WHY are we ever so ready to concede Nigeria to criminals? The suggestion of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, for suspension of night travels meets this standard of postponing challenges under the pretence of solving them.

Fourteen passengers died on a night trip last week on the Okene-Lokoja road not because they were travelling by night. The gory details of armed robbers attacking them, another bus running through them as they laid on the road were well documented in the media.

ACN assumes this happened because it was at night. Its solution was to stop night travels so armed robbers would have nobody to attack. Can we make the same argument about not retiring to our homes at night since armed robbers may visit? Do we tell people to stay indoors in Maiduguri because of the bombs?

The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, which pushed a similar position a few years ago, does not understand the importance of the trips to the economy and those who make them. If it did, it would have urged government to improve security.

Last year, 20 passengers died under similar circumstances on the Benin-Sagamu Expressway. Government’s response was from the FRSC, which re-stated calls for bans on night trips. The ACN is adopting the same position. Are the robbers not bold enough to operate in daytime if there are no night travellers?

Criminals believe they can operate anywhere without impunity. Nobody has proved them wrong. They blow up banks in daytime. They have been known to cordon off portions of any expressways and rob passenger day or night.

“These are just a few recent cases in a series of armed attacks against ordinary Nigerians across the country. No government worth its salt will sit back and allow armed gangs to take over its roads and towns, as if we are living in a failed state,” ACN said. That position is better than asking government to concede some time to armed robbers.

A sector commander of the FRSC said of last year’s incident, “We have said it over and over again that people should avoid night journeys. If people do not travel at nights, there is hardly a way that kind of accident would not be avoided. At least the truck would have seen people lying on the road while the motorists would have even known that robbers are operating on the road.”

Our roads are unsafe. Most portions have failed and armed robbers find them good spots to pick out their victims. None of the expressways traversing this country is lit. There appears to be a deliberate policy of our roads being in perpetual darkness. Armed robbers profit from the cover of darkness in their operations.

Moreover, the government has failed to combat crimes. Those in power have their own security. They distance themselves from security of ordinary Nigerians, though they loftily swore to the Constitution which in Section 14 (2) b states, “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”

When security and welfare of the people ceased to be the primary purpose of government, did the government replace it with anything? The unattended state of insecurity in Nigeria is a major reflection of government’s abandonment of its responsibilities to the people.

The present government might have failed. It is probably more disheartening to note that if the ACN were in power its response to the criminals who are causing these mayhems would be to concede the night to them.

Our Constitution guarantees freedom of movement. Armed robbers cannot deny us our constitutional right under the watch of a government that promises to ensure those rights are not abridged.

Government must brace up to its responsibilities. Armed robbery is among crimes it should fight decisively, anywhere and anytime.