The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Tuesday said the Federal Government is working hard to put the current security challenges behind the nation, saying Nigeria must be safe and secured.
He added that with himself as the Minister of Interior, he would provide the appropriate leadership to ensure that Nigerians are safe and that Nigeria space is secured to justify the confidence repose on him by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Aregbesola spoke in Abuja when the Founder of Nigeria & Africa Development Indicators Monitoring (NADIM), Professor Taofeek Ibrahim led a delegation from the Foundation to confer NADIM’s 2018 Outstanding Leadership Award on the Minister in his office.
He noted that the paramilitary agencies and officers working together in the ministry were experienced about the processes and the activities required to guarantee the security of the nation and safety of Nigerians.
Aregbesola, while stressing the unwavering commitment of President Buhari to bequeath a safe and secured Nigeria, said the government was working with a network of connections both within and outside the country to end the insurgencies and crimes and criminality threatening the nation.
ALSO READ: FCT minister urges financial institutions to help grow Nigerian economy
He said: “I have been endowed by God for quality leadership that definitely will turn the ministry and the agencies around. The mandate of the ministry is to formulate policies and develop programmes for safety of Nigerians and for the nation’s internal security.
“We will provide the appropriate leadership to ensure that our people are safe and Nigeria space is secured. Take it as a word of commitment.
“We will bring to bear our endowment, our talent, capacity, ability and our network of connections within Nigeria and outside Nigeria to ensure that we put behind us the challenges,” he said.
Aregbesola recalled that during his administration as governor of Osun state, he enunciated deliberate policies to empower young people and women in the state, saying school feeding programme alone had a tremendous impact on child education in Osun.
He insisted that there was no household in Osun state that was not directly impacted during his administration as the governor, noting however that those opposed to his government did not see anything good in what he was doing.
Founder of NADIM, who doubles as the Vice-Chancellor of Al-HIKMAH University, Ilorin, Kwara state, said the awards conferred on the minister was based on the assessment of his administration between the years 2010 and 2018.
He said Aregbesola emerged the overall best Executive Governor in Nigeria in the development of Nigerian states during the period under review based on the development performance ranking of Nigerian states and monitoring of African countries conducted by NADIM.
and then