Nigeria’s growing insecurity security has continued to attract global attention, with international security expert, Paschal Mbawuike, on Tuesday, urging President Muhamnadu Buhari to urgently halt the nation’s economic decline, by expanding employment opportunities for Nigeria’s teeming youths, as panacea to tackling the security challenges.
Mbawuike, a Washington DC, United States, based Nigerian security expert and entrepreneur, linked the current insecurity in the country to “growing levels of poverty and harsh economic conditions” advising the federal government to urgently work out “measures that will creatively engage the youths”
“The Federal Government can turn their attention away from crimes by expanding job opportunities, narrowing the gap in access to economic well-being”
Mbawuike, who is the vice president, with Cohen and Woods International, told BusinessDay in a telephone chat from his Washington office that “the government will win the youths over through persuasion and engagement, rather than resorts to kinetic means of responding to the current security challenges.”
The security situation took a turn for the worse recently as unknown gunmen continue to ravage communities, killing security operatives, especially in the South East, while kidnapping for ransom also rose in the north and other parts of the country.
Mbawuike view these as “symptoms of deep rooted disaffection with the political system, as well as poverty induced”
He, however, appealed to youths to seek solutions through appropriate channels.
The advice came as President Buhari on Tuesday, met for the third time with the nation’s top security Chiefs in less than two weeks, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, as part of efforts to find so, union to the nation’s security challenges.
The meeting which had other members of the National Security Council in attendance, according to the special adviser to the president on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, was an indication “of the premium the President and the administration has placed on security
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali, said the council’s was focusing attention on recent security attacks, particularly Southeast and South-South.
“As it affects law and order, we have some measures that have been approved by the Council to check insecurity.
“We have some measures which we have outlined and have been approved by the council and we’ll see how we can change the narrative within the quickest possible means to restore law and order and restore peace in that area”
“We solicit all law-abiding citizens to work with us to identify and deal with the situation. That is that, I may not go into the details of how we will do that”
The national security adviser, Babagana Mongunu, while briefing State Journalists on the outcome of the meeting, said the “president is concerned at the growing trend of insecurity”
He also blamed the absence of “an effective crime reporting system” for the persistence of insecurity in the country.
The NSA said the council discussed “issues of drug abuse as propellants for crime, how to make the criminal justice system much more effective, as well as looked at issues of unemployment”
He disclosed that the federal executive council FEC had given approval, through previous memos on how to get 100 million people out of poverty that was also discussed.
The chief of defence staff, Luck Irabor, briefed on various measures that the armed forces, in partnership with other security agencies, has taken to stem the tide of insecurity across the country.
