The Promise to Protect: Three Years After, Nigerians Are Still Waiting for Safety

 

The Promise to Protect: Three Years After, Nigerians Are Still Waiting for Safety

Snippets 1–4 From The Awake Voice Security Accountability Series

By Dr. Nana Akaeze

 

This is my voice. This is my belief.

 

Snippet 1: Tinubu Must Stop Speaking to Bandits Like Nigeria Is Begging for Peace

A country does not become safe because a president speaks strongly.

A country becomes safe when criminals are afraid of the law, when citizens trust the state, when schools are protected, when farmers can farm, when highways are monitored, when villages are not abandoned, and when sponsors of violence know that power will no longer shield them.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently warned bandits, kidnappers, and sponsors of terror to surrender or face the full force of the Nigerian State.

On the surface, that may sound firm.

But Nigerians must ask: what kind of statement is that in a country already wounded by banditry, kidnapping, ransom payments, school abductions, rural attacks, and unsafe highways?

A country infested with violent criminal networks does not need government to sound like it is waiting for criminals to decide whether they are ready to behave.

Nigeria does not need to beg bandits into surrender.

Nigeria needs bandits to be located.

Nigeria needs their camps dismantled.

Nigeria needs their weapons seized.

Nigeria needs their informants exposed.

Nigeria needs their sponsors prosecuted.

Nigeria needs their ransom channels blocked.

Nigeria needs their movement tracked.

Nigeria needs their victims rescued.

Nigeria needs their criminal economy destroyed.

That is what action looks like.

President Tinubu’s strength is that he has power now. He has incumbency. He has the executive machinery. He has the security agencies. He has the authority to coordinate, deploy, reform, fund, and demand results.

But that strength has become his burden, because Nigerians are no longer asking what he will do if given power.

They are asking what he has done with the power he already has.

Reuters reported that Tinubu declared a nationwide security emergency in November 2025, ordered mass recruitment into the police and army, directed police officers attached to VIP guard duties to be redeployed to conflict areas, and empowered the DSS to deploy forest guards.

Those are serious announcements.

But Nigerians are tired of announcements.

Where are the results?

Which highways are now safer?

Which school zones are protected?

Which forest corridors have been cleared?

Which ransom networks have been broken?

Which sponsors have been arrested and prosecuted?

Which villages can now sleep without fear?

Which farmers can now return to their land?

Which diaspora Nigerians can now say, “I am going home without fear”?

The issue is not whether Tinubu can give warnings.

The issue is whether his government can produce safety.

A warning without follow-through becomes another headline.

And Nigeria has too many headlines already.

To speak authentically to Nigerians at home and abroad, Tinubu must stop treating insecurity as a public relations issue. He must treat it as the moral test of his presidency.

He should publish a 90-day national security action tracker.

He should identify the most dangerous school zones, farm corridors, highways, and forest belts.

He should show Nigerians the number of rescued victims, arrested kidnappers, prosecuted sponsors, seized weapons, dismantled camps, and secured communities.

He should require governors to publicly account for how increased allocations are being used to protect citizens.

He should connect federal intelligence with local community knowledge because communities often know the faces, routes, informants, and strange movements that Abuja cannot see from a distance.

He should create a direct diaspora safety and confidence desk because Nigerians abroad need more than emotional appeals to “come home.” They need a country where arrival at the airport is not followed by fear of the road.

Mr. President, the language Nigerians need now is not only “surrender.”

The language Nigerians need is proof.

Proof that children can return to school safely.

Proof that farmers can harvest safely.

Proof that roads are monitored.

Proof that villages are no longer abandoned.

Proof that sponsors of violence are not untouchable.

Proof that the poor are not less protected than politicians.

Because the real test of power is not how loudly it warns criminals.

The real test of power is how safely ordinary people live under it.

This is my voice. This is my belief.

Dr. Nana Akaeze
The Awake Voice

#TheAwakeVoice #DrNanaAkaeze #Nigeria2027 #RenewedHopeMustBecomeRenewedSafety #SecurityAccountability

Snippet 2: Peter Obi Must Show Nigerians a Security Government-in-Waiting

Peter Obi’s strength is not difficult to see.

He awakened many Nigerians.

He gave young people a reason to believe that politics could be challenged.

He made prudence, simplicity, discipline, savings, and anti-waste governance part of the national conversation.

In a country where public office has often become a symbol of entitlement, that message still matters.

But this new phase of Nigeria’s pain requires more than moral contrast.

It requires a security government-in-waiting.

Recently, reports said Peter Obi demanded N5 billion and a public apology from Kenneth Okonkwo over alleged defamatory statements. If someone damages your reputation, the law gives you the right to defend your name. That is not the issue.

The deeper issue is this: while politicians are defending reputations, Nigerians are asking who is defending the country.

Who is defending children from abduction?

Who is defending farmers from bandits?

Who is defending travelers from kidnappers?

Who is defending villages from attacks?

Who is defending diaspora Nigerians who want to return home but fear the journey from airport to village?

This is the moment Peter Obi must rise from movement energy into presidential architecture.

Nigerians already know he can speak about waste.

Now they need to know if he can speak about war.

Not war as noise.

War as policy.

War against kidnapping.

War against ransom networks.

War against food insecurity.

War against unsafe highways.

War against abandoned villages.

War against the fear that has entered Nigerian homes.

Obi cannot simply say Nigeria must move from consumption to production if the roads to production are unsafe.

Production needs security.

Farmers need protection.

Factories need power.

Markets need safe transport.

Investors need confidence.

Diaspora Nigerians need trust.

Young entrepreneurs need stability.

So the authentic next step for Peter Obi is not another statement of moral difference. It is the unveiling of a serious security and governance team.

Where is his national security government-in-waiting?

Who are the retired military professionals, policing experts, intelligence specialists, cyber-security experts, food-security planners, border-control experts, justice-sector reformers, and community-safety leaders around him?

Where is his 100-day school safety plan?

Where is his farm protection plan?

Where is his anti-kidnapping strategy?

Where is his plan for state policing with safeguards?

Where is his plan for rebuilding trust in the Nigerian Police?

Where is his diaspora safety and investment confidence plan?

Where is his explanation of how production will happen when insecurity has made farming, trading, transportation, and investment dangerous?

Peter Obi’s supporters must also understand this moment.

A movement that insults every critic is not ready to unite a divided country.

A movement that bullies undecided citizens may excite its inner circle, but it frightens the people it should persuade.

A movement that turns disagreement into tribal, religious, or digital warfare weakens the candidate it claims to defend.

Nigeria is already divided enough.

A candidate who wants to lead Nigeria must build a movement mature enough to tolerate questions.

Peter Obi’s authentic message now should be clear:

“I will not only cut waste. I will build a competent security state that protects citizens, restores production, and gives Nigerians abroad confidence to come home.”

That is the seriousness this moment requires.

Nigeria does not need a candidate who only says, “I am different.”

Nigeria needs a candidate who can show how difference becomes government.

This is my voice. This is my belief.

Dr. Nana Akaeze
The Awake Voice

#TheAwakeVoice #PeterObi #Nigeria2027 #SecurityAccountability #CompetenceOverNoise

 

Snippet 3: Atiku Must Open His Security Blueprint to the People, Not Just Party Rooms

Atiku Abubakar’s strength is experience.

No serious person can deny that.

He has served as Vice President.

He understands federal politics.

He understands negotiation.

He understands national networks.

He understands business.

He understands the language of government.

He has been around power long enough to know how the Nigerian state works.

But that strength is also his burden.

Many Nigerians are asking a fair question: if the old system helped bring Nigeria to this painful place, why should the old system be trusted to rescue it?

That is not an insult.

That is democracy.

Atiku cannot run on familiarity alone.

He cannot expect Nigerians to trust him simply because they know his name.

A country in crisis cannot be rescued by name recognition.

It must be rescued by clarity, urgency, credibility, and trust.

Reports said Atiku recently presented an economic rescue blueprint and security agenda during his ADC presidential screening. That matters. It shows he knows that Nigerians are focused on insecurity and economic hardship.

But a closed-door screening is not enough.

Nigeria is not the screening panel.

Nigeria is the voter.

If Atiku has a security blueprint, he should bring it before the people.

Let farmers question it.

Let teachers question it.

Let students question it.

Let market women question it.

Let transport workers question it.

Let victims of kidnapping question it.

Let diaspora Nigerians question it.

Let security experts question it.

Let citizens from Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina, Plateau, Benue, Niger, Borno, Imo, Anambra, Enugu, and other affected areas ask him what exactly he would do differently.

Atiku’s authentic path is public scrutiny.

He should not only say he has a plan.

He should defend the plan.

He should hold a series of issue-based town halls.

One on kidnapping.

One on police reform.

One on state policing.

One on farmers and rural security.

One on border control.

One on youth unemployment and crime prevention.

One on diaspora safety and investment.

One on national unity and conflict management.

Atiku must make his experience sweat in public.

If he believes Nigeria does not need a learning-on-the-job presidency, then he must show Nigerians what a prepared presidency looks like before the election.

He must explain how he will reduce VIP policing and return police to communities.

He must explain how he will fund police reform.

He must explain how he will improve security personnel welfare.

He must explain how he will break ransom networks.

He must explain how he will protect rural communities.

He must explain how he will strengthen intelligence without abusing citizens’ rights.

He must explain how he will work with governors without allowing local security structures to become private political armies.

His challenge is not that he has never spoken.

His challenge is that Nigerians need to feel something fresh from him.

Fresh urgency.

Fresh humility.

Fresh openness.

Fresh accountability.

Fresh evidence that this is not just another familiar politician asking for another chance.

Atiku’s authentic message must be:

“I know the system, but I am not here to recycle it. I am here to submit my plan to the people, defend it publicly, and be held accountable to measurable security outcomes.”

That would be stronger than another campaign statement.

That would be more serious than political choreography.

Nigeria needs experience.

But only experience that is willing to be examined.

This is my voice. This is my belief.

Dr. Nana Akaeze
The Awake Voice

#TheAwakeVoice #AtikuAbubakar #Nigeria2027 #LeadershipAccountability #SecurityAccountability

 

Snippet 4: Sowore Must Turn Anger Into a Governing Roadmap

Omoyele Sowore’s strength is courage.

Nigeria must be honest enough to say that.

He has challenged power.

He has confronted abuse.

He has spoken against corruption.

He has helped keep protest culture alive in a country where many leaders prefer silence from citizens.

A democracy needs people who can speak when others are afraid.

A democracy needs dissent.

A democracy needs pressure.

A democracy needs voices that remind government that citizens are not conquered people.

But the presidency is not activism.

The presidency is administration.

And that is where Sowore must face his own burden.

Recently, reports showed Sowore involved in Democracy Day protests and public demonstrations over national conditions and insecurity. The right to peaceful protest is part of democracy, and no citizen should be brutalized for demanding accountability.

But if Sowore wants to move from protester to president, he must understand something very important:

Anger cannot be the full political program.

Anger can expose failure.

It cannot automatically build a government.

Protest can awaken citizens.

It cannot automatically secure borders.

Revolutionary language can mobilize frustration.

It cannot automatically manage a national budget, command security agencies, reform courts, stabilize currency, rebuild trust, or coordinate 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Nigeria does not need childish political theatre.

Nigeria does not need careless language that makes governance sound like something to be seized through anger instead of earned through democratic persuasion.

Nigeria needs disciplined transformation.

If Sowore wants Nigerians to see him as more than a permanent protest voice, he must present the architecture of governance.

He should publish a People’s Security Plan.

He should show how he will protect schools without militarizing childhood.

He should show how he will protect farmers without worsening communal tensions.

He should show how he will reform police without destroying public order.

He should show how he will use technology without violating citizens’ rights.

He should show how he will fund his promises.

He should show how he will build a coalition beyond already-convinced supporters.

He should show how he will persuade citizens who do not share his ideology.

He should show how activism becomes policy.

He should show how policy becomes law.

He should show how law becomes implementation.

That is the missing bridge.

Sowore’s authentic message should not simply be, “I will shake the system.”

Nigerians already know the system needs shaking.

His authentic message should be:

“I will build a lawful, people-centered government with costed policies, accountable institutions, and a security plan that protects ordinary Nigerians without turning anger into chaos.”

That is what can make courage presidential.

Because courage without structure can become noise.

But courage with policy can become reform.

Nigeria needs his voice.

But Nigeria also needs more than voice.

It needs preparation.

It needs coalition.

It needs discipline.

It needs implementation.

It needs a leader who can move from resistance to responsibility.

The presidency is not a protest stage.

It is a rescue mission.

This is my voice. This is my belief.

Dr. Nana Akaeze
The Awake Voice

#TheAwakeVoice #Sowore #Nigeria2027 #SecurityAccountability #CompetenceOverNoise

 

Sources Note

This opinion piece draws on reporting from Channels Television, Reuters, Associated Press, Premium Times, Punch, and The Guardian. These sources were used to verify President Tinubu’s warning to bandits and kidnappers, the November 2025 national security emergency, police and army recruitment, police redeployment from VIP protection, DSS forest-guard deployment, school-abduction concerns, state-police reform discussions, Peter Obi’s N5 billion legal demand involving Kenneth Okonkwo, and broader reporting on Nigeria’s insecurity, banditry, and governance challenges.

This article is written as an opinion piece under The Awake Voice security accountability series. The analysis, interpretation, and civic accountability arguments are those of the author.

Dr. Nana Akaeze
The Awake Voice