Insecurity and the pandemic

For residents of suburban communities of Lagos and Ogun states, life at present is pendent between the rock and a hard place.

These residents are grounded and shuttered in like everybody else across much of Nigeria, courtesy of the lockdown over the Covid-19 pandemic that got renewed for another 14-day period early last week by President Muhammadu Buhari. Their economic and social lives are severely hobbled by near-paralysis occasioned by the compulsory stay-at-home order issued by government to ensure social distancing aimed at flattening the pandemic curve. But lately, these residents could hardly stay home with ease or be locked down as mandated by government order. No, they have been forced onto neighbourhood streets – not on willing pursuits to reflate their sagged personal economies, but rather on vigilance tasks necessitated by a siege that bandits have laid on their communities.

Border communities in Lagos and Ogun states were mostly affected by the trend. These have been hotbeds of banditry in recent weeks as hoodlums waged armed robbery attacks on residents. Cult gangs as well have had a field day terrorising neighbourhoods with supremacy battles. In the wake of the lockdown order, there has been a spike in incidents of bandits breaking into homes and temporarily shuttered business premises at daytime and nighttime to rob owners of their belongings. In some cases they inflicted injuries on hapless victims, with fatalities reported in some areas. In other instances, the hoodlums posted advance notices of their impending attack on designated communities, and I personally saw one of such notices. Reports cited a resident of one area of mainland Lagos saying armed robbers came to her street with Point of Sales (PoS) terminal asking victims to swipe their cards to enable cash withdrawals.

The excuse reportedly touted by the hoodlums for their exertions was that they were hungry because the lockdown had deprived them the legitimate means of daily income they previously depended on for subsistence living. The gang violence in some areas was credited with similar motivation, namely that cult groups were contesting for territorial rights whereupon they could monopolistically exact tribute from residents for survival. One Lagos resident was reported – perhaps sarcastically – admonishing people in one of the troubled communities thus: “When you are going to bed tonight, split your pot of soup in two and drop a portion at the entrance of your apartment with a big loaf of bread. When the (gang members) appear, they will see the sacrifice and pass you by.”

“Hoodlums apparently exploited the concentration of (government) attention…on dealing with the coronavirus challenge to terrorise vulnerable communities”

For residents of the troubled communities, however, it has been double jeopardy. Their businesses are in tailspin occasioned by the lockdown and their means of survival thereby impaired. Then, the activities of the hoodlums constituted an added burden warranting them to orchestrate emergency security arrangements. With police cover not always readily available, residents of affected communities formed themselves into vigilance groups that watched over respective area against attacks by bandits. Armed with clubs, machetes, pickaxes and other odd weapons, the residents patrolled neighbourhood streets all night through and into early morning hours to signal community alertness against miscreants. It wasn’t sufficient that some communities had payrolled private guards to handle the task. Everybody needed to take the matter into his own hands.

Under vigilance modalities, collective security readiness was the primary goal and social distancing over Covid-19 a remote consideration – meaning that the whole purpose of the lockdown order was unwittingly marginalised. But that is to be expected: people must feel secure before they would have enough attention for observing social regulations. There were postings on social media showing embattled residents wielding their odd weapons in apparent warning on what awaited hoodlums if they venture into their neighbourhoods. Other postings include one showing residents of a particular community compelling an apprehended bandit to consume fresh pepper before he would be handed over to the police.

Some of the residents said they took to self-help because the police were not readily forthcoming with providing a shield against the bandits. “It is very serious, we are unable to sleep. The police are nowhere to be found and these people operate freely, breaking into people’s shops and carting away their goods,” one resident of a Lagos suburb was reported saying.

But the police unveiled a series of initiatives indicating they had a handle on the situation. Police Inspector-General Mohammed Adamu last week said the Force was working in concert with the Army, Navy, Air Force and Directorate of State Services (DSS) to deal a heavy hand against the criminals. According to him, special forces comprising personnel of these agencies are on deployment in the two states where nearly 200 suspects had been arrested in connection with the security breaches.

In another statement, Force spokesman Frank Mba, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, said the Inspector-General had ordered deployment of an intervention team comprising Police Mobile Force (PMF) units, Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), Intelligence Response Team (IRT) and the Special Tactical Squad (STS) to strengthen security in troubled areas and bolster public confidence. The team is being coordinated by Deputy Inspector-General Babatunde Ogunyanwo, who is in charge of the Force’s Research and Planning department and coordinating DIG for the Southwest zone. Among others, commissioners of police were also directed to intensify patrols in their respective jurisdiction and reinforce security under active supervision by zonal Assistant Inspectors-General. Also, the police made public the contact phone numbers of strategic personnel and the control rooms.

After a meeting on security strategy last week, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu dismissed the excuse that the miscreants were forced to their mischief because they were hungry. He said they rather were “opportunistic criminals, and would be treated as such by the law enforcement agencies.” And the circumstantial factors of the fresh wave of crime bear him out. The hoodlums apparently exploited the concentration of attention by the federal and state governments as well as security agencies on dealing with the coronavirus challenge to terrorise vulnerable communities. Otherwise, if truly the issue was that they were hungry, locked down citizens who themselves were eking out sustenance from dwindling personal reserves posed the wrongest place to look for succour. In other words, the ‘#Hungervirus’ infection cuts across. Calling the attention of government, through legitimate avenues, to this purported plight promises more productive results than banditry.

But there is yet a moral from this insecurity challenge, namely the elementary factor of governance being multifaceted in unrelieved simultaneity. While much of governance attention at the moment is devoted to leashing the Covid-19 pandemic, other obligations involved in sustaining the nation’s socio-political existence, like attentive security provisioning, must not be allowed to fall off the radar.

It is this same factor that applies in recent admonitions by notables, including Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade, that it is dangerous to pursue the protection of lives from the coronavirus pandemic at the expense of ignoring sustenance of livelihoods. Actually, failed livelihoods of saved lives eventually could lead to deaths, literally speaking. That is to say the ongoing battle to leash the Covid-19 pandemic must be a balancing act between enforcing lockdowns to ensure social distancing aimed at flattening the infection curve, and allowing some space for socio-economic pursuits that sustain people’s livelihoods. As we grind through this renewed term of the lockdown, this is a wise counsel that should be factored into next steps.