The sheer brazenness and even flamboyance which seem to attend armed robbery operations across the country these days, and the seeming helplessness of the security agencies in the face of such unqualified affront to the nation's integrity, has become a source of immense worry to many Nigerians.

In several cases of robbery attacks reported these days with alarming regularity, policemen are known to have either been mowed down or made to flee their posts by rampaging robbers boasting themselves greater firepower and daredevilry. The chilling, far-reaching implications of this very unfortunate scenario to the very concept of nationhood as it relates to Nigeria, and what appears as the gradually slipping capacity of Government to continue to assert its monopoly over the instruments of violence and coercion in the nation as should be expected of any legitimate sovereign authority, is increasingly tasking the faith of the citizenry on the ability of the nation's security forces to guarantee their safety.

Only last week in Benin City, four policemen were brutally murdered by armed robbers who had violently attacked them and made away with their rifles. The policemen, who belonged to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), were attacked by the hoodlums on Victory Road, New Benin. They lost their leader, a popular sergeant, and three others, to the robbers' bullets. Again, another policeman, one Sergeant Ibrahim Danjuma, and an Abuja-based business, were reportedly killed in Minna, the Niger State capital, the same week and about the same time as the Benin tragedy occurred. The Niger State Government must have been highly shocked and disappointed by the Minna incident since it occurred only three months after it donated 30 vehicles to the state police command to aid its crime control operations. Sadly, residents of Minna and environs now, reportedly, walk with fear and trepidation as a result of the increasing rate of violent crimes and robbery in the state. Reports from other states of the federation are not also reassuring. Armed robbers seem to have gained the upper hand and now ride rough shod on the citizenry with utmost impunity.

The Federal Government has the responsibility to allay the growing fears among the citizenry that the police appear to have been overwhelmed by the usually better-equipped and dare-devil robbers and that Nigerians have become lame ducks before them. Only recently, the police in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, were reported to have advised banks to delay their time for opening for business on a particular day till 10.00 am because some robbers were said to have served notice of their plans to operate in the area within that period. Why the police would advise banks against opening for business due to robber's threats instead of marshalling out their men and equipments to repel the robbers and reassert their supremacy over those renegade forces beats the imagination of sensible people in this country. This can only point to unmistakable signs of a failing state, clearly overwhelmed by lawless forces it ought to have easily contained. Government must hasten to discourage this very insidious impression from permeating the citizenry by swinging into quick action to reassert itself and reassure Nigerians of the safety of lives and properties.

This can only be done by deciding today to build an efficient and proactive police force capable of responding to the security challenges of the nation. The right point to start is to seriously rethink the budgetary provision for internal security. On no condition must robbers wield greater and more sophisticated weapons than the police. We must commence now to repackage and overhaul the police, and upgrade its capacities and quality in conformity to modern standards. The Nigeria Police as presently constituted is in dire need of retraining and reorientation. No matter how we look at it, we do not have enough officers and men to effectively police the country. And despite this dismal situation, the authorities still implement the very demoralizing and divisive policy of deploying the best hands in the police to guard politicians, public officers, banks and privileged and 'highly connected' citizens, while the more important task of maintaining general internal security are left in the hands of less-tested officers. The juicier perks these 'special' assignments attract to those privileged to be part of them constitute disincentive to their colleagues who were left out.

If we are serious about attracting foreign investors and tourists, the assurance that we have the capacity to protect lives and property must be clearly underlined. To complement the effort to be contributed by a well-repackaged and duly equipped police force, public officers must purge themselves of their obsession with criminal accumulation of public resources and the penchant to obscenely flaunt same before a citizenry grappling with their unspeakable impoverishment and deprivation by the thieving ruling class. Indeed, the generous incentive this vulgar preference constitutes to mass enlistment in robbery activities by a growing army of disenchanted, deprived and unemployed youths is threat that is clearly class-blind.