06/01/2026
When a Nation Can No Longer Sleep: Nigeria’s Insecurity, the Pain of Ordinary Citizens, and the Urgent Demand for Accountability
The Awake Voice | Opinion Piece
By Dr. Nana Akaeze and Dr. Christian Akaeze
This is my voice. This is my belief.
Nigeria is bleeding.
Not in silence anymore. Not in isolated corners anymore. Not in stories that can be dismissed as exaggeration anymore. Nigeria is bleeding in the villages, on the highways, in the schools, in the farms, in the markets, and in the hearts of ordinary people who wake up each day wondering whether safety has become a privilege reserved only for the powerful.
A nation cannot continue like this.
A country where children are abducted from school cannot pretend that governance is working. A country where farmers are afraid to enter their farms cannot pretend that food security is possible.
A country where travelers pray before entering highways, not because of normal road danger but because of kidnapping, cannot pretend that citizenship is secure. A country where diaspora Nigerians are afraid to return home, invest, build, visit, or even bury loved ones in peace cannot pretend that national confidence is alive.
This is not okay. This is not normal.
This is not the Nigeria that ordinary citizens deserve.
When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu campaigned and came into office, many Nigerians, especially the silent majority, hoped that insecurity would be confronted with seriousness, urgency, and courage.
Many ordinary citizens believed that, after years of pain, there would be a different level of leadership attention. They believed that the federal government would rise to its most basic responsibility: protect the lives and property of the people.
But what have the people seen?
More fear. More pain. More school abductions. More communities under attack. More mourning. More uncertainty. More unanswered questions.
This is why Dr. Nana strongly alludes that the federal government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is failing the ordinary citizens the silent majority who expected leadership, protection, and national rescue. The people did not ask for luxury. They did not ask for comfort beyond measure. They asked for one basic thing: let us live safely in our own country.
Security is not a campaign slogan. Security is not a political talking point. Security is the first duty of government.
Without safety, democracy becomes fragile. Without safety, the economy becomes weak. Without safety, education becomes dangerous. Without safety, agriculture collapses. Without safety, investment becomes a risk. Without safety, citizens begin to lose faith in the state.
And when citizens lose faith in the state, a nation begins to break from within.
Insecurity Is Destroying the Soul of the Nation
Nigeria’s insecurity did not begin today. It did not begin with only one administration, one party, one tribe, one religion, or one region. For decades, Nigerians have lived with armed robbery, kidnapping, terrorism, banditry, communal killings, cult violence, illegal arms, and weak state protection.
But the fact that insecurity did not begin today does not excuse today’s government from responsibility.
Every government inherits problems. But every government is also elected to solve problems.
The present federal government cannot continue to speak as though insecurity is a natural disaster beyond human control. This is not rain falling from the sky.
These are human beings killing, kidnapping, sponsoring, protecting, enabling, financing, and benefiting from insecurity. And if human beings are involved, then government must investigate human beings. Government must arrest human beings. Government must prosecute human beings. Government must expose human beings.
One has to truly wonder: who is fueling this insecurity?
Who is gaining from it?
Who benefits when communities are under perpetual torment?
Who benefits when farmers abandon farms?
Who benefits when schools are closed?
Who benefits when citizens are afraid to travel?
Who benefits when diaspora Nigerians stop investing?
Who benefits when fear becomes a political weapon?
These questions are painful. But they are no longer unreasonable.
When insecurity continues year after year, government after government, budget after budget, security meeting after security meeting, citizens have the right to ask deeper questions. They have the right to ask whether the problem is simply incompetence, or whether some powerful people are benefiting from the blood and fear of ordinary Nigerians.
The Nigerian people deserve answers.
The Pain of School Abductions Must Not Become Normal
There is a particular kind of national shame that comes when children are abducted from school.
A school should be a place of learning, not a hunting ground for criminals. A classroom should carry the sound of books, teachers, laughter, and dreams—not fear, gunshots, and trauma. Parents should not send their children to school wondering whether they will return home.
When children are taken from school, the wound is not only on the family. The wound is on the nation.
Every abducted child represents a broken promise. Every crying parent represents a failed system. Every closed school represents a stolen future. Every community living in fear represents a government that has not done enough.
This is why the federal government must stop treating school abductions as isolated incidents. These are not isolated incidents. They are signals of systemic failure.
Where is the intelligence before the attack?
Where is the local alert system?
Where is the community-based security coordination?
Where are the protected school corridors?
Where are the emergency response teams?
Where are the surveillance systems?
Where are the consequences for those who sponsor, inform, transport, hide, and negotiate for these criminals?
Nigeria cannot continue to wait until children are abducted before government begins to act. Security must be preventive, not only reactive.
Dr. Nana’s Position: Security Must Begin From the Grassroots
Dr. Nana Akaeze believes that the federal government must curb insecurity by working from the grassroots upward. Nigeria cannot secure itself only from Abuja. Security cannot be managed only through press conferences, military announcements, and distant federal directives.
Security must begin where people live.
It must begin from the community level. It must move through the local government level. It must connect to the county or district structures where applicable. It must then connect to the state level before feeding into the national security architecture.
The people in the community often know the strangers who entered. They know the abandoned houses being used. They know the bush paths. They know the suspicious movements. They know the sudden wealth. They know who is recruiting young people. They know who is giving information to criminals. They know the roads where kidnappers wait. They know the farms that are no longer safe.
But in many places, this local knowledge is not properly captured, protected, or acted upon.
That must change.
Nigeria needs a security model that values community intelligence. Local leaders, traditional rulers, youth leaders, women leaders, religious leaders, school administrators, market associations, transport unions, farmers, hunters, vigilante groups, and local government officers must be part of a structured and accountable security response.
But this must not become mob justice. It must not become ethnic profiling. It must not become political intimidation. It must not become community lawlessness.
Grassroots security must be organized, documented, trained, supervised, and linked to formal law enforcement.
If Nigeria wants to defeat insecurity, Abuja must listen to the villages. The federal government must stop pretending that local communities are only victims. They are also sources of intelligence, protection, early warning, and prevention.
Dr. Chris’s Recommendation: A Regulated Self-Defense Debate Must Be Considered Carefully
Dr. Christian Akaeze takes the position that Nigeria must begin a serious national conversation about regulated self-defense in high-risk communities, especially where the state repeatedly fails to protect citizens.
This recommendation is not a call for reckless gun ownership. It is not a call for violence. It is not a call to copy America’s gun culture. It is not a call to flood Nigeria with weapons.
It is a call to ask a difficult question: when criminals already carry illegal weapons and the state cannot arrive on time, should responsible, carefully vetted, trained, and licensed citizens in vulnerable communities have some lawful means of defense?
Dr. Chris’s recommendation is that any such model must be strict, limited, traceable, and heavily regulated. It must never become a free-for-all system. It must never allow automatic weapons or military-grade fi****ms in civilian hands. It must never empower political thugs, cult groups, ethnic militias, or untrained individuals.
A regulated self-defense model, if Nigeria ever considers it, must include background checks, mental fitness evaluation, renewable licensing, compulsory training, safe storage rules, community verification, strict weapon limits, digital registration, ammunition tracking, and immediate prosecution for misuse.
This is where a state like New York offers a regulatory lesson—not because Nigeria should copy New York exactly, but because New York shows that firearm access, where allowed, can be surrounded by strong restrictions, licensing, sensitive-location limits, and legal accountability.
But let it be clear: Dr. Chris’s recommendation is only one part of a larger security conversation. It cannot replace government responsibility. It cannot replace policing. It cannot replace intelligence. It cannot replace border control. It cannot replace justice. It cannot replace economic reform. It cannot replace leadership courage.
A firearm in the hand of a citizen cannot fix a broken government.
Nigeria Must Not Copy America’s Gun Culture Carelessly
Nigeria must be careful.
The country already has serious problems with illegal arms, political violence, cultism, communal tensions, domestic violence, election-related intimidation, and weak enforcement. A careless gun policy could make everything worse.
That is why any self-defense conversation must be guided by caution, evidence, and national realities.
Nigeria does not need a culture where every argument becomes a shooting. Nigeria does not need a culture where political thugs become more powerful. Nigeria does not need a culture where young people, already struggling with poverty and frustration, gain easier access to deadly weapons. Nigeria does not need a culture where communities arm themselves against one another.
What Nigeria needs first is a functioning government.
What Nigeria needs first is a serious federal security strategy.
What Nigeria needs first is intelligence.
What Nigeria needs first is border control.
What Nigeria needs first is local accountability.
What Nigeria needs first is the prosecution of sponsors.
What Nigeria needs first is the protection of children, farmers, travelers, and communities.
Only after these responsibilities are taken seriously can any regulated self-defense debate be responsibly handled.
The Federal Government Has Tools—Why Are They Not Working?
The federal government of Nigeria is not powerless. It has the police. It has the military. It has intelligence agencies. It has immigration. It has customs. It has civil defense. It has border agencies. It has technology options.
It has diplomatic channels. It has access to international partners. It has budgetary authority. It has emergency powers. It has legislative influence. It has the ability to coordinate states.
So why does insecurity continue to torment ordinary citizens?
Why are forests still uncontrolled?
Why are borders still porous?
Why are illegal arms still flowing?
Why are kidnappers still negotiating from hidden camps?
Why are schools still vulnerable?
Why are rural communities still abandoned?
Why are criminals sometimes more confident than citizens?
Why do ordinary Nigerians feel less protected than politicians?
This is the heart of the matter.
If the federal government has tools but the people are still unsafe, then either the tools are not being used properly, or those responsible are not serious enough, or there are interests benefiting from the chaos.
None of these possibilities is acceptable.
President Tinubu must understand that insecurity will define his leadership if it is not urgently addressed. Economic reforms cannot succeed where citizens are unsafe. Foreign investment cannot grow where kidnapping is common.
Food prices cannot fall when farmers cannot farm. Education cannot thrive when children are abducted. Diaspora confidence cannot return when the homeland feels dangerous.
No nation can build prosperity on fear.
What Must Be Done Now
Nigeria needs a national security reset.
First, the federal government must strengthen grassroots intelligence. Every community must have a lawful reporting structure connected to local government, state security councils, and national agencies.
Second, schools must be treated as protected zones. Every vulnerable school, especially in high-risk areas, must have security mapping, emergency communication, trained local response teams, and rapid intervention links.
Third, the government must secure farms and rural roads. Food security begins with farmer safety. A farmer who cannot farm is a national economic warning.
Fourth, Nigeria must deploy technology with urgency. Drones, satellite tracking, emergency communication systems, digital identity tools, surveillance cameras, and intelligence mapping must move beyond promises.
Fifth, border security must be strengthened. Nigeria cannot ignore the regional Sahel crisis, illegal arms movement, and cross-border criminal networks.
Sixth, police reform must become real. Nigeria needs more officers, better training, better pay, better equipment, community policing, and less diversion of police personnel to protect elites while ordinary citizens remain vulnerable.
Seventh, there must be special courts or fast-track prosecutions for kidnapping, terrorism, illegal arms trafficking, and sponsorship of violent groups.
Eighth, local vigilante and community security groups must be registered, trained, monitored, and supervised. The government should not pretend they do not exist. It should regulate them before they become another source of danger.
Ninth, the government must follow the money. Kidnapping and banditry are not sustained by guns alone. They are sustained by financing, logistics, informants, ransom networks, arms suppliers, and protection systems.
Tenth, President Tinubu must speak less through promises and more through results.
Nigerians are tired.
Ordinary Nigerians Deserve to Sleep Safely
Nigeria cannot continue to ask citizens to be patient while their lives and property remain under perpetual torment.
Patience without protection becomes abandonment.
The people are not asking for too much.
They are asking to sleep safely. They are asking to travel safely. They are asking to farm safely. They are asking to send children to school safely. They are asking to worship safely. They are asking to return home from the diaspora without fear. They are asking to live as citizens, not as hostages in their own country.
This is not about APC or PDP. This is not about North or South. This is not about Christian or Muslim. This is not about tribe. This is about human life. This is about the moral duty of government. This is about the survival of Nigeria.
Dr. Chris recommends that Nigeria must not be afraid to debate a regulated, limited, lawful self-defense model for vulnerable communities, but only under strict national control and never as a substitute for government responsibility.
Dr. Nana maintains that the federal government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is failing the ordinary citizens who believed that he would fix insecurity. She believes Nigeria must return to grassroots security, community intelligence, local accountability, and serious federal action that protects the silent majority.
Together, we say this: Nigeria must secure its people first.
No political ambition should be greater than the lives of citizens. No election should be more important than national survival. No government should sleep peacefully while its people cannot sleep safely.
Without security, there can be no renewed hope.
This is my voice. This is my belief.
References
Associated Press. (2025). Nigeria’s president declares emergency and beefs up forces following abductions.
Federal Republic of Nigeria. (1959). Fi****ms Act.
New York State. (2026). Gun safety in New York State.
Nigeria Police Force. (n.d.). Licensing guidance on prohibited fi****ms.
Reuters. (2025). Nigeria’s mass school kidnapping exposes Tinubu’s security struggles.
Reuters. (2025). Nigeria’s Tinubu declares security emergency, orders mass recruitment of police and army.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2023). Fi****ms trafficking in the Sahel.
Citation for The Awake Voice and Facebook Posts
Akaeze, N., & Akaeze, C. (2026, June 1). When a nation can no longer sleep: Nigeria’s insecurity, the pain of ordinary citizens, and the urgent demand for accountability. The Awake Voice.
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