The National Security Adviser (NSA) to the President, General Owoye Azazi (rtd), has identified administrative loopholes, which encourage corruption and lack of accountability in governance, as the greatest enemy of peace and security in Nigeria.
He also blamed weakening structures of government for the rising state of insecurity and underdevelopment in the country.
Azazi stated these in his keynote address yesterday at the 3rd Annual Public Safety Lecture in Abuja.
Speaking on the theme, "Strengthening Security and Improving Best Safety Practices-a Necessity for Enhanced Growth and Development in Nigeria”, the NSA defined a secure society as one devoid of instability and “where law works, development thrives and citizens are well catered for”.
In his words: “The most serious security we have is instability in the country because no matter who is in charge, if there is instability we cannot be secure or move forward. If we continue to have a weakening structures, corruption will persist”, he said.
Azazi who emphasised that all the views expressed are his personal opinion and not in his capacity as the NSA, said Nigeria is today ravaged with rent-seeking political class and consuming business elite who only build structures without corresponding capacity building.
He said “we spend so much money in building structures without building capacity for the people”.
The former Chief of Defence Staff bemoaned lack of responsible leadership whose only interest in politics and governance is access to wealth and warned that our elites are only living in self deceit.
“We do not have a good system of monitoring the movement of money in the country and unfortunately, Nigeria is a place where everybody wants to make 250% profit with no structures to plough them back to the society. Profit margin is very high here and we are continuously exploited by investors through capital flight”, he said.
He note that “in Nigeria Politics and power is access to wealth” but with so much poverty in the land, which breeds insecurity “there is really no rich man in Nigeria because no matter how much money you have, at the end of the day you will end up poorer since every other person depends on you”.
Similarly, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Chairman of the occasion, Chief Baba Gana Kingibe said that “we are on a keg of gunpowder because those who should make the changes are the ones benefiting from the statusquo”.
Kingibe said that our culture and the structures of governance of dependency and street begging are anti-development.
Other speakers include the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mr. Osita Chidoka, who spoke on making Nigerian roads one of the safest in the world; the Lifeline Founder, Dr. Nkem Momah; and the former FCT Commissioner of Police, Mr. Lawrence Alobi amongst others.