Kaduna State governor senator Uba Sani has called for complete overhauling of the nation’s security architecture to overcome the security challenges facing the country.
Sani made the called on Thursday at the 6th Annual Interfaith Peace Conference which held in Kaduna.
He said security institutions must be reformed to align with global best practices.
Sani said the present (security) set up is ineffective, maintaining that unless
security operations are decentralized, criminal elements will continue to constitute a threat in communities.
According to him, current and emerging security challenges requires deeper thinking, planning and wide consultations to know the best approach to tackling conflicts.
He said his administration is reshaping Kaduna to make it a model of development, ethnic harmony and cooperation.
“We have committed ourselves to running a pro-people, pro-poor and all inclusive administration.
“Under my watch, equity and justice shall reign supreme in Kaduna state.
“Kaduna State is a miniature Nigeria. If you understand Kaduna State, chances are that you will understand Nigeria with its challenges, complexities and possibilities”, the governor said.
Sani said the conference, with the theme, “Tackling Poverty and Insecurity in Nigeria: Our collective responsibilities” was apt.
He noted that poverty and insecurity are the biggest challenges facing the country.
According to him, “The increasing poverty level (in the country), is a major source of worry for political leaders.
Sani emphasised that the issue of poverty is critical to restoring the people’s faith in our democracy.
He said, “We are still struggling to address developmental challenges, especially in the areas of infrastructure, education, health, agriculture, and security.
“This is the time for all stakeholders to join hands to tackle our security and developmental challenges.
“We must however approach our problems from a position of knowledge.
“Our approach must be evidence -based. The starting point towards addressing insecurity in Nigeria is to carry out a comprehensive diagnostic review of the causes of insecurity in Nigeria.”
He also noted that, research has a key role to play in the search for workable solutions to the seemingly intractable challenges of insecurity.
“If you know the causes of the problem, you will be able to fashion effective immediate, short term and long term strategies towards addressing it.
“Our actions have been ad-hoc and reactive. They do not flow from research. Our compass is faulty. We must get the correct compass.
“To make progress in the area of security, we must ask the critical questions and fashion the appropriate strategies. “How can we reset our security architecture in such a way that the proactive instead of reactive approach will be adopted in tackling insecurity in Nigeria…” he said.
According to him, “To overcome insecurity in Nigeria, there is need for effective intelligence gathering and surveillance so that law enforcement agents can be proactive and reasonably predict potential crime with near perfect accuracy rather than being reactive.
“We must modernise the security agencies with training, intelligence sharing, advanced technology, logistics, motivation and change of orientation by security personnel.
“We must carry out a complete overhaul of our security architecture.
“Our security institutions must be reformed to align with global best practices.”
The governor declared that, “The present set up is ineffective”, stressing that, “Except security operations are decentralized, criminal elements will continue to constitute a threat in our communities.
He said, “This is why we have been agitating for state police. Nigeria is a federation. A state governor should be in effective control of security in his state.
“A situation where a Divisional Police Officer will wait for clearance from his superiors before carrying out the instructions of the Governor is unacceptable.
“There is need for effective coordination and cooperation among and across security agencies.
“Lack of synergy for a long time weakened our efforts and strengthened criminal elements in Nigeria.
“For example, when a military operation is being carried out in one state, blocking forces are hardly stationed in neighbouring states.
“When the heat is too much, the criminal elements take refuge in neighbouring states and end up taking out their frustrations on innocent civilians.
The governor also called on the six geopolitical zones to develop common strategies and operational plans to tackle insecurity.
He said the zones must establish command and control centre to coordinate joint efforts against terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and other criminal elements in their regions.
Sani also decried endemic corruption that has eaten deeply into the fabric of the society.
“We must fight corruption and initiate a comprehensive campaign for ethical reorientation in Nigeria. “Corruption has undermined development in Nigeria, leading to frustration and anger among the people. “Corruption is a violation of the people’s right to development. We must fight this cankerworm or we lose the support and confidence of our people…”
The conference was attended by Christians and Muslim leaders.
By John Shiklam in Kaduna
Editors Note: This event took place before bandits Abducted about 280 students in Kaduna.
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