Youth Minister blames insecurity on inordinate political ambition

The Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, stated that security challenges in the country will persist as long as politics is driven by excessive ambition instead of the people’s true aspirations.

The Minister stated this in Abuja while speaking at the 2nd edition of the National Security Summit with the theme, “Insecurity and the Nation, the journey thus far”, organized by the Green Assembly Initiative in collaboration with other youth organisations.

He pointed out that another factor pushing insecurity in the country is the rural-urban drift where youths leave the rural areas where there are resources to the urban areas where there are none thereby fuelling vices.

Olawande called for all hands to be on deck in addressing the problem on insecurity in the country, calling on youths to avoid actions capable of fueling crisis in the country.

The Guest Speaker and the Director General, Nigeria Army Resource Centre, Maj-Gen. Ayodeji Wahab (rtd) in his speech, called for concerted efforts for collaborative efforts of stakeholders to arrest the debilitating insecurity situation which is stunting national development in the country.

Wahab noted that though, insecurity is a global problem and being experienced in all regions of the world, the solution for Nigeria must be local because of the nation’s peculiarities.

He blamed Nigeria’s peculiar problem on cultural differences, ethnicity, religion, education, perceptions of marginalisation and activities of the political elites.

According to him, the political and security structure is also not helping matters as all powers and security apparatus is centralised and the number of security personnel like the Police is in-adequate for the population of the country.

He also pointed out that nation’s judicial system is also lacking in utilisation of modern technologies to speed up trial process resulting in delays of justice delivery and accused persons are detained at Correctional Centres longer than necessary.

On the way forward, Major-Gen. Wahab said, the country’s security architecture must be devolved to enable the federating states be actively involved.

Earlier in his remarks, the convener of the summit and chairman of the Green Assembly Initiative, Comrade Duke Alamboye proposed the establishment of a network comprising ten youth representatives in each of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas to create a cohort of 7,740 vigilant youths, serving as the eyes and ears of their communities, facilitating real-time information flow to security apparatus.

Such structure, he noted would not only empower the youth but also foster a culture of collective responsibility and vigilance.

He also proposed a convention of zonal security summits across the six geopolitical zones this year to serve as platforms to dissect region-specific security issues, share best practices, and develop localized solutions, ensuring that our national strategy is both inclusive and effective.

He commended security agencies for their unwavering commitment and bravery in the fight against insurgents in the Northeast region of the country.