Director, Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies (IPSS), University of Ibadan, Prof. Tajudeen Akanji, has said peace and security will continue to elude the country unless certain measures are urgently put in place.

Akanji told The Guardian in Ibadan that the security structure and mandate overlaps were some of the reasons the country was still facing security breaches, insisting that the current security situation Nigeria was caused by lack of coordination in the security architecture.

His words: “Peace and security are supposed to be driven by man. The man that will provide peace and security must have a kind of livelihood that will enable him to live peacefully.

“It will be difficult for a man who lives under injustice, hardship, unemployment and all the negative things around us to live and provide peace the way it should be.

“Definitely, man has to find a way of surviving, because he has to depend and work with others to define our living and everything.

“So, it means that people living around us must live in peace and feel secured for other things to work. Everyone needs to have a sense of security.”

He also stressed the importance of security in a country, saying if people were not feeling secure, they could hardly think of adding value in whatever form.

Continuing, he said: “If you look at the Abraham Myslow Hierarchy of Needs, after the physiological needs, the next need is security. If people don’t feel secured, they can’t think of any other addition to the society.”

Akanji lamented that in the Northeast or other parts of the country with high rate of insurgency, students could not go to school, adding:

“There are so many local government areas in those places where no activities are taking place.

“There are young people who have been out of school for over 10 years and have no means of learning. There are young able-bodied men who have got no jobs and facing war and banditry and all those things over time. If one visits those places, one will better understand the value of peace security.”

He maintained that Nigeria needed a structure that would work to effectively tackle insecurity in the country.

“We’ve even been working on the legislative provisions on security in Nigeria which has enabled us to find out so many overlaps in the structure. Right now, we have about 40 senior military officers between the rank of Colonel and Brigadier General who are undergoing training.

“We have the opportunity of linking and leveraging with them. We have research and project co-operations and relationships with the National Defence College and with these, we are turning out these challenges to them on a regular basis,” he said.