Worried by the hydra-headed security challenges confronting the region and the country, stakeholders in the South-South region have called for a decentralised approach, enhanced collaborations, and intelligence sharing to tackle insecurity.
The Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, specifically noted that it was time to set the pace for enhanced security in the region, noting that collaboration among stakeholders in the South-South can achieve that with the aim of bringing development.
The call was made at the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee South-South Zonal Public Hearing on National Security Summit in conjunction with the Rivers State Government, with the theme ‘The Way Forward in Tackling National Security Issues at the Local Level’ held in Port Harcourt on Thursday.
The State Governor, represented by the Secretary to the Rivers State Government, Dr Benebo Anabraba, said securing lives and property is a collective responsibility, which he noted will bring peace and development.
“Security is not the business of the Government alone, but a shared responsibility and concern of every person. As a Government, we are not unaware of our constitutional responsibility to ensure the protection and safety of lives and property in the State, including the territorial integrity of Nigeria.
“These objectives we have assiduously pursued with robust collaboration and partnership with the Federal Government and the various security agencies, in providing the necessary equipment such as operational vehicles, boats, and even aircraft, accommodation, and support, including the welfare of both serving personnel and the Nigerian Legionnaires.
“This summit could, therefore, not have come at a better time as it is today, in the face of security challenges in the region that drain our national revenue, damage our environment, and put lives and property at risk, and the immense efforts of the Federal, State and Local Governments in combating these menaces to society.
“This distinguished gathering is a testament to our commitment and synergy towards a more secure, stable, and prosperous future for the South-South region and Nigeria in general.
“We urge the stakeholders gathered here to see this occasion as a mechanism from the people to the policy-makers, ‘Bottom-Up Approach’ while giving special attention and recognition to our peculiar natural environment or topography as a coastal region that is the gateway to international waters of the Gulf of Guinea,” he added.
Fubara noted that the Government of Rivers State will continue to adopt proactive measures such as intelligence sharing, best practices with security agencies and our Brother States, complement security initiatives and stakeholder engagement, the employment and empowerment of youths, and public participation, particularly at community levels.
Addressing the gathering, Senate Minority Leader and Chairman, South-South Security Summit, Senator Abba Patrick Moro, noted that the Summit is a deliberate effort to diagnose, understand, and collectively address the hydra-headed security challenges confronting the country.
He said the summit is a unique platform for frank deliberations and assessments geared towards procuring probable solutions that will mitigate the security challenges of the country.
Moro stated, “The Senate, as a responsive lawmaking institution, recognises that no security act can succeed without a clear understanding of local dynamics and peculiarities of security occurrences across the country.
“We are here today to listen to security experts, traditional rulers, community leaders, civil society organisations, and those directly affected by the very threats that this summit seeks to address.
“Be assured that the information we should gather from this summit would undoubtedly form the basis of our recommendations to the Senate, which will serve as guides to our legislative interventionist measures, budgetary provisions, and policy reforms that will revamp national security landscape,” he noted.
Speaking, the Chairman of the South-South Traditional Rulers Forum, His Majesty Sergeant Awuse, said the security agencies must move from being reactive to preventive in crime fighting.
Awuse also kicked against the formation of various local security blocs, which, according to him, are formed on cultural grounds, and urged the government to invest in the youths to achieve a relatively safe society.
The monarch said that since the various local security groups in the country are not properly harnessed together, there are usually ‘fallouts’.
He stated, “You have local vigilantes, but we cannot absolutely rely on those tribal groups. Based on culture, they form their own groups. The Yoruba have their own, the Ametekun, then Ebube-Agu in the East. These are groups specialised in their own. What do we have in our own area (South-South)? None. We have young people looking after the community under an empty stomach. You encourage them today, you can’t encourage them forever.
“The Government has to come in now to help those classes of people because the more they leave the youths to run the streets doing nothing, the more they are exposed to danger and the more the society is unsafe. And we want to have a safe society. It is safe to have a relatively safe society by good performance of all those in charge of authority.”
Awuse continued, “If you want to have this system properly checked, you have to provide a system to ensure there must be early warning. Every crime is planned by somebody. Because every crime is planned by somebody, there needs to be investment by the government in order to sort out information before those crimes are carried out.
“There must be community and security agencies’ partnership by actual consultation and working together. They must invest in the people, and the people must show accountability. And at the end of the day, I’m sure, put all together in South-South, you have a zonal security arrangement that will take this nation to a higher level.”
