BY MARCUS MAVIS
Security primarily means the state of being protected or being safe from harm or things done to make people or places safe.
It also entails measures taken to guard against espionage or sabotage, crime, attack, or escape.
It is unarguably true that one of the basic obligations of the government to the people of every state is to ensure that, her citizens are safe or secured.
In a nutshell, security protrudes the internal and external sovereignty of every state.
We should be mindful of the fact that the task of security is a collective one as it is innate in every human being as no one will consciously open his eyes to be speared by a sharp object as such person would immediately take every possible measures to avert such horrible situation without waiting for the government.
However as the security challenge in Bayelsa State is escalating, rather than steadily throwing cold waters on the efforts of the government, I want Bayelsans to bear in mind that, before pointing fingers to the government, we should be reminded that 90% of these malefactors and hoodlums in this state are our brothers, as they are not aliens, they have parents, uncles and friends, some even best allies in this state.
The question now is, How have we in any way tried our best to support the government by way of reporting some of these boys to the police or any other Security angencies, or even try to take drastic family decision on them?
We rather keep complaining about the government, the police and security agents but forgotten we also reserve a duty to the problem.
Take for instance In most cases when they are arrested for serious crime, you see the (parents,family members,etc) moving from one station to another lobbying, pleading even paying huge sum of money to execute a bail for them until they succeed in bringing the criminal out.
You will notice that once they are released back to the streets without proper meaningful engagement in profitable things, after no reasonable time , you see such person going back to his old way.
We are privy to the security challenge in the state because we are the one encouraging them directly or indirectly.
Let us be frank and ask ourselves this question; how many of us that know so well that our brothers are serial killers or strong cultists or thieves, How many of us can boldly take this vital information to the police station to report one of our own to save the rest of Bayelsians from the consequent vices?
Instead they will shield the hoodlums very well and allow them to go about committing crimes, perturbing peace and order, constituting nuisance in the state.
I keep saying our problems is not government or police agency, our problems of insecurities start with the people.
When we are ready to get rid of this criminality cancer from the society, we know the right step to take.
Now let us just shun pretending and blaming the government, stop harbouring your criminal brothers, sons, friends and best friends in your home. Take appropriate legitimate actions against criminality to keep our state safe.
Even as we try to stay safe this weekend, I urge all Bayelsans to know that, security is a collective responsibility of the society.
Thank you.
