Gowon, Sultan, Kazir, others raise security concern at Barewa Annual Lecture

Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar were among senior citizens that raised concerns over the rising spate of insecurity in Nigeria and therefore called on the authorities to rise to the challenge to restore order and confidence among the citizenry.

The two prominent citizens spoke while responding to a lecture by retired Major Gen. Alwali Kazir during the annual lecture series of Barewa Old Boys Association (BOBA) at the International Conference Centre, Abuja over the weekend.

They also called on the Federal Government to develop a better strategy to fight Boko Haram and kidnapping.

Gowon advised that the security forces need support ‎from the citizens through providing information on location of bandits, adding that if Nigerians love their country then everyone would be involved in making it peaceful.

‎While speaking, Sultan Abubakar advised the Federal Government to put together a think tank on national security to address the challenges the nation is facing, saying a critique should not be interpreted as negative but as recommending another way of doing things.

Delivering his lecture Alwali Kazir quoted copiously from social science and security researches and advised that security should not be left to the military alone.

He asked where was the private sector in the scheme of Nigeria’s national security, especially when looking at the fact that in many countries, the private sector is the mover of technological advancement that defines armament production, which involves strategy and tactics.

Gen Kazir emphasised that we cannot say that Nigeria is secured when it is economically vulnerable, when a large percentage of her factories or manufacturing outfits have collapsed and when there is a very high level of unemployment and underemployment.

He also pointed out that though this should not be an excuse for poor security, the French killed each other for ninety nine years while the English spent forty four years doing the same thing but later learnt national survival and productivity in the absence of an International Monetary Fund, IMF and other so-called global financial institutions. ‎

He advised that Nigeria should stop behaving tragically like a baby that always needs to be fed but rather learn to put its resources to good use; and decried poor attitude of investing in research ‎and development, which has worked negatively for the country while referring the government to the American security system which has produced technologically superior capabilities and combat efficiency.

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According to him, a private sector driven economy is not the most viable economy because it has become obvious that state privatisation of strategic industries is tantamount to committing national suicide ‎security wise.

He said that if managed well, Steyr Truck Factory in Bauchi, the aluminium smelter plant in Ikot Abasi and the Ajaokuta Steel Company may have been functioning well now, if they were not commercialised and later privatised following wrong advice from the World Bank.

Concluding, he said that Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder due to insecurity and that an environment that provides for society’s civil needs for human security and national defence in which the government and private sector both collaborate in a symbiotic manner is most desirable.