SECURITY OF LIFE (ACTS 23:10): THE ESSENCE OF ALL SECURITY AGENTS. APPRAISAL OF SECURITY AGENTS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper sees the security of life as the essence of all security agents in the light of Acts 23:10. This is studied in the context of security agents in Nigeria. Life guarantees growth, success, productivity and development in all its ramifications. Security gives assurance that something highly valuable like life will not be taken away. Any idea that such will happen introduces uneasiness, fearfulness, retardation in development, self-doubt, lack of freedom and vulnerability of all will always be imagined. In the context of Acts 23:10, the government agent and the security agents are highly proactive which means taking the initiative to protect rather than acting afterlife has been extinguished, hence, Paul's life was secured. The spate of kidnappings, killings and maiming going on in Nigeria today have in so many instances introduce hopelessness and fearfulness in the minds of all and sundry. This is to the extent that some people no longer visit their rural villages. These reveal that security agents are not proactive but react to events. This work aims at showing that a security agent has no other business except to save life first and every other discussion will follow after that. To unpack the ideas in Acts 23:10, the author used hermeneutics and textual critical method of exegesis. The work recommends, among other things, that security agents should be made to understand the value of human life, hence a living person can answer any charge, unlike a dead one. Significantly, this work will be relevant to the Nigerian Government and her security agents and indeed all Nigerians.