Nigerians now live like prisoners in their own homes. In major cities and towns, including rural communities, people’s homes are barricaded with corrugated iron sheets as burglary proofs on windows and doors.
Sometimes, the iron rods used in constructing some of the burglary proofs are even of a higher gauge than the ones used in the regular prisons across the country.
But even with such iron protectors already fixed on the windows and doors, Nigerians still feel insecure in their homes
So, they go on to complement the burglary proofs with very high walls and gates that make it impossible for air to even penetrate into the compound freely. It also becomes practically impossible for outsiders to see or know what goes on in such compounds. They do all of those to provide security over their lives and property.
At a time when kidnapping for ransom, and sometimes for ritual purposes, has become the norm, the people are no longer treating the issue of their personal security with levity.
They are not even satisfied with the personal security gadgets already fixed in their homes, they have also gone ahead to mount gates on the streets. They also employ private security guards or community vigilantes to guard such streets or estate gates just to ward off unwanted persons from gaining access.
In some areas, they even install CCTV cameras for aerial security surveillance of the vicinity. And this practice cuts across every city, as well as in most rural communities in Nigeria.
Checks by DAILY POST revealed in the 1960’s, 70’s and up to early 80s, people built houses without burglary proofs or walls. What obtained then were low fences whose height never exceeded three feet. Added to the three-foot block fence is about two-foot wire gauze, bringing the entire height to about five feet to allow free passage into the entire compound. It also afforded people outside the rare opportunity to see the aesthetics of the building and what was happening in those compounds. There were no street gates at all in those days. But today, the story is different.
The craze to provide burglary proofs in people’s homes in Nigeria became prominent in the late 1980’s and since then, it has continued as part of building designs, first in cities and later in towns and villages