By Kuni Tyessi
The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, Prof Suleiman Bogoro, has been conferred with the security personality fellowship of the Institute of Security and Strategic Studies (ISSS), Abuja.
Other fellows inducted were the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, Former Governor of Abia State, Sen. Theodore Orji, Postmaster General of Nigeria, Dr. Ismail Adewusi, Director Sergeant At-Arms, National Assembly, Air CDRE Sani Zakari, among others.
Speaking at the first annual lecture/fellowship night and third investiture ceremony of the Institute in Abuja, with themed, ‘Our National Security Predicament: Implication for the Current Democratic Order’.
The Secretary, Governing Council of the Institute, Danladi Abdulhameed, stressed the importance of national security against all forms of threats including, war, terrorism or espionage.
Abdulhameed said 22 years after Nigeria’s uninterrupted democracy, several challenges have continued to besiege its democratic system, chief of it being insecurity which has claimed the lives and livelihoods of civilians, foreigners, security personnel and threatened the socio-economic and political stability of the country.
He stated that in 2020 the Global Terrorism Index listed Nigeria as third most terrorised country in the world after Afghanistan and Iraq, adding that the classification is because Nigeria has been in a state of war following the activities of the terrorist groups including, Boko Haram, fulani extremist, farmers/herdsmen clashes, bandits and kidnappers.
“The continued state of insecurity has threatened the very fabric of our national integration and created the ecology of fear, distrust and anxiety,” he said, adding that the call for national security is a collective one.
In a lecture titled , “Beauty and Dangers of Democracy’, former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS), Prof Danfulani Ahmed, condemned the arrogance of majority syndrome, political terrorism and other vices bedeviling the country’s democracy.
Ahmed stressed that the duty of national security is so important that it should not be relegated to the background, adding that national security includes structures, economy, sociopolitical and religious aspects and given this situation, it cannot be considered without relating with the most important factors.
He said issues such as corruption, abuse of office and abuse of the rights of citizens make the issue of national security more complex.
