The Vice Chancellor of University of Abuja, Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, has blamed the security agencies and the political class for not doing enough to curb worsening state of insecurity in the country.
Na’Allah, who spoke at the formal launching of the university’s Centre for Security and Legal Studies and a symposium in Abuja, Wednesday, blamed the current near state of anomie in the country on inability to mobilise or gather security intelligence by the state actors.
The theme of symposium was: “Kinetic and non kinetic application in the fight against insecurity in Nigeria.”
He said the lapses on the parts of key players to avert abductions or destruction of lives and property by the criminal elements was a total disgrace to the country and the academia.
Na’Allah, however, stressed that the university was not left out, given its failure to explore research and collaboration with security agencies to proffer workable solutions to bring the insurgency, banditry, kidnappings and other crimes to an end.
He challenged both the military and civilian institutions to critically explore the potential of research to help Nigeria survive what he described as “unprecedented threats and crisis of insecurity,” through the use digital technology and intelligence.
“We have a lot of lessons to learn, we have a lot of work to do. We must sit down in our laboratories to think through the current challenges we have in our nation how figure out how Nigerians can go about their businesses without fear. We can’t mobilise intelligence to know what is going to happen the next hour, it’s a total failure.
“How can we have a nation where today its bomb, tomorrow its crisis, in front of our military is bomb, innocent people going about their businesses are kidnapped, ransom paid, it’s a total disgrace to us as a nation, to our political leaders and the university. We have not been able to work together to communicate a solution that will assist this nation enjoy the peace that it deserves.
“The birth of this Centre is a challenge this university is throwing to all our military institutions and civilian institutions that we must come together to get through this war of the 21st century which cannot be understood like the wars of yesterday. We must begin to look at our environment, our culture, daily habits and religion because they are so important what we should do.”
In his remarks, the Kogi state Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, maintained that the emerging trend of insecurity in the country shown that there was the need to deploy both kinetic and non kinetic approach in achieving the desired results in overcoming security challenges.
Bello, who was the Chairman of the occasion, noted that technical intelligence must be deployed to help Nigeria end insurgency quickly.
The governor, who was represented by his Security Adviser on Security Matters, Navy Commander Jerry Omodara, (Retd.), advised the Federal and state governments to critically analyze the recent attacks on correctional facilities which led to the breakout of inmates, warning that more attacks were likely to happen soon of nothing was done.
The Director of the Centre, Dr. Arinze Abuah, earlier had disclosed that the available programmes including Human Rights and Social Justice, Security Studies, Criminology and Security Studies and Legal Studies, were carefully designed to cover significant fields of legal and security concerns critical for working class professionals aspiring to further their understanding on law.
