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Security Meeting: Nigeria May Have Started Its Journey To Solution – Sabo-Keana

The former Chairman of Keana Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Jibrin Sabo-Keana, has expressed optimism that Nigeria may have started a journey to overcoming … Continue reading Security Meeting: Nigeria May Have Started Its Journey To Solution – Sabo-Keana


Sabo-KeanaThe former Chairman of Keana Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Jibrin Sabo-Keana, has expressed optimism that Nigeria may have started a journey to overcoming its security challenges.

This is owing to the National Security Council meeting held in Abuja on Thursday to address the situation.

Speaking on the Friday edition of Sunrise Daily on Channels Television, he advised that if Nigeria was ready to embark on the journey to finding peace, then it must not be one directional.

He said that the journey to peace must be embarked on in two directions which he mentioned as Nigeria going back to the basics to trace its step back as far as possible to find the origin of the insecurity and also keeping tabs of new events as they unfold.

He noted that it was important for the Government to “engage perpetually with all the stakeholders” at the community level, state level and local government level.

He also identified the need to address the rate of unemployment in the country as a major step towards making violence unattractive to the Nigerian youths.

The former National Publicity Secretary of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria also aligned with the view from the National Security Council meeting that people in leadership should be cautious with their utterances, and be more united in their views rather than trading words of discord.

He added, “Government officials must also restrain themselves from reacting to comments that are inflammatory, because there is no win –win situation when I say what is wrong and the Government reacts to it because in time of war the focus of a government should be to win the war not to win the battles.

“The battles will come in forms of distractions and comments from people who we believe (maybe) are not with Government and we must have a lot of restrain in finding a way to manage such information.”

He, however, also was of the view that every statement made by anyone should not be waved aside but rather explored as there may be elements in it that would help the combat on insurgency.

He expressed joy that “reason has prevailed” with the Security Council meeting holding, as this was very strategic for the country, urging the Government to keep up the tempo until peace is restored to Nigeria.

We Should Go Back To The Community Level

Mr. Sabo-Keana emphasized the generality of the security challenges as one which has affected every class in the society, as he called all Nigerians to begin to see this as a challenge that requires unity to be fought.

He believes that irrespective of party differences, security is indeed everybody’s business, adding that “if there is no peace there will be no election.”

He noted that the State Governments have the ultimate responsibility to execute the resolutions of the security meeting, as it was their responsibility to take the actions to the grassroots.

The role of the people in the development also came to the fore. Aligning with an earlier view, Sabo-Keana said that the way forward was for local government authorities to ensure that they treat all information as being important.

“There is an end to every game plan” was his reaction to the issue of divisive public statements and how to curtail it, having been identified as a regular occurrence in Nigeria’s fight against insecurity.

“Maybe, before now, people believed that they can always pass the bulk to the next person that is a soft target for them, but the chickens have come home to roost now.

“Even when I keep dodging my responsibilities, it has come to my front and it is right in front of me”, he said.

He stated that community based approach to crisis resolution was the best for Nigeria, as he believed that Nigeria was not organic enough in its relationships to adopt western approaches in its totality, especially when most of the crisis were about people and their differences.

In spite of his strong beliefs that the State Governments were the best custodians of security, as it was their responsibility to secure the people, he also emphasized the need to elevate the roles of traditional rulers in the scheme of things.

Orientation of the people at the grassroots on matters of security was also identified as a major factor in driving his recommendations and he believed that orientation for the people should be redesigned to be a constant exercise rather than one that is done periodically.