North West Summit: Uba Sani, Defence Minister, Varsity Don, Proffer Solutions To Insecurity

Governor Uba Sani has advocated for an integrated system that balances military strength, community engagement, and long-term development in order to solve the security challenges in the North West geopolitical zone.

The Governor also called for the creation of a North-West Theatre Command, bringing the Nigerian Army’s 1st and 8th Divisions under a unified command structure.

According to him, ‘’this will accelerate intelligence sharing, enhance coordinated operations, and dismantle cross-state criminal networks more effectively.’’

Governor Uba Sani gave these suggestions at the Public Hearing of the North West Zonal Security Summit, organised by the Senate Adhoc Committee on National Security Summit in Kaduna on Saturday.

He also suggested the building of a strong security partnerships beyond our borders, recommending ‘’ the expansion of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), which has achieved notable success around the Lake Chad Basin, to cover our borders with Niger Republic.’’

‘’This expansion will disrupt arms trafficking routes, deny criminals cross-border sanctuaries, and weaken the networks that sustain their operations,’’ he added.

Governor Uba Sani however warned that military might alone cannot win the battle because community trust and participation are indispensable in containing insecurity.

He proposed the establishment of permanent Security Committees at the state and local government levels, comprising traditional rulers, religious leaders, women’s organisations, youth groups, civil society, and security agencies.

According to him, these committees ‘’will serve as early-warning systems, conflict-resolution platforms, and bridges of trust between citizens and the state.’’

The Governor also called for the creation of State Police, arguing that Nigeria’s centralised policing model can no longer meet the demands of a nation with over 230 million people and vast ungoverned spaces.

‘’With fewer than 400,000 police officers nationwide, many rural communities are left without meaningful protection,’’ he further argued.

Speaking on the theme ‘’ Public Hearing, Building Robust Regional Collaborations To Tackle Insecurity: Pathway For Securing The Future,’’ the Minister of Defence, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, reiterated President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to end insecurity in the country.

‘’The President’s directive is to establish a strong, yet adaptive, national security architecture to eradicate these threats. Accordingly, we are committed to ensuring that such violations of the rights of our children and threats to our development goals do not occur again,’’ he added.

The Minister noted that in spite of the challenges, the present administration has recorded progress compared to the situation before this government came on board.

‘’Joint operations across Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Kebbi have reopened key routes. Movement on Kaduna-Kachia, Kaduna-Birnin Gwari, Jibia-Gurbin Baure and parts of the Sokoto- Illela corridor has improved.

Alhaji Badaru also pointed out that markets in Kaura Namoda, Shinkafi, Batsari, Giwa and Kajuru now record higher activity, adding that ‘’many villages that were displaced in earlier years have returned.

‘’Similarly, in the last two years before the recent incidents, many schools that closed due to insecurity have resumed academic activity under strengthened protection.

‘’ Likewise, farmers in many affected communities are back on their fields with better security support,’’ the Minister of Defence further reiterated.

He however acknowledged ‘’ that the Northwest continues to face lingering threats from bandits, terror cells and organised criminal networks despite the relentless efforts of our troops and other agencies.’’

In his keynote presentation, Prof Muhammad Kabir Isa, said that the current strategies toward ending insecurity have continued to fail because they are limited.

He added that the strategies are limited by fragmentation, inadequate coordination, overstretched security institutions, inconsistent state policies, weak intelligence systems, humanitarian constraints, and the absence of a comprehensive regional architecture.

According to the Professor of Public Administration at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, ‘’even where tactical gains occur, they fail to translate into sustainable peace because structural drivers of insecurity remain unaddressed.’’

‘’These limitations underscore the necessity of building a robust regional collaboration platform capable of harmonizing strategies, integrating multi-level actors, and addressing both immediate threats and long-term governance and development challenges,’’ he added.

Prof Isa called for regional collaboration to address the mobility of armed groups, the dispersion of bandit enclaves across forest belts, inconsistent policy environments, fragmented community-security structures, and the complexity of humanitarian and developmental spillovers

In his welcome address, the Chairman Organising Committee of the summit, Senator Babangida Hussaini, reminded that the summit was convened ‘’to bring together stakeholders in the zone to frankly discuss the increasing and alarming rates of insecurity in our zone and the nation at large.’’

He reiterated that a National Security Summit will come up in Abuja on 1st December, ‘’to provide a platform for collating the aggregate views of Nigerians on the pathways for securing our people and the country.’’

According to him, the coming National Security Summit ‘’ is a testament that Mr. President’s is not leaving any stone unturned in the search for actionable solutions to this national emergency.’’

Senator Hussaini noted that the upper legislative chamber convened the summit ‘’to holistically examine the cross-cutting issues responsible for our peculiar security challenges and to suggests practical solutions to the problems.’’

He thanked Governor Uba Sani for the overwhelming support to the success of the historic summit, through personal and official involvement, describing it as unprecedented.

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