Employment, end to poverty will avert insecurity -Lagbaja

The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, on Friday, said Nigeria must plan to solve the twin problems of poverty and unemployment to avert long-term insecurity and instability in the country.

Lagbaja noted that “related to the factors of unemployment and poverty is demography and youth bulge with citizens of 35 years below accounting for about 54.1 per cent of the population, estimated at 229,379,082 as of 20 July  2024. Of this figure, less than 20 per cent of them are gainfully employed.”

The Chief of Army Staff stated this while presenting the first strategic personality lecture at the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies (IPSS), University of Ibadan entitled “Combating an Adversary Without Boundaries: The Need to Implement a Whole of Society Approach to Nigeria’s National Security.”

Represented by the General Officer Commanding 2-Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Obinna Onubogu, the chief of Army Staff maintained that “the twin problems of unemployment and poverty has given impetus to security challenges, as the unemployed and poor are susceptible to recruitment by criminals and violent Non-State Actors.”

According to him, the porous and unmanned borders of Nigeria have opened Nigeria to the infiltration of adversaries from West Africa noting that “four West African countries ranked among the 10 most terrorized nations of the world is indicative of the transnational affilliations existing among terror groups in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Lagbaja noted that no single agency can solve the myriads of insecurities facing the country adding that the Nigeria army is deepening synergy with other agencies to achieve the mandates of security of lives and properties and keeping the country safe.

On human rights, the chief of army staff disclosed that the army is providing an enabling environment for more than 60 humanitarian organisations working in the northeast while upholding the human rights of the people.

In his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof.  Kayode Adebowale said the IPSS had been at the vanguard of training security manpower and working with security sector actors towards improving the security of the country.

Adebowale expressed confidence that the Nigerian Army will involve effective strategies to decimate the adversaries of Nigeria.