To effectively tackle Nigeria’s worsening insecurity threat and challenges which has adverse effects on economic growth and investments, experts have called for a public and private sector collaboration.
This was discussed at the seventh edition of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) security meets business dialogue held recently where Michael Olawale-Cole, president, LCCI said that Nigeria ranked 146th position among 163 countries in the global peace index, with confirmations that improvements in peace can lead to considerable economic improvement in GDP growth, inflation, and employment.
“For the Government to achieve better results in confronting insecurity, a key factor is to tackle the root causes and stem a degeneration into social disorder and instability; failure to address challenges of poverty, drug abuse, unemployment, and business failures are some of the major factors fuelling insecurity in the country,” he said.
The president also said that the government needs to separate politics from security and vice versa especially as the election year approaches while the needed funding for defence operations to equip the military with the most advanced weaponry and intelligence infrastructure is sustained.
“Nigeria needs a collective and integrative security architecture involving the federal, state, and local governments in Nigeria, this arrangement should produce a strong and coordinated presence of security personnel at the village, community, local, state, and federal levels,” he said.
He said this will ultimately assist in identifying criminals, their sponsors, and hideouts in the country.
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Major general Lucky Irabor, chief of defence staff said in his address that there is a nexus between security and economic prosperity noting that a high level of insecurity will lead to a bad business climate and reduced investment inflow.
Irabor who was represented by Adeyemi Yekini, chief of defence training and operations, said Nigeria is currently facing a myriad of challenges in achieving security which is affecting the country in numerous ways, these include insurgency, kidnapping, armed banditry, etc.
“Some of the sponsors of violence in Nigeria are catalysing some of our pre-existing formulas within the country, and some of these security threats have been localized in some regions like Boko Haram in the North, farmer-herder crises prevalent in North-Central,” he said.
Highlighting the efforts of the armed forces in fighting security threats, he said they have embarked on various strategic activities including partnering with other security agencies when necessary as well as other countries.
Boss Mustapha, secretary to the Nigerian government said the federal government is highly disturbed by the escalation of the insecurity challenges especially seeing that many Nigerians have turned it into a business venture they can make a profit from.
Mustapha who was represented by Andrew Adejoh, permanent secretary, Political and Economic Affairs, Office of the Secretary to the Government, said the government has always supported any initiative that seeks to complement the FG’s efforts in combating insecurity.
“This administration has reformed its security strategy to fight security threats, which has been reflected in the allocation for security budget over the last two years but money alone will not solve the problem. We need to look at the processes and procedures as well,” he said.
He added that the federal government is committed to ensuring that the country has a good business environment for foreign and local investors to thrive and in doing that has developed new policies which includes community policing, national defence policy, policy on public safety and security and national cybersecurity strategy
“The policy of strategy is as good as the people who implement them in terms of quantity and quality, this includes the need to increase manpower at the different security agencies,” he said.
Speaking to BusinessDay, Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, founder and Chairman, Juli Plc, who was the chairman of the event said Insecurity is a challenge to business no matter the size of the business, adding that the dialogue presents an opportunity for the country to proffer strategic and realistic solutions to security threats in the business climate, as both parties from the private sector and security operatives interact clearly.
“From here we would harvest a whole lot of information which will be documented and worked on, the business community can also help the activities of security operatives to achieve the desired results by giving necessary assistance in kind or cash,” he said.
Adelusi-Adeluyi added that the business community should collaborate with security operatives and equip themselves with adequate knowledge and resources to manage security threats.
