Criminologists urge Buhari to rescue Nigeria from destructive forces

A foremost criminologist, Prof. Kayode Adedeji, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, governors and local council chairmen to urgently rescue Nigeria from the grip of destructive forces of criminality.

This is just as the Nigerian Society for Criminology calls for knowledge-based intervention and synergy among all levels of government to nip security challenges in the bud.

Adedeji stated this in his introductory remarks at a webinar organised by the Nigeria Society for Criminology entitled “Criminology and contemporary security challenges in Nigeria” during which papers on crime, social problems and security management were presented by Prof. Adeyinka Aderinto, Prof. Emmanuel Gyong, Dr. Ezeji Chiji and Dr. Phillip Ndubueze, among others.

According to him, the government seems unable to tackle the problems of insecurity partly due to inadequacy of knowledge or due to the fire-brigade approach usually employed in addressing issues in Nigeria.

He urged members of the society to make findings of their researches available to policy actors as their contribution towards ending the spate of insecurity.

In his paper, Historical and Contemporary Overview of Security Challenges in Nigeria, Prof. Aderinto traced the origin of contemporary insecurity to the trust gap and injustice, which birthed ethnic agitations and kidnapping in the Niger Delta region.

He, therefore, urged the government to deal with the root causes of insecurity to end the present social problems.

Gyong, Chiji and Ndubueze emphasised the need for intelligence-led policing, good governance founded on justice, accountability and due process, and the use of technology in curbing modern security threats.

Earlier, a renowned criminologist, Prof. Etannibi Alemika, had stated that criminological knowledge and researches were needed more than ever before to assist the country in navigating the contemporary security challenges, adding that evidence-based scientific interventions would be useful in formulating the right security policies.