Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun state has warned that unless the current insecurity in the country is tackled squarely, it will have unsavoury consequences on the economy.
Speaking to State House correspondents after attending the presidential policy dialogue session convened by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja, he said a situation where citizens live fearing for their lives will not help the economy.
He expressed concern at the spate of kidnapping on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which he observed is very important to the economies of the southwest states particularly Ogun and Lagos.
He said: “I mentioned to them (dialogue session) that only last night (Wednesday) there was a kidnap situation on Lagos-Ibadan expressway, and this morning (Thursday morning) on my way to this conference, there was an attempt to kidnap four people, they kidnapped two and two escaped, that Lagos-Ibadan expressway is the busiest highway in this country, not only that it is so important to the economy of my state, Lagos State and the entire country.
“The minute people begin to leave in fear, the minute people begin to have that foreboding fear that something may happen that way, it would kill the economy of the state and the country.
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“How do we say we are creating an enabling environment for a public-private partnership when people cannot move freely from Lagos to Ogun and hinterland without the foreboding fear of being kidnapped?”
The governor however assured that southwest state’s governors have already taken the initiative and working to bring the insecurity menace under check.
The Ogun governor added: “I am sure you are aware that we the governors of the South West have gotten together and we are discussing the issue seriously.
“Graciously one of our members from the private sector suggested a national security trust funding mechanism which requires that private sector puts together a considerable amount of money and also the federal government would match that fund and that would be managed by the private sector.
“It’s something similar to what Lagos State has in place with all the governors, it’s something that accountability would be put in place.”
He observed that Ogun provides a good alternative to Lagos but provides what Lagos cannot.
According to him, “So, we spent a lot of time on security because security is very important and I recall that I mentioned the fact that for me and Lagos, Ogun stands to benefit from everything that Lagos cannot provide.
“We are there to provide what Lagos can not afford to have and that is why we are called the Gateway State.
“We are the gateway to at least four states and we are also bordered to another country.”
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