Insecurity: There is nowhere in Nigeria today where you can sleep with your eyes closed – Former NSA

riotA Former National Security Adviser (NSA) of Nigeria, Mohammed Gambo-Jimeta has made known his fears that the country could be heading for a sudden collapse due to bad governance. Gambo-Jimeta said this at the National Summit on Security Challenges in Nigeria organised by the Nigeria Police Force and Vanguard Newspapers in Abuja on Tuesday.

The former NSA, who was also Inspector-General of Police during the Ibrahim Babangida administration, is concerned about growing insecurity and poverty in the country, lamenting that successive governments had failed to lay a solid foundation for national development.

According to him, “The security situation in Nigeria, in recent times, has been a source of great concern to all patriotic citizens and to the international friends of Nigeria. The security challenges posed by the oil politics resonated with militancy in the Niger Delta, the rampant kidnapping in South-East, communal, ethnic and religious crises prominent in the North; and the current terror crimes exemplified by the Boko Haram insurgency, combined to inform the urgent need for a summit of this nature.

“The Nigeria Police Force is not alone in the dire quest for solution to the country’s security problems, which tend to retard delivery of democratic dividends in some parts of the country. If the security problems are adequately contained, every other thing will naturally fall into its proper shape.

“Things are going wrong, poverty is everywhere. When you travel from Lagos to Kano, people are living in poor conditions: no water no security. Criminals are well armed, government functionaries are well guarded while ordinary Nigerians are left to the mercies of criminals… There is a disconnect between the people and the government. Strangulation of the aspiration of the people will result into a big implosion; God save Nigeria and Africa if 167 million black people go berserk.

“Our current situation is really self-inflicted, you cannot have a state and fail to provide for the institutions of the state that are supposed to support the wellbeing of the state and the citizens… Whenever you see a country running into security problems, it is when it starts to neglect this all important foundation for the well being of the nation… There is nowhere in Nigeria today where you can sleep with your eyes closed. Let’s put our priorities right, build a robust defence and internal security system.’’

Culled from the Punch

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