1. Zulum, Fubara: we need to state police

The Federal Government is intensifying its search for fresh solutions to mounting security challenge in collaboration with sub-national units.

Three geo-political zones – Southwest, Northcentral and Northwest – will host the National Security Summit today to collate widespread ideas on how to refocus the anti-terror war.

The summit is being organised by the Senate across the six regions to get the input of leaders and experts on how to wipe put the terrorists.

Yesterday, stakeholders from Southeast converged on Enugu, capital of Enugu State, to brainstorm and dissect the efficacy of current strategies aimed at stemming the tide of banditry.

Simultaneously, in Port-Harcourt, capital of Rivers State, where Southsouth leaders gathered, Governor Siminalayi Fubara called for a decentralised, enhanced collaboration and shared intelligence gathering.

In Maiduguri, the Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum proposed a community-driven security network as panacea to killings, kidnappings and violence by bandits during the summit hosted by the Northeast.

Fubara calls for decentralised security

Fubara called for a decentralised approach, enhanced collaborations and intelligence sharing in tackling insecurity in the Southsouth and the country.

He also called for collaboration among stakeholders in the zone to set the pace for greater peace and security.

The governor spoke at the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee Southsouth Zonal Public Hearing on National Security organised in conjunction with the Rivers State Government.

The theme of the summit was: ‘The way Forward in Tackling National Security Issues at the Local Level.”

Fubara, who was represented by the Secretary to the Government, Dr Benebo Anabraba, said there should be shared responsibility in securing lives and property

He said: “Security is not the business of the Government alone, but a shared responsibility and concern of every person. As a government, we are not unaware of our constitutional responsibility to ensure the protection and safety of lives and property in the state, including the territorial integrity of Nigeria.

“These objectives we have assiduously pursued with robust collaboration and partnership with the Federal Government and the various security agencies, in providing the necessary equipment such as operational vehicles, boats, and even aircraft, accommodation, and support, including the welfare of both serving personnel and the Nigerian Legionnaires.

“This summit could therefore, not have come at a better time, as it is today, in the face of security challenges in the region that drains our national revenue, damages our environment, and put lives and property at risk, and the immense efforts of the federal, state and local governments in combating these menaces to society.”

“This distinguished gathering is a testament to our commitment and synergy towards a more secure, stable, and prosperous future for the South-South region and Nigeria in general”.

The governor said he was delighted in partnering with the Committee in convoking this Southsouth Public Hearing on National Security.

He added: “We urge the stakeholders gathered here to see this occasion as a mechanism from the people to the policy-makers, ‘Bottom-Up Approach’ while giving special attention and recognition to our peculiar natural environment or topography as a coastal region that is the gateway to international waters of the Gulf of Guinea.”

Fubara said his government would continue to adopt proactive measures such as intelligence sharing, and best practices with security agencies and sister states to complement initiatives and stakeholders’ engagements, the employment and empowerment of youths, and public participation, particularly at community levels.

Senate Minority Leader and Chairman of the Southsouth Security Summit, Abba Moro, said the event was a deliberate effort to diagnose, understand and collectively address the hydra-headed security challenges confronting the country.

He described the summit as a unique platform for frank deliberations and assessments geared towards procuring solutions that would mitigate the security challenges of the country.

Moro said: “The Senate as a responsive lawmaking institution, recognises that no security act can succeed without a clear understanding of local dynamics and peculiarities of security occurrences across the country.

“Be assured that the information we should gather from this summit would undoubtedly form the basis of our recommendations to the Senate, which will serve as guides to our legislative interventionist measures, budgetary provisions and policy reforms that will revamp national security landscape,” he noted.

The Chairman of the Southsouth Traditional Rulers Forum, Sergeant Awuse, said security agencies should move from being reactive to preventive in crime fighting.

He also kicked against the formation of various local security blocs formed on cultural grounds, urging the government to invest in the youths to achieve a relatively safe society.

Awuse said: “You have local vigilantes, but we cannot absolutely rely on those tribal groups. Based on culture, they form their own groups. The Yoruba have their own, the Amotekun; then Ebube-Agu in the East.

“These are groups specialized in their own. What do we have in our own area (South-South), none. We have young people looking after the community under an empty stomach. You encourage them today, you can’t encourage them forever.

“The government has to come in now to help those classes of people because the more they leave the youths to run the streets doing nothing the more they are exposed to danger and the more the society is unsafe. And we want to have a safe society. It is safe to have a relatively safe society by good performance of all those in charge of authority.

“If you want to have this system properly checked you have to provide a system to ensure there must be early warning. Every crime is planned by somebody. Because every crime is planned by somebody there needs to be investment by the government in order to sort out information before those crimes are carried out.

“There must be community and security agencies partnership by actual consultation and working together. They must invest in the people and the people must show accountability. And at the end of the day I’m sure, put all together in South-South, you have a zonal security arrangement that will take this nation to a higher level.”

Zulum: Communities have roles to play

Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum said communities have roles to play as joint partners in the collective search for solutions to insecurity.

The governor, who declared open the summit, called for “a strengthened, intelligence-led, and community-driven security framework” to address the challenge in the Northeast.

Zulum emphasized the need for coordinated, innovative, and region-specific interventions to tackle the complex and adaptive nature of insecurity in the region.

The governor, who was represented by Deputy Governor Umar Usman Kadafur acknowledged said despite the efforts by the military, the a multi-layered approach that combines kinetic and non-kinetic strategies are required.

He alluded to Borno’s reconstruction efforts, resettlement of displaced persons, and investments in key sectors as evidence of commitment to linking security with development.

The Commissioner for Information and Internal Security, Prof. Usman Tar, who presented Borno’s position paper, highlighted the security architecture, including the Borno State Security Council, deradicalization and reintegration programs, and collaboration with local vigilante groups.

He emphasized the need for collaborative learning, Federal-State synergy, and focus on the root causes of radicalization.

The Chairman of the Northast National Security Summit, Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno said that insecurity has exacerbated poverty, displacement, and social instability.

He attributed the persistent insurgency to external influences and local collaborators.

He called for modern security technologies and enhanced regional cooperation to tackle emerging threats.

State police helpful, says Enugu Speaker

The Speaker of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Uche Ugwu, said security should be rooted in intelligence gathering and socio-economic stability.

He said: “We must invest in intelligence gathering while not neglecting the economic conditions that make our people, especially our young ones, vulnerable to criminal activities.”

Ugwu emphasised the need to rebuild trust among communities, government and security agencies.

He added: “When communities trust their security agencies and when leaders speak with one voice, insecurity loses its strength.”

The Speaker also identified farmers-herders clashes and open grazing as major drivers of conflict in the Southeast, warning that “anything open grazing in the Southeast is against the peace of the land.”

He called for state police, arguing that decentralised policing would create safer communities.

Ugwu said: “Security cannot be achieved by force alone. The issue of state police is something we should look into to create an enabling environment in our communities.”

At the Southeast summit were lawmakers, traditional rulers, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, military and paramilitary agencies, local government chairmen, town union leaders, religious organisations, youth groups, farmers, traders and vigilante operatives.

Declaring the summit open, the coordinator of the summit, Senator Austin Akobundu, warned that the Southeast’s worsening security environment, marked by killings, destruction, economic stagnation, school disruptions and declining communal life, requires urgent, sincere action.

He said: “Whole communities are traumatized and displaced, farmlands abandoned, schools disrupted, with grave socioeconomic consequences including spikes in poverty, hunger and illiteracy.”

Akobundu condemned violent agitations in the region, insisting that “violence solves nothing and can never be a pathway to self-determination.”

He acknowledged that inequity, marginalisation, unemployment and poverty must be addressed “headlong” to stem the crisis.

Akobundu praised Southeast governors for their “uncommon grit” in confronting insecurity and assured that the Senate would act on recommendations from the summit.

He said the Senate would amend and repeal existing laws and make new ones to strengthen national security.

He also lauded frontline security personnel, saying: “Your sacrifices will never be forgotten. The Senate takes your welfare seriously.” (THE NATION)