A former US Army Captain, Bishop Johnson (Retired), has blamed weak local government institutions for the rising insecurity in Nigeria, calling on the government to provide functional and effective governance to curb criminal activities.

Johnson made the remarks on Tuesday during an interview with Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.

He emphasized that governance is a crucial part of any security strategy, but many local governments in the country are “in a comatose state.”

“Therefore, they fail to render essential services to the people, leaving large populations at the disposal of criminal elements who recruit them into their enterprises and continue to carry out the insecurity we see in the country right now,” he said.

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On the broader security strategy, Johnson argued that ungoverned spaces should not exist in Nigeria.

“Sometimes, we blame the security agencies, and they cannot solve this problem alone. Governance is important and a part of security strategy.

People charged with providing governance must do so to remove small criminal elements from the equation and allow security agencies to focus on those who are bent on causing havoc in our country,” he explained.

Reflecting on the past, the retired army captain noted that effective local governments, in conjunction with traditional leadership institutions, helped keep insecurity minimal.

“Back in the days when local governments were functioning effectively, this country had minimal insecurity until we began to weaken those two institutions that brought us to where we are today,” he added.