Aleke Aleke in Abuja
A retired diplomat and Chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Ambassador Simon Ejike Eze has assured Nigerians that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is working hard to evolve a home-grown security strategy to curb insecurity across the federation and put a stop to the unprovoked and barbaric killing of innocent villagers in Benue, Plateau, and other North-Central States.
Amb. Eze stated this during a chat with Timesreporters on Friday.
He said, “The President, I’m sure, is thinking of a different approach to these issues of insecurity in the whole country. That was why, when this attack in Benue happened, he was there personally, and he stood up the Inspector General of Police and asked him questions. The questions he asked had a lot of meaning. It went a long way to tell them that this man had started probing their activities. “He asked him why the perpetrators of this crime had not been apprehended. He asked the Chief of Defence Staff, and he asked the Director of the DSS and ordered them to do something urgently. We know that the political will of a leader to stop one issue or to begin another is the key to the success of that issue.
“I believe that non-state actors cannot take Nigeria away from us when the state actors, who are fully prepared, fully trained, and fully equipped to tackle these issues, are there, in collaboration with the local people. So, I believe the President is on the right trajectory by beginning to ask his security heads critical questions in public.
“What is this that has happened, and why has it happened? Why have you not been able to do something?” In order not to be asked this question again, I am very sure that military and security chiefs are now interested in getting to the root of every problem by evolving a home-grown strategy to nip it in the bud before it happens. They are doing their best.”
He stated that one thing about security is that it is not only when we hear that something has happened that we think the state forces are doing nothing.
According to him, “When they nip a problem in the bud, nobody knows about that. They are there every day. Their men are there in the field. By putting security men on the road, we do not know the nature of crimes they are preventing. But it is only when one comes out openly that we begin to talk. They are doing their best. There is nobody who is in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or in the Police who is not doing whatever we think should be done. If they have gotten the enablement to do their work, they are doing their best.”
