INSECURITY IN NIGERIA: Is "VOODOOISM" to the Rescue?
By Festus Ejiroghene Fifen It is no longer news that the rate of crime and other related activities in the country has reached an alarming stage. The average Nigerian has completely lost hope in the government’s security system for protection. Almost every other family across the country that can afford it, has one form of informal security arrangement or the other that they believe could come to their rescue when the need arises. In as much as we all believe in Nigeria as one indivisible entity called Nigeria, the few lines you have read above capture the new reality of things except we want to play the ostrich, a game that has brought us to where we are today as a country. Informal arrangements like Neighborhood Watch, vigilante groups, Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Bakassi Boys, Egbesu Cult, Yan Banga and a host of others are security arrangements across the six geopolitical zones of the country that eventually gained popularity amongst Nigerians because of ...