the most important job of any government is to protect the lives and properties of its citizens. This is the basic agreement between the people and the government.

However, looking at the current situation in Nigeria today, it feels as though the government has forgotten their duty. In Nigeria today, the country is currently facing a phase of life, where kidnapping and armed robbery is now seen as a normal thing from major urban areas  to rural areas. Everyday, Nigerian marketers and students in some  states are being taken away by kidnappers who ask for huge amounts of money in order to free the people from the kidnappers. It has become a big risk, traveling from one place to another due to insecurity and fear of kidnapping. But while ordinary citizens are living in fear, the politicians seem distracted by their own benefits, focusing on how to buy ballot boxes and win elections.

The gap between what the citizens are facing and what the politicians care about was very clear during the recent All Progressives Congress (APC) primary elections in Delta State. Across the twenty-five local government areas, from cities like Asaba and Warri to smaller communities, the ruling party pulled out; huge amount of money, management energy, and state security was used for these elections. The government easily finds a way to put  armed police officers, special squads and escorts to guard ballot boxes and secure the venues where votes are being cast. While party leaders approve the exercise as a success for internal democracy, the whole event left a deep disappointment in the mouths of onlookers. It proved that when politicians need safety for their own ambitions, the resources and security personnel magically appear. Yet, when ordinary, unarmed citizens beg for protection along dangerous roads, they are told that the security agencies are understaffed and lack equipment.

This issue is not just happening in Delta State: it shows exactly how the entire nation’s priorities are misplaced. There is a growing belief among Nigerian citizens that the party in power cares more about holding onto power than finding a means of protecting the people who voted them into power. The federal government has consistently failed to stop the network of kidnappers, even though these criminals openly use local phone networks to negotiate ransoms. This has pushed the public to their absolute limit. People are asking hard questions: how can our intelligence agencies easily track political opponents and secure nationwide campaign rallies, but they cannot find the forest camps where bandits hold families hostage? This selective efficiency makes it look like the government only cares about securing power for itself rather than defending the masses.

Because of this violence that the government has not attended to, and the heavy economic hardship in the country today, the anger of the citizens has finally boiled over into serious political tension in Abuja. Frustrated by how normal kidnapping has become, the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) recently came out openly to demand that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu resign’s from office. The opposition party argued that any administration that watches insecurity spread from remote borders into major cities has failed its primary assignment and has no right to keep governing. This call for the president to step down is not just regular political noise. It represents the deep frustration of civil society groups and ordinary citizens who feel they can no longer sit around waiting for things to improve while their relatives are being hunted. The presidency usually argues that they met a ruined system, but that excuse no longer works for a populace watching highways turn into crime zones.

In the end, Nigeria cannot build a stable or successful democracy when the citizens are living in fear . The political class needs to wake up and come to the realization that winning primary elections, settling party fights, or preparing for the next election means absolutely nothing if the country and citizens are not in good conditions. Real leadership means dropping the endless political calculations to face the security crisis happening in our country today. Until the presidency handles the kidnapping cases with the same seriousness, planning, and heavy security deployment that it uses to win party primaries, the public anger will only get worse, and the trust between Nigerians and their leaders will be completely broken.

A country without a safe governance cannot move forward. In Nigeria today, voting people into seat has been out of the threat of killing, kidnapping and many more.

Most citizens live out of fear and some even vote for governance due to the threat of the government or the huge amount of money that will be given to them if voted for. Some of these promises are made in order to get more votes, and citizens that are not aware, do vote for them thinking of the money, whereas it will not be given to them.

The major cause of these things happening today; stealing of the ballot box, election malpractice and deceit,  is due to poverty and hunger in the country. All of these things can be resolved if our government stands out for the citizens and not for the gain of the seats that they are being voted in to occupy.

In conclusion, Nigeria can be a better place if only our government can stand out in protecting its citizens against banditry, kidnapping, and many other things going on in the country. For a better country we need a proactive government.