Responsibilities of community leaders in tackling security challenges

All over the world, insecurity has been identified as nations’ bane of development. The Federal Republic of Nigeria as a nation is not exempted. This has retrogression of development for most of the federating units of our nation as a result of the military and unitary constitution, which scholars of repute say has failed.

Ibadan land, as part of the federating units, has been affected socially, politically and economically. It is part of the mandate of every responsible citizen to contribute veritable ideas in solving the myriad of problems affecting our society, especially on insecurity.

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I believe that it would be parochial to think, reason and talk of Ibadan land’s safety and security, without thinking of the security of Oyo State and all of Nigeria. This is mainly because of the constitutional powers vested in the national government and this is among the reason why many are clamoring for devolution of powers over the regions.

As we are all aware of the lopsidedness in our polity, it is good that we call on all leaders including the mogajis, baales, kings, community elders, religious leaders, etc to rise up this time to combat the security challenges, especially in Ibadan land and its environs. The reasons for this are the negative effect of the challenges on our socio-economic development. And also, because socio-economic development is a function of time and radiation efforts or, what are we, the youths expected to think of the competence of our leaders.

Almost everything is wrong with Nigeria; mass unemployment, high incidence of kidnapping for ransom, herdsmen/ farmers clashes, large scale poverty, gross incapacity of the state governments, gross infrastructure deficits, dysfunctional urban and regional physical development, corruption in all tiers of government armed robbery, ritual killings and multifarious fraudulent activities by private citizens among others.

Scientific analyses have shown the need for power devolution but this appears to be only possible in the future. The problems of Nigeria appear to be terminal. There is grave national dilemma regarding the solution to the constitutional crisis. President Muhammadu Buhari recently, after being sworn in for his second time as president, stated that restructuring into a true federation had become necessary. But nobody appears to proffer veritable approach to this.

It is therefore the responsibility of the traditional institutions, in a situation of crises like this and being closest to the people, to map out strategies for governmental support in terms of provision of logistics and necessary funds, to enable the generality of the public to exercise their fundamental right to self-defence, as provided in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We all need to jointly exercise our right to self-defence, by formally organising ourselves for security purpose.

Wasiu Ojekunle,

08057550782.