NATIONAL SECURITY SUMMIT: FCT, OTHERS TO KNOW PEACE
Owing to the recently organized National security summit in Abuja, the
residents of the Federal Capital Territory may begin to experience
peace as discussion has addressed the menace of cattle herdsmen
ravaging all nook and crannies of the capital city.
Participants in this year’s summit agreed that security was a
necessary condition for growth, development and continued existence of
the country.Besides, they called for the establishment of ranches,
empowerment of the police, domestication of Administration of Criminal
Justice Act (ACJA) as well as treatment of criminals as criminals in
order to tackle the security challenges bedeviling Nigeria.
The two-day event, in Abuja, was the second in the series with the theme:
Forging Partnerships for Effective Strategies to Curb the Menace of
Kidnapping, Recurring Farmers-Herders clashes and Criminality in
Nigeria’.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris, in his welcome
address, said while the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) was prepared to do
its duties effectively, there was need for employment of more
personnel, training and retraining, passage of the Police Reform Bill
into law, as well as increased funding of the force from first-line
charge, which is directly from the Federation Account.
Revealing that the force’s personnel had been deflated due to retirement,
retrenchment and death, Idris stated that for the nation to meet up
with the United Nation’s ratio of one police- man to 40 citizens,
Nigeria must employ 31,000 personnel yearly for the next five years.
He added that since 2011, the force only managed to employ 10,000
personnel last year.
Guest of honour and Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman
Dambazau (rtd),who represented President Muhammadu Buhari,
regretted that insecurity in the country was causing
sociology-economic-cum-political challenges, adding that there was
nowhere in the world security was solely left in the hands of security
agencies alone.Calling on corporate bodies to assist through
corporate social responsibility, the President stated that security
and corruption fight were cardinal points of his administration even
as he called on state Governors to domesticate ACJAs in their domains
to punish offenders accordingly.
Noting that farmers-herders clashes were not local problem, he
explained that the problem was prevalent in the entire West African
region and called for the establishment of ranches and grazing
reserves across the nation-states.He also revealed that 10 years ago,
a study revealed that there were over 10 million small arms in the
region such that “everyone who needs access to it can easily do now
and that can fuel crimes”, regretting that unlike the usual sticks,
“some Fulanis today carry AK47.”
Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, who spoke earlier,
expressed joy that Governors Sam Ortom and Nasir el Rufai of Benue and
Kaduna states were present “because in the most recent times, they
have been in the forefront in the farmers-herders clashes. It would be
nice to hear from them.Tasking everyone not to shy away from the
truth and ensure implementation of recomm endations from the summit, he
bemoaned that “we are never short of recommendations to our problems
in this country.But the Sultan added: “A criminal is a criminal;whoever he or she is, we need to tell ourselves the truth.”
Regretting that the same issues discussed at the maiden edition of the
summit were still the ones discussed in this year’s event, the
National Chairman of Traditional Rulers in Nigeria (NCTRN) queried
“Are we doing the right things or do we hide under religion and
ethnicity and allow things to go wrong when it comes to our own?
”There is so much intolerance, why are we growing far apart? We don’t
support anybody taking up arms and killing others. We must treat them
as criminals and if we do not do that, we will continue to go in
cycles. We have to keep national interest above all other interests.”
His counterpart, Ojaja II, Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi
and Co-Chairman, NCTRN, advised that people pay more attention to
morals and invest hugely in the diversity of the country to tackle the
menace of insecurity.The Oba also queried, “We should ask ourselves
why the people are going out of the law are we failing in our jobs?
Are we taking sides? Are we divisive? How are we impacting morals
because any position we occupy today, one day we will leave.
The youthful monarch also expressed worry that the age group of those
committing crimes in the country presently was between 18 and about 40
and wondered how well we were doing in our capacities.
Benue State Governor, Dr. Ortom, who spoke on behalf of the Governors,
noted that the “security of lives and property is (was) the primary
responsibility of any responsible government” and reiterated his call
for the establishment of ranches as part of solutions to the
persistent farmers-herders clashes in Nigeria.
Governor Ortom explained that while population of Nigerians was
increasing, land mass remained fixed, thus fueling crises.
He pointed that there was no more empty land in Benue and other states for open
grazing, hence the state Assembly recently passed a bill restricting
open grazing in support of ranching as “it was a matter of live and
let live.The governor tasked leaders to imbibe equity, fairness,accountability, justice and the fear of God as such are the only ways peace and security could prevail in the country.
Others who also spoke at the event include the Ambassadors of the United States of America
and China to Nigeria, H.E Stuart Symington and H.E. Dr. Zhou Pingjian.The two diplomats expressed their countries’ continued support to Nigeria.
While Ambassador Pingjian pledged N10 million for capacity building of police personnel, Ambassador Symington urged Nigerians to find Nigerian way to solving Nigerian problems, adding that only Nigerians could competently solve their problems.
The summit which had people from all walks of life in attendance, including traditional
rulers, politicians, lawmakers, media and others, was organized by the
NPF with Leadership and NCTRN.
