Kano state governor, Abdullah Ganduje says insecurity in Nigeria can be addressed with robust combination of legislative and judicial interventions with government reforms.
Ganduje made the assertions on Friday in Ibadan at the 2022 Alumni Lecture of the University of Ibadan.
Ganduje, who was earlier a guest at the coronation of the 42nd Olubadan of Ibadanland, would on Saturday inaugurate a N250 million ultra-modern Hall in the university.
In his lecture entitled: “Challenges of Insecurity and Nation Building”, he said that the nation was facing lingering security challenges.
“Nigeria faces a range of security challenges including, terrorism, banditry, kidnappings, drug trafficking, cybercrimes, robberies, weapons proliferation, human trafficking, communal clashes and ethnic nationalism, militancy and manipulations of social media.
“Hate speeches, economic and financial crimes, subversive activities, herdsmen/farmers clashes, youth unemployment, piracy, among many others.
“Therefore, efforts to tackle insecurity can only be effective, if there is a robust combination of legislative and judicial interventions with government reforms that address some of the acute human security challenges confronting a vast majority of the population,” he said.
The governor said that daily life of citizens had been severely affected by the lingering security challenges.
He suggested the formulation and effective implementation of policies as well as programmes capable of addressing the root causes of insecurity in Nigeria.
“The formulation and effective implementation of policies and programmes capable of addressing the root causes of insecurity in Nigeria is crucial, especially with regard to poverty, unemployment, environmental degradation, injustice, corruption, porous borders, and small arms proliferation,” Ganduje said.
He described the recent law, which branded kidnapping as an act of terrorism, as a right step in the right direction.
According to him, the menace of insecurity, no doubt calls for a new approach that will be founded on credible intelligence gathering.
“There is also the need to modernise the security agencies with training, intelligence sharing, advanced technology, logistics, motivation and change of orientation,” he said.
The governor said there was need for the government to continue to engage security personnel, devote more attention to security intelligence and capacity building to meet the global best practice standard, while acquiring modern technology.
Ganduje said that such would enhance operational capabilities of the Nigerian security agencies by identifying avenues to enable them to respond appropriately to internal security challenges and other threats.
“There should be a complete overhaul of the security institutions in the country to reflect international standards of best practices so as to pre-empt these security breaches in particular, the failure of the intelligence services to contain the recurring security breaches.
“There should be an institutionalised approach, rather than the episodic and reactive response adopted by the government in the aftermath of attacks,” he said.
Ganduje said that government at all levels should not compromise in enforcing the law; the judiciary ought to have, at this stage of the nation’s development, evolved time scales for cases.
According to him, there ought to have been a time to determine a case; time to close that case; and time to deliver judgment and pass sentences.
“In Nigeria, cases that border on insecurity have most often been compromised. Thus, the law is no longer acting as a deterrent.
“Our law enforcement agencies must, therefore, be incorruptible and fair. To ensure all this, there must be incentives, good conditions of service and social security,” he said.
