A governorshop hopeful and philanthropist in Cross River state, Engr Ben Akak, has said no country in the world, including super powers, would be able to tackle security challenges facing the country.
Akak, who spoke in a chat with Newsmen in Calabar, Thursday, said leadership failure was the root cause of Nigeria’s current predicament, and also feared that foreign powers may have tacitly endorsed the ongoing onslaught just to destabilise the country.
He said: “In fact, I am beginning to suspect that there is a foreign hand fueling these crisis to ensure that Nigeria disintegrate. I am suspecting that but again how can they succeed if they do not have local collaborators?
“So the way we are going, if we do not tell ourselves the truth and be patriotic enough to forget about tribalism, nepotism, and look about competence, which boils down to what I said before that our recruitment process of leadership is faulty but was criticised, we are finished.
“Lack of leadership is Nigeria’s problem as far as insecurity is concerned. We are not taking drastic decisions to curb it. I am one of those who do not believe we need foreign interference.
“We have trained personnel and let’s not forget the fact that Nigeria is known for being the best in peace keeping. Where is that expertise that we used outside and why can’t we apply it domestically? It’s lack of political will, it’s lack of leadership.
“I have advocated in several occasions that we have to review our leadership recruitment policy in this country. I see no reason why we should be entangled in this kind of crisis, we are no longer safe. Even the high and mighty cannot guarantee safety now.
“The other aspect of insecurity is the issue of unemployment which is tied to poverty. I have advocated that for a country like Nigeria, what we need to do is to begin the process of domesticating most of our economic policies and programmes to the point of making sure that we begin to produce because every country that consumes cannot break even.
“We are not generating employment and most of the jobs are transferred. So insecurity is tied to unemployment and poverty.
“Again, I want to end it with this that there is no man made effort that can solve Nigeria’s problem no matter what we do. We must go back to God and say ‘please Lord, where have we gone wrong and how can we fix these issues? It must be a leadership decision.
“When we do this, Nigeria will be bright again. I believe in Nigeria and I believe Nigeria has all the potentials to be great again.
“If these are not done Nigeria is drifting towards a state of anarchy and civil war. I am beginning to suspect that we may not have a Nigeria again.”
