By Our Correspondent
A human rights lawyer, Adamu Kabiru Adamu, has taken a swipe at the Federal Government and the nation’s security chiefs, saying the persistence of insurgency and banditry in Nigeria is proof of state failure.
In a strongly worded statement issued on Monday, Adamu argued that no organized criminal activity should last beyond 24 hours in any country with a functioning government, insisting that the continued bloodshed in the North was either a sign of incompetence, lack of political will, or outright complicity at the highest levels of power.
“It is a well-established principle that any insurgency or organized criminal activity that lasts beyond 24 hours does so because elements within the system allow it,” he said.
Adamu lamented that despite over a decade of counter-insurgency operations, massive security budgets, and repeated promises by successive governments, Nigerians continue to live under the daily threat of kidnappings, killings, and displacement.
He questioned why insecurity has remained most severe in Northern Nigeria, even though the heads of all major security agencies hail from the region.
“If those at the very top, who share roots with the affected communities, cannot secure the North, what then is the hope for ordinary Nigerians across the country?” he queried.
The lawyer further described every unsafe highway and unprotected village as “evidence of broken promises,” stressing that security is a constitutional right and not a privilege.
Adamu demanded immediate, transparent investigations into allegations of sponsorship and protection of insurgents, as well as public accountability from political leaders and security chiefs. He also called for urgent action to resettle displaced communities and dismantle what he described as “the networks of collaboration between criminals and their enablers.”
He warned that insecurity that lingers beyond 24 hours amounts to nothing short of a betrayal by the state.
The statement, which was copied to the Presidency, the National Security Adviser, all service chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police, and Northern governors, concluded with a call for “visible results, not speeches.”
