Former Chief of Army Staff, General Abdulrahman Dambazzau (Rtd) along with Governors Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State and Yahaya Bello of Kogi State harped on urgent security reform in Nigeria ahead of the 2023 general elections and called on Nigerians to go for right leadership devoid of sentiments.
The trio and other stakeholders called for these in Abuja Tuesday at the 11th edition of Blueprint Newspapers’ s Annual Public Lectures and Impact Series /Award ceremonies held at the prestigious International Conference Centre.
Dambazzau who gave the key note address on the theme of the lecture titled: ” 2023 Politics , National Security and Nigeria’s Stability”, said the security architecture needs urgent reforms in taming the tide of security challenges facing the Nation.
The reforms he explained should be predicated on security governance driven by emergency response, planning and effective integrated system that can effective curbed activities of bandits and insurgents in the country.
He admonished the various security agencies to be more coordinated and proactive in their operations against bandits and insurgents who according to him, have opened operational cells around the states bordering the Federal Capital Territory (FCT, Abuja ).
He said, “The reforms of the security sector in line with the current and future security challenges are inevitable, and there are no options other than to carry them out. And the sooner we commence the process, the better.
“I believe that this should be the very first item on the agenda of the government coming in May 2023. Aside the issues or factors earlier mentioned, the reasons why these reforms are necessary are that firstly, there appears to be no synergy among the security agencies in terms of cooperation, coordination, and collaboration while carrying out their activities, rather they operate in silos with no role convergence; they hoard information; and are reluctant to share intelligence, as if they are in competition.
“Secondly, there is poor security governance, making accountability and transparency almost impossible; and thirdly, there are duplication of efforts, leading to wastages of resources.
“Unsuccessful attempts at reforms have been made in the past, but using a stove-pipe approach, rather than looking at the sector holistically.
“There have been several committees of police reforms that ended with reports that were left on the shelves. Today it is the military that performs most routine policing duties, and in fact this is another cogent reason why security sector reforms are necessary.
“A significant part of security sector reforms is security governance, centered on strengthening the effectiveness of security institutions.
“One of the areas we need to focus our attention on is emergency response planning and coordination.
“National response to emergencies must be robust and people-centric, taking advantage of the unique competencies and resources of each entity at all levels. If we had effective and integrated system that responds to national emergencies, the terrorists would not have had the audacity to conduct their Abuja-Kaduna train and Kuje prisons attacks, and even left the scenes without trace after spending hours conducting their operations.
“The second area of focus, also relating to our experience, is defence materiel needs identification, procurement, and acquisition procedures and processes.”
In his remarks, governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state said with cooperation of all Nigerians, government can end the myriad of security challenges within six months.
Earlier in his remarks, Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state who chaired the occasion, tasked Nigerians to cooperate with government at all levels towards ending the problems of insecurity.
“There is no election or interest of any single Nigerian that is worth sending the country to war,” he said.
He added that Nigerians should think Nigeria first as far as the problems at hand and the 2023 general elections are concerned.
“Success of the election hugely depends on us as most of the Presidential candidates are leaders in their own right,” he stressed.
He commented the Publisher of the Blueprint Newspapers, Alhaji Mohammed Idris Malagi, for his resilience in making the paper a brand few years after take off.
The climax of the occasion were Awards presented to worthy awardees of various categories.
