Lagos, NIGERIA – Nigeria recently has been a horror show for her citizens, with the news going from bad to worse.
Listen to the author read this article:
Things took a negative turn with a surge in terrorism in the northern part of the country, with the numbers of victims becoming too many to ignore.
Nigerians were still reeling from that when bandits attacked a primary school in northern Nigeria, kidnapping 25 Muslim schoolgirls and killing their principal who was trying to protect the pupils.
Following that was an attack on a church by armed men. This time, it was in the western part of the country. The gunmen murdered some people and kidnapped others.
Barely two days after the attack on the church, more bandits in the northern region kidnapped more than 50 students and staff at a Catholic school.
All of this happened within a week.
Despite the surge in violence, Nigerians have seen little effort from the government to tighten the security in areas under threat.
The question every Nigerian asks is, “Do we have a functioning government?”
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu vowed to end these kinds of attacks if he was elected. But two years into his tenure, Nigeria is in a deep security crisis and every citizen is hoping they aren’t next.
Moving freely is a luxury many can no longer afford. How much more can Nigeria take before she’s stripped to the bone?
Nigeria needs its government to step up and quickly address these issues. Citizens have seen enough and they want no more of these bandits and terrorists.
As a sovereign state, Nigeria needs to protect her own citizens.
We shouldn’t have the president of the United States threatening military action against us because we can’t protect ourselves.
Both Christian and Muslim Nigerians are victims of the violence perpetrated by bandits on innocent citizens.
And the last thing we need as a nation is external control.
Dominic Crown is a Junior Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Nigeria. He wrote this analysis.
Milana Yarychkivskiy is a Reporter and Senior Illustrator with Youth Journalism International from Germany. She made the illustration above.
