Dennis Ogu

Any country where the leaders get over-protected with heavy security details is insecure. And in such a nation, the ordinary citizens suffer for it.

On the other hand, any government that prioritizes the welfare of its citizens does not lavish much money and resources in protecting its public officials.

It is natural that the citizens will do everything to protect the government that meets their basic needs and demands. Any government that protects its citizens protects itself as well. But where the citizens lack official protection or are left to their means, the government will definitely turn enemy to the citizenry; and this will surely make them jittery and they begin to spend heavily to protect themselves, not against external forces but against the citizens they govern.

But what will make a government not to protect its own citizens adequately? Abraham Lincoln’s maxim that “the primary duty of a government is to do for the citizens what they can’t ordinarily do for themselves” will always stand out in matters of the state or governance.
This primary duty is collectively called welfare and one of them is security of lives and properties.

But before this, there is job availability and job security. So long as the citizens are gainfully employed (either as employers themselves or as employees) and can provide their basic needs on daily basis; so long as the citizens are sure of accessing what they want based on merit and so long as they are not denied justice, then the society is secure and the government is safe.

A government fails to protect its citizens when there is nepotism, impaired justice system, nonavailability of jobs, no job security and no conducive environment for business. With this, there will be tension among the populace coupled with restiveness among the youths.

It is at this point that many who were originally law-abiding citizens would begin to nurse the idea of breaking the law in one way or another; and the victims of such lawlessness may be nameless, faceless and uncountable, just as it is in Nigeria today.

Nigeria and a number of other African countries are insecure today because their governments have failed to prioritize the welfare of the citizens: the government officials are swimming in nepotism and corruption while the citizens are left to their means, jobless and helpless.

Many of these countries have all it takes to empower their citizens but they would rather not do it because of the rooted corruption in the system; hence, many of the frustrated citizens begin to fight their governments in their own ways and abilities.

Today, armed banditry, kidnapping, wanton destruction of lives and properties and many other crimes against the state and humanity have escalated; as a result, no single citizen is sure of his life or safety even in the next minute. The government whose negligence causes the problem would now resort to spending lavishly to protect its officials. No government official travels for even one kilometre without surrounding himself or herself with many security personnel as if the country was in a war situation.

Unfortunately, while the government officials and states houses and VIPs are heavily guarded with security, the country side remains porous and the ordinary citizens left vulnerable.

In other climes where citizens’ conditions are much better and are placed over and above personal interests, government officials travel in the same bus or train with ordinary citizens; they buy from the same shop, visit the same gym and amusement centres, worship at the same place and even shake hands some times. This is because the welfare of the citizens is not neglected and as a result nobody is afraid of any internal security issues, and no bogus security details and no unnecessary security votes for the government officials and VIPs.

Therefore the only way to ensure internal security in any independent state and peaceful running of state programmes by government officials is to first ensure that the welfare of the citizens is secured.