I had almost given up my bid to unravel the reason behind my country’s inability to confront and combat her security challenges over the years. My discouragement stems from the fact that each step I took rendered my hypotheses so vague, like one that cannot be tested for a possible result.
However, against all odds, I kept faith with my research until recently when a scene was created in the nation’s upper chamber and guess what, yours truly’s number one hypothesis as formulated to guide my study has tested positive.
The alleged snatching, stealing or ceasing of the Senate’s Mace by unmarked hoodlums, amidst the tight security that characterized the Senate complex, couldn’t have been adjudged criminal in a hurry, afterall, our local film industry a.k.a Nollywood, has so trivialized many glorified institutions in the country so much that their infrastructure could be used with every fitting in them as instruments for film production.
Rather than crying wolf, I was more comfortable with suspecting the home film industry for being at it again. I imagined what message for heaven’s sake the industry would be coming up with this time around.
Unfortunately, my guess or suspicion was actually far from the truth. The reality was that hoodlums actually beat the security on display to cart away the symbol of authority of the nation’s apex law-making body, what a shame!
I had actually expected a known national personality to weep over our country and possibly declare that such news be not published in the streets of “Ashkelon least the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.” On the contrary, such news in our clime could even earn the first media house to break it a million dollar award, as it may not only be food for the home sector, but also a very hot exclusive beyond the shores of Nigeria. For this reason, the news on red ink never ceased to run along the ‘breaking news’ panel until it was well digested by all who needed to hear about it.
Howbeit, beneath the orchestrated search for the mace and its sudden discovery, lies the hidden truth that what stinks in a man’s body is right in his body. The mere fact that the cat entered into the lion’s den and made away with the lion’s most treasured item right before him, simply shows how incapacitated the lion is, despite his flamboyant regalia.
With traces of security breaches in schools, churches, hospitals, communities and now in the upper legislative chamber, one wonders what hope the citizenry has in the Nigerian armed forces?
Could it be that we are running a military that is ill-equipped mentally and physically? Do we parade camouflaged security architecture or do our administrators have vested interest in our insecurity and so use the military as stooges to achieve their selfish desire?
I get the more destabilized each time I try to fathom how these hoodlums penetrated the hallowed chamber, perfected their mission uninterrupted and majestically left the scene unintercepted like a powerful delegation of sort?
With the trend of insecurity in Nigeria, no right thinking mind needs be told that insincerity is at its apogee in Nigerian politics and so pretense is all we see and are made to believe it as real. Unfortunately, pretense when exhausted, must reveal itself; regrettably, that leaves a lot of victims who end up as sacrificial lambs.
If Nigeria’s security apparatus is not adequately fixed to guarantee the safety of the people, then it is not worth being in place at all. Thus, there is need for an overhauling of the system for safety to be enthroned, otherwise all purported efforts at bringing about safety with a faulty apparatus would merely amount to a wild goose chase.

Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi