Stakeholders in the security sector have identified solutions such as provision of employment opportunities, adequate funding of security outfits and collaborative effort between the security operatives and members of the public as a way out of the current insecurity challenge facing the country.
The Challenges of Insecurity and Terrorism in Nigeria was the focus point at this year’s Sustainable Development Conference, put together by Shafaudeen In Islam Worldwide in collaboration with Centre for Religion Cooperation and Tolerance (CRCT).
The conference, which was in commemoration of Shafaudeen Annual Convention, Ishrat 2022, was held on Tuesday at CRCT Hall, Wakajaye, Ibadan.
Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko, Area Comptroller, Nigeria Custom Services, Comptroller Adamu Abdulkadir and Oyo State Comptroller, Nigeria Immigration Services, all called for collaborative effort in the fight against insecurity.
In his keynote address, founder and spiritual head of Shafaudeen In Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabit Ariyo Olagoke, emphasized on the provision of employment opportunities for the teeming youths in order to put an end to the challenges of bandits in the country.
According to the professor, “the present state of surface treatment of the problem without getting to the root cause, youth disconnect from government constitutional responsibility of providing jobs has given the bandits the opportunities for easy and effective recruitment for sustainability.
“The paradigm shift to work the talk of the campaign promises is therefore crucial to tackling the challenges of insecurity to a successful end with rays or sheets of light at the end of the tunnel.”
Prof. Olagoke, while stressing the importance of community policing, called for adequate funding and provision of necessary equipment for effective and efficient discharge of constitutional responsibilities.
“Relationships of the community policing must break the barrier of traditional rulers’ possible compromise with bandits while good and effective working relations must be with the landlords association, citizen Militia and vigilantes but must be strictly formal. The working relations must equally provide security in remote areas to capture the network of all bandits especially through strategic informal means that must be made to produce positive results,” Olagoke said.
The Commissioner of Police, who was represented by CSP Usman Sharafadeen, called Nigerians to join hands with the Nigeria Police Force by providing not only timely but adequate information to assist them in the discharge of their duties.
While charging the parents and guardians to be mindful of friends and groups their wards keep, maintaining that people must be conscious of their environment to ensure maximum security.
“We need to be conscious of our immediate environment, security is a collective responsibility of all of us, we should all focus on it. We must be patriotic and straightforward in all our dealings, parents should be conscious of where their children go and the kind of friends they keep. We must teach them the need to see that they are the leaders of tomorrow and why they must prepare themselves for the future.
“Members of the public must see reasons why they must help the security agencies, why there must be a robust synergy between the members of the public and the security agencies to have a safer society,” CSP Usman said.
Also speaking were the representatives of Nigeria Custom Services, Oyo/Osun Area Command, Owolabi Idowu Kayode and Oyo State Comptroller of Immigration, Akinlabi Abdulmumin, they commended the convener of the conference for his effort towards promotion of religion tolerance in the state.
They explained the constitutional duties of their agencies and efforts being put in place to increase the country Internally Generated Revenue as well as securing the country’s borders against foreign terrorists.
Be the first to comment