*N’Assembly backs president on restructuring of security architecture
Francis Sardauna in Katsina
President Bola Tinubu yesterday said his administration was determined to combat and defeat all forms of terrorism and other security challenges bedevilling the country.
This is coming as the National Assembly has thrown its weight behind Tinubu’s decision to review Nigeria’s internal security architecture in order to address the challenges afflicting the country.
The president, who spoke during the seventh and eighth convocation of the Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina, said the federal government remained resolute in tackling the nation’s security challenges.
He appealed to all Nigerians to join hands with the federal government by giving useful information to security agencies on the activities of the miscreants in order to ward off terrorism in the country.
The president, whose speech was read at the convocation ceremony by the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Dutse, Prof. Abdulkareem Sabo Muhammad, said security was a collective responsibility of all Nigerians.
He said: “I, therefore, appealed to all Nigerians to join hands with the government by giving useful information to security agencies on suspicious persons, miscreants and their activities.”
He explained that the government was also committed to unlocking the potential in the nation’s agricultural and mining sectors to provide loans for graduates who are willing to go into agriculture.
Tinubu added that his administration was committed to tackling the challenges of unemployment among graduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions for the development and growth of the country.
He, therefore, urged the FUDMA graduates to key into the federal government’s Alert Digital Innovation programme, aimed at training two million youths and empowering one million micro, small and medium enterprises across Nigeria.
He added that the federal government had mandated the National Universities Commission (NUC) to develop a blueprint through the new core curriculum minimum academic standards that would respond to the rapid changing needs in the labour market.
In his remarks, Governor Dikko Umaru Radda of Katsina State lamented the negative impact of security challenges on the educational sector in the state.
He said many schools in frontline local government areas of the state have been closed due to banditry “and in some cases, schools have become a den for bandits.”
Meanwhile, the National Assembly has thrown its weight behind Tinubu’s decision to review Nigeria’s internal security architecture in order to address the challenges afflicting the country.
The Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin, who made his position known yesterday in a pre-convocation lecture at the Federal University Dutsin-Ma (FUDMA), Katsina State, described the country’s security challenges as enormous but surmountable.
The lecture was titled: ‘Harnessing the Power of Education, Technology, and Innovation in Tackling Insecurity.’
He said there was a need to pursue security sector reforms and drive investments in socio-economic opportunities for wretched communities, especially in the North-west region of the country.
Represented by his Special Adviser on Policy and Monitoring, Prof. Bashir Mohammed Fagge, the Deputy Senate President advocated innovative domestic and regional interventions to “dismantle the lethal web of intersecting threats facing the security of our nation.”
He also called for the immediate integration of tolerance, empathy, cooperate dialogue, human rights and citizenship duties in the nation’s educational curricula.
Jibrin said: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said on Wednesday, while presenting the 2024 budget proposal to the joint session of the National Assembly, that defence and internal security are accorded top priority.
“He also disclosed that the internal security architecture will be overhauled to enhance law enforcement capabilities to safeguard lives, property, and investments across the country. We are on the same page with Mr. President to address the security challenges facing our country,” Jibrin explained.
“Thus, Nigeria’s security challenges are enormous, though not insurmountable.
“Innovative domestic and regional interventions can dismantle the lethal web of intersecting threats facing the security of our nation,” he added.
According to Jibrin, with visionary leadership, multi-stakeholder partnership, and citizens’ action, the tide of violence can be progressively tamed.
He added, “Then we can focus our attention on building Nigeria’s peace infrastructure at the grassroots.
“National rebirth is imperative to further strengthen and foster a security architecture reflecting shared identity, inclusiveness, social justice, and prosperity for all Nigerians,” he said.
Jibrin said that as part of his contributions to address the challenges facing the North-west, in particular, he had sponsored a bill for the establishment of the North-west Development Commission in September 2023.
Earlier, the Vice-chancellor of FUDMA, Prof. Armaya’u Bichi, lauded the effort of the federal government in addressing insecurity and called on support from all stakeholders towards evolving a secure nation.
