By Mary Noel-Berje
The primary purpose of any Government is first to safeguard life and property. Security is one of the most critical aspects of governance, it must be in place for any development to take place.
Therefore, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello’s led administration is not resting on its oars towards ensuring that there is relative peace in the state. In this connection, the administration has been consistently providing support to all security agencies in the state.
As the state continues to grapple with incessant criminalities ranging from banditry, cattle rustling, and kidnapping among others, the government is collaborating with security outfits such as; the army, air force, navy, police, customs, immigration, civil defence and local vigilante group among others to deal with the 21st century crimes.
To further support the conventional security agencies, Governor Sani Bello has strengthened the Vigilante Group of Nigeria in the state by empowering them with resources including pump action guns which have gone a long way in reducing the carnage of the ungodly elements.
In the past six years, this administration has provided 89 operational vehicles, 283 operational motorcycles, 30 bicycles, 4 Tri-cycles to security agencies in addition to 70 operational trucks and 2,300 motorcycles distributed as mobility support to the Vigilante Group in the State.
The government has greatly supported and is still supporting, the various security operations in the state, among which are; Karamin Goro, Sharan Daji, Girgizan Daji, Gama Aiki, Ayem Akpatuma I & II, as well as the Puff Adder I & II.
The government has also established the Central Security Communication Center (Control Room) domiciled in the Government House and provided logistical support for rapid response.
With all these, Niger State is still at the epicentre of daily banditry, cattle rustling and kidnapping.
In the month of February this year, the state witnessed the shocking kidnap of about 39 passengers in the state government owned transport company (NSTA) bus close to Zungeru. Another unfortunate abduction of 42 persons including students, staff and their relatives as well as the killing of a student by armed bandits at the Government Science College Kagara.
The administration of Sani Bello in collaboration with security operatives, traditional rulers, and other critical stakeholders secured the release of the abductees after several consultations, dialogues and many sleepless nights.
The state government learnt some lessons from the kidnapping of the students and took proactive steps to avoid reoccurrence. One of these was the state government’s decision to revert all boarding schools in local government areas (LGAs) affected by banditry to day school; and providing security team around the schools for immediate response when the need arises.
Just recently, there was a renewed effort by the security agencies in collaboration with vigilantes, supported by the state government, in flushing the bandits out of some occupied territory of the state such as Shiroro and Munya LGAs. It has also seen the return of the military camps in the two local government areas.
However, the recent kidnapping of 136 Islamiyyah school children in Tegina, Rafi LGA shows that more is still required to be done by the security agencies even though the governor appreciates their efforts, knowing the difficulties they are going through, especially in terms of shortage of equipment, manpower and motivation.
Therefore, the state government is not sleeping until the Islamiyyah school children are released and peace returns to the state.
The pursuit for peace and tranquility in the state has propelled the present administration to make it as a duty, to always visit the service chiefs in Abuja to constantly remind them of the security woes of the state.
Governor Sani Bello has equally held several meetings with his North West counterparts bordering his state such as Zamfara, Kaduna and Kebbi, all in a bid to end the menace.
While the Abubakar Sani Bello’s led administration is making frantic efforts to put a stop to the insecurity in the state, those who became victims of the men of the underworld are not left to their fate, as government through relevant agencies particularly Niger State Emergency Agency (NSEMA) set up camps to provide shelter for the internally displaced persons IDPs. Beyond the setting up of camps, the state government also spent huge resources to provide relief materials and medical care for the sick.
To reduce the humanitarian crisis that the increasing number of the IDPs might cause in the state, the state government heavily supported the joint security agencies in the state to take the war to the bandits, and flush them out. These actions yielded positive results as relative peace has returned to some of these communities, particularly in Munya and Shiroro LGAs. Many of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have gone back to their ancestral homes and have continued with their farming activities which has been their source of livelihood.
Even as the state government is yet to breath a sigh of relief on the security challenges in some parts of the state, some areas in Minna metropolis were locked down by the violent activities of some restive youths.
In order not to allow the situation translate to another security problem, the Governor directed the security agents to deal decisively with anyone caught carrying any kind of weapon around, while warning the youths sternly to desist from violent tendencies.
Another bold step taken by the Abubakar Sani Bello’s administration is the ban on commercial motorcycles operation in Minna, the state capital as part of efforts to curb insecurity in the state. However, the private motorcycles have escaped the hammer of the state government as it has allowed them to operate but only between 6.am and 9.pm.
To demonstrate the political will and determination of the Abubakar Sani Bello’s government on the ban, a joint security taskforce for the enforcement of the ban was flagged off recently in Minna with a charge on the taskforce to ensure total compliance and prosecute defaulters.
Going by all these efforts and many in the offing by the present government to ensure security of life and property, it is necessary to restate that security issues should not be left in the hands of government and security agencies alone as it is a collective task.Everyone must be a stakeholder in ensuring that life in the ‘Power State’ returns to its peaceful nature.
Disaster management is another crucial aspect of governance, as it equally helps in protecting lives and property. However, disasters are natural phenomenon that can only be mitigated and managed though some cannot be completely avoided.
Niger State over the years has had its share of disaster ranging from, fire out breaks, flooding, Road crashes, epidemics and wind storms among others. In any case, Abubakar Sani Bello has continuously manage disaster in the state using both preventive and remedial measures.
For fire disaster and management in the state, the government of Abubakar Sani Bello breathed life into the sector that has been neglected for decades.The state Fire Service which has hitherto been moribund, received a new lease of life with the total overhauling of ten Fire Stations spread across ten local government areas in the state. The stations were also equipped with fire fighting vehicles and other accompanying tools.
To improve manpower that will handle the equipment and ensure effective fire disaster management in the state, the present administration recruited about 150 Firemen and Women.The state government also raised the salary scale of the state Fire personnel to that of Federal Fire Service for efficiency and productivity.
Abubakar Sani Bello administration’s passion to manage fire disaster effectively was instrumental to the establishment of Federal Fire Service zonal Headquarters in Minna.
For flood disaster, the state has been consistently battling with this aspect of disaster almost since the creation of the state. The reason might not be far from being host to the three hydro electricity dams.
Over the six years of Governor Abubakar Sani Bello’s administration, the state government through NSEMA in collaboration with relevant stakeholders and as part of preventative measures, has been responding swiftly to annual flood predictions from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency (NIHSA) and Nigerian Metrological Agency (NIMET).
These have been done through rigorous early flood warning public information and enlightenment campaigns to ensure that riverine communities are adequately informed so as to evacuate them from the flood prone areas to safer areas.
Also, the government of Abubakar Sani Bello has never ceased to educate people in the urban areas not to build on flood plains, stop indiscriminate dumping of refuse in drainage system, culverts and other waterways all as proactive measures to curb flooding. The state government even went as far as constructing many drainage system in some local government areas in addition to the existing ones in the state, to avert the perennial flooding.
Despite all these proactive steps to mitigate flood disaster, a natural phenomenon that it is, the state has recorded flooding yearly, which always comes with devastating effect such as loss of lives, submerging of houses and farmlands among others.
Managing disaster world over, is capital intensive, yet as a compassionate government, each year this ugly incident occurred, the government of Abubakar Sani Bello commit huge resources in carrying out rescue operation, providing relief materials for the victims and temporal relocation of the affected communities to safer areas. Efforts are also in place to gradually but permanently relocate all the communities affected by perennial flooding to safer areas.
Even the multibillion naira Sunti sugar investment was submerged by flood water in the state, that government had to provide intervention funds to cushion the effects of the flood water.
The present administration in the state haven seen the billions of naira going into disaster management thought it wise and came up with an approach such as Disaster Risk Reduction which is less cost effective.
This approach also became necessary when the state witnessed some unfortunate incidents of boat mishap in some riverine communities in the state which led to several deaths and lost of property.
To put the disaster risk reduction approach into action, the state government under the leadership of Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, provided life jackets to all boat operators in riverine communities across the state.
The essence is to ensure all passengers wear the life jackets before boarding. The boat operators have also been mandated to maintain manifest of all their passengers including detailed contacts of their next of kin.
This policy is not just one of those policies that commenced but without effective continuation as government has made adequate arrangements to pay regular visits to all riverine areas to monitor and ensure total compliance to all precautionary measures on water ways in the state.
▪︎ Mrs. Noel Berje is Chief Press Secretary to Governor Abubakar Sani Bello.