A Public Affairs Analyst, Sola Ojewusi, believes that the most important solution to the state of insecurity in Nigeria is for Nigerians to unite.
Mr Ojewusi was speaking on the Thursday edition of Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, where conversations centered on ‘Finding the Chibok Girls’.
While acknowledging that it was expected that the pains of attacks by insurgents would make citizens point accusing fingers in different directions, especially at the Presidency for the time it has taken to solve the problem, he advised that this was not the best approach.
“Our approach is to look at how everybody can bring hands together to solve the problem of security.
“It is now clear that it is not just Jonathan’s problem, it’s a national problem. It is not PDP, it is not APC, it is everybody’s problem. That is the essence, the essence of unity”, he said.
Making reference to the Wednesday twin bomb attack in Kaduna, he noted that “everything boils down to one particular enemy and that enemy is the enemy of the nation of Nigeria” adding that Nigerians need to go beyond “abusing the owner of the house, leaving the thief”.
Although Mr Ojewusi admitted that the responsibility for Nigeria’s security was on the President and citizens were justified demanding same of him, he explained that “security is not a one man thing”.
“Even if you have a guard in the house, there is a street before the thief gets to the house, perhaps there’s a gate to that street, there are a lot of people surrounding. Sometimes when armed robbers and thieves come to a community, they tend to do surveillance”, he explained.
Speaking about the continued abduction of schoolgirls from the Chibok community in Borno State, Mr Ojewusi wondered what had been done from the wards where the locals are from, considering the view that some of the terrorists also have their backgrounds in the communities.
He stated that rather than seek solution “from the top”, there was need to ask; “what are the people from the environment doing”.
Many observers have criticized President Jonathan for taking too long before meeting with the parents of the missing Chibok girls but Ojewusi also defended the President. He explained that there must have been some level of intelligence gathering which the Presidency would have access to and which would negate the idea of visiting Chibok.
He warned that while Nigerians express emotions, they should not lose sight of the importance of security as regards bringing the girls back alive. He maintained that the Government and security agencies could not afford to make their moves public.
He added that the unconventional nature of the war on terror required patience from all citizens.
Mr Ojewusi also threw his weight behind the President’s request for the approval of a loan to upgrade security in the country. According to him, this was a necessary move as there was need for not just the purchase of military equipment but also major upgrades in intelligence and border security.
He, however, warned that the proper management of the funds remained an important factor the President must ensure.
