The level of insecurity in Nigeria today calls for urgent action, available data shows that Nigeria is faced with political, economic and social insecurity, the scenario that has caused uncertainty in the country over the years making the society unfavourable for socio-economic activities. Although, efforts have been made against this problems but the question of safety has become recurring event. As people safety is threatened, fear of living in unsecured environment gripped the mind of both the young and the old.
This work is premised on human safety. Safety is the state of being “safe” (from French sauf), the condition of being protected from harm or other non-desirable outcomes. It requires paying proper attention to ones action and movement. The extent at which people became victim of human stealing, kidnapping, rapping, and killing in Nigeria today is discouraging. Almost every day Nigerians ears and eyes were filed with incidence of human stealing. Numbers of people have been kidnapped, ladies rapped and killing rise to its highest order. One cannot gainfully separate these occurrences from the socio-economic and political disorder in every part of the country. The level of poverty, illiteracy, attitude of the security agents, government policy, poor leadership, unequal distribution of resources, corruption, unemployment, etc. often changed people mode of thinking, reasoning and reaction towards action and events which under the law is illegal but turned out to be a better means of survival for some people who operate with full confidence and commitment towards there illegality.
In the same vein, many of the victims of the rituals, rape, stealing as well as killing are those who directly or indirectly gave less priority to activities capable of destroying their lives. Evidence shows that, most people neither see safety as priority nor something that require a great attention. Given the instance of a girl sent out by her mother late in the night and got missing or raped in the process. These attitude and behaviours among Nigerians recently might due to lack of awareness about the important of the safety. The level of people response to safety in Nigeria today was meager and call for enough attention. As Nigerian we’ve been conditioned to think that only the government can ensure our safety. But at some point, maybe we will wake up and recognized that it was government who created our problem through their corrupt attitude and manner of handling sensitive issues without necessarily caution ourselves on acts that could destroy us, our family, community members among others.
Also, as Nigerians we need to ask ourselves what have we done, doing, and will do in ensuring the safety our lives and properties. Are we really working and committed towards our safety? Traders who travels during the night, people who kept petrol in their shops and house, the drivers who decline the use of the seat belt while on the transit, the government security who hired his ammunition to the robbers, local security who conspired with the armed gangs to rob his master and asked himself to be tight up to burgle office he was been paid to secure with his life, the judge who collect bribe to change the tone of the case, the building contractors who used inferior materials to build house he was paid for, religion leaders who preaches religion intolerance in a multi-religion society, cyclist who tried to compete with lorry on the express road, parents who left their wards to wonder around without proper monitoring and supervision, the Niger/Delta avengers who blow up gas pipeline with little regard to environment and health impact, parents who watch their girls walk the street with open cloths. All these worked against human safety.  Prevention is the best solution. A collective understanding of the deeper social issues along with a desire to change is necessary to promote a secured society.
People need to realize the important of safety. Safety is no doubt encourages hard work; improve punctuality and motive needed to work. It promotes optimism, makes people to have positive thinking, and intensified people effort in the struggle for survival. It aided sound policy, unified different opinions, amongst people, tribes and region. It creates a sense of belonging, provides enabling environment for prosperous activities and encourage manpower needed for growing a healthy economy. There is no doubt that if people are not save, the society is in state of collapse. This is because of the fact that without safety, no development can be attained in the country. State will be in the state of anarchy, there will not progress and economic will be regressive, facilities and infrastructure will be dilapidated, pupils will be discourage to learn , and there will be restriction in the people movement, scarcity of labour, and criminal activities will rose to considerable level.
Although safety is being capture as part of the topic under civil education and health education in primary schools in Nigeria, the content mainly focused primarily on the accidental safety rather than the how people can secured there life and properties. There is need to expand the scope and its contents, and make it available up to the secondary school level. It should be seen as subject that need to be thoroughly scrutinize so that every pupil who pass through elementary school will always remember a course called safety even after their elementary education. The issue of safety should be seen beyond the concept accidents. There is need to develop a concept of safety that relate to daily activities of man. This should include economic safety, health safety, environmental safety, domestic safety, commercial safety, political safety, social safety, religo-cultural safety, personal safety, organizational safety to mention but a few. Pupils should be taught how they can live safely when they are alone or found themselves in a hostile environment. If enough attention is given to all these, in our daily life, the extent at which people safety is threatened will be reduced. People should begin to look at themselves, from what they eat, wear, go, and the time they move, and the people they meet.
My position is that if we must live in a save society, a society free of rape, human stealing, kidnapping, vandalism, killing. We must change our conduct and ready to abandon some of our cherished act which indeed are danger to our safety and existence.
***Kareem Abdulrasaq, Assistant Research Officer at the Grassroots Development and Advocacy Center, Ilorin.
