By Peter Onyekachukwu 
By Peter Onyekachukwu
The Xkravos Deck of the National Association of Seadogs, also known as the Pyrates Confraternity, has called on the Federal Government to urgently secure lives and property across Nigeria, lamenting that the country is now ruled by fear.
The group made the call during the 2025 Feast of Barracuda held on July 19 at the Xkravos Deck, where legal practitioner Fred Ozaudu Olokor, Esq., delivered a hard-hitting keynote address titled “Insecurity in Nigeria: The Hope of the Ordinary Man.”
Olokor said the insecurity plaguing the country is not isolated but a symptom of broken governance, failed institutions, and a disoriented national identity. He traced the transformation of the once-secretive Barracuda Feast—from its pre-1971 rebellious roots in JRI to a public platform in 1985 spearheaded by Pyrates leaders like Capoon B Zone and Billy Bones d’Faceless—as a metaphor for Nigeria’s own descent.
He declared, “From Niger Delta militancy to IPOB secessionists, farmer-herder clashes in Benue, and mass displacement in Zamfara—governance has failed, fear rules, and hope is scarce.”
Olokor identified the key drivers of insecurity as economic hardship, youth unemployment, porous borders, corrupt leadership, ethnic manipulation, and institutional breakdown. He said since the GSM era began in 2001, the rise of kidnapping, terrorism, banditry, and secessionist unrest has become markers of national decay.
“The military couldn’t hold Baga, the police can’t secure farmers, and the judiciary can’t jail terrorists,” he lamented, citing how Nigeria was forced to cede Baga to Chad to relocate the headquarters of the Multinational Joint Task Force.
He noted that Boko Haram and ISWAP alone had carried out at least 1,480 attacks between July 2009 and August 2022, killing over 15,000 people and displacing 3.2 million Nigerians.
Calling for a national “Reboot-Reset,” Olokor urged immediate reforms in policing, youth engagement, anti-corruption, and regional security collaboration. He advocated for community policing, de-radicalization programs, and strict border control to restore trust and rebuild national unity.
Quoting Psalm 11:3, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” he warned that Nigeria’s very soul is under threat.
“Let this feast rekindle not just memory, but mission,” Olokor charged. “True brotherhood and national unity require both roots and wings.”
The Barracuda Feast, once held in secrecy among elite brotherhoods with roasted meat and potent rum, has evolved into a civic ritual, now serving as a national mirror. Whether Nigeria resets or spirals deeper into dysfunction, he concluded, depends on urgent collective action.