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In Kaduna, the security situation is troubling
By John Eche
Scarcely any day goes by now in the North-western state of Kaduna without reports of yet another security challenge being recorded. It is quite enervating.
The latest is the kidnap and abduction of teachers and pupils from their school in Rama in the Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of the state. This is coming only days after the abduction of students from the Forestry Institute that abuts the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, Kaduna.
Reputed as being the political capital of Northern Nigeria, Kaduna was at a point a notable contender for the position of Nigeria’s federal capital. Lord Lugard and the colonial authorities thought about it and even the team that finally settled for the ‘virgin’ Abuja also considered it.
At the moment however, the state has been turned into a hotbed of insecurity. And it is a trend that worries many, including long-time Kaduna residents that this writer has spoken with.
Initially, the first reading of the conflict had to do with the Northern and Southern Kaduna faultlines. Then issues of cattle rustling were raised. Now it is banditry and criminality. And while no direct and conclusive evidence of that has been adduced, there are equally whispers that it is not impossible that terrorists, jihadists and insurgents, who are presently fast spreading their tentacles across about every region within the continent, could indeed also be at play already in the fringes of what is clearly a sadly growing inferno.
Underscoring the challenge is the fact that Kaduna is one state in the country with a dedicated security commissioner. And for the former journalist, Samuel Aruwan who mans the beat, it is indeed a very exerting schedule. Literally, no day gets by now without his addressing the press on one more incident and what the authorities are doing in response.
Kaduna needs all the help it can find. And so also the rest of Nigeria.
Nasir El-Rufai, Governor, Kaduna State
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