President Bola Tinubu has described the lingering insecurity bedevilling Nigeria, particularly the North West region of the country, as inherited security compromises.
The president added that the banditry and insurgency facing the country is a likelihood of historical injustices meted out to the adverse victims of conflicts.
Reflecting on his inaugural speech one year ago, Tinubu noted that “we promised to make Nigeria safer, and this aim has been our topmost priority since we came to office.”
Tinubu said on Monday at a two-day security and peace summit organised by the North-West Governors Forum, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme in Katsina State.
Shettima, who represented Tinubu at the programme and read the President’s address, said, “Beyond the economic rationale that drove the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria, the formation of our great nation was inspired by the need for mutual protection.
“But, I ask, how can we achieve this sacred objective if one part is afflicted? We have long established that whatever ails any part of this federation destabilizes the other. So, the issue of national security in the North-West is not a sectional agenda.
“The road to redeeming the security compromises we inherited was mapped out before we embarked on this journey. We realized that achieving the peace we seek necessitates addressing the historical injustices that have torn communities apart.
“We must also reverse the institutional frailties governing security and the economic dysfunctions that create vulnerabilities to crime. We must also counter the ideological mischief that has pervaded the discourse of peace and security in the region.
“The solution we seek is a region where every trade is safe, where every group is at peace and where the policing and military presence of the state is optimal.
“This disintegration, from cycles of clashes between herders and farmers, has ruptured the ideas of oneness upon which the North revolved. This was followed by a regime of cattle rustling that set herders on a path of violence.
“Over the past decades, we have seen how these land-use disputes drove the farmer-herder conflicts, as climate change diminished our arable land and water resources, as the capacity of our security forces was overwhelmed, as unauthorized arms proliferated conflict zones, as corruption undermined our quest for solutions, and as criminal and insurgent elements exploited the complexity of our crisis to cross into our borders.
“To build pragmatic solutions to our security compromises, we are strengthening collaborations among the Services and other security agencies to ensure a unified approach.
“The kinetic and non-kinetic interventions we have pursued are designed to build the perimeter of our security infrastructure to the point that every child who goes to school returns safely, every person who sets out on a trip arrives at their destination securely, every trader who goes to the market conducts their transactions without fear, and every farmer plant seeds and harvests their produce in secure environments. We cannot achieve this unless we come together.”
