Presidential aspirant Mohammed Hayatu-Deen has revealed how he intends to tackle the country’s security challenges, stressing that the crisis is not separate from the economy.

According to him, when farmers cannot reach their fields, food prices rise. When traders cannot move goods, the cost of living rises. When young men cannot find work, criminal networks find recruits. Insecurity fuels poverty.

Hayatu-Deen said poverty fuels insecurity, t break the cycle, Nigeria must restore the authority of the state.

He said he has spent years studying this cycle, just as he listed actions he would take right from his first day in office if elected.

Hayatu-Deen stated that he would designate specific groups as terrorist organisations, using Section 54 of the Terrorism Prevention Act, which gives the President that power. He said Yan Bindiga, ISWAP-affiliated kidnapping syndicates, and other identifiable criminal networks operating across Nigeria will be formally proscribed.

“The Nigerian state must stop treating organised mass violence as ordinary crime,” he said.

Hayatu-Deen promised to prosecute every bandit, kidnapper, and collaborator under terrorism laws, with accelerated procedures through designated terrorism courts.

He said the days of light sentences, quiet releases, and cases disappearing into an endless judicial backlog will be over.

He said his administration will dismantle the financial networks that keep terrorism alive.

“The EFCC and CBN will be directed from Day One to identify, freeze, and seize the assets of financiers, ransom collectors, arms suppliers, and money launderers. A joint financial intelligence and telecom surveillance task force will track ransom flows, criminal communications, and interstate kidnapping networks using modern technology and real-time intelligence sharing. You cannot aim to kill the foot soldiers while leaving the treasury intact.”

He said his administration will end federal complicity in ransom payments and negotiated amnesties. According to him, not one naira of federal funds will go to proscribed groups. He said that where state governments seek federal security cooperation, that cooperation will be conditioned on compliance with this policy. “The Federal Government will not legitimise criminal violence by rewarding it with public funds or political concessions,” he said.

Hayatu-Deen promised to rebuild the Multi-National Joint Task Force, restore regional security cooperation, and reform intelligence coordination across all relevant agencies.

“Military, police, DSS, immigration, customs, and financial intelligence must stop operating in silos. Nigeria does not only need more force. Nigeria needs better intelligence, better shared, faster acted upon,” he said.

“Strengthen policing capacity nationwide. Better training, modern technology, rapid response systems, and tighter coordination between federal and local security structures. The military cannot permanently police every community in Nigeria. That is not a sustainable security architecture and we will end it.”

Hayatu-Deen promised to launch targeted economic recovery programmes in high-risk regions, with deliberate focus on young people vulnerable to recruitment by criminal and extremist networks.

“Enforcement alone will not hold. Lasting security requires both the rod and the opportunity. “These are not long-term aspirations or second-term promises. They are immediate actions.

“Nigerians have lived with fear for too long. Farmers deserve to farm. Traders deserve to trade. Children deserve to travel safely. Citizens deserve a government that can defend them. It is time to restore order, restore confidence, and restore the authority of the Nigerian state,” he said.