• BYEbizimor Abilogun
• 8/08 12:00 AM

INSECURITY THE MOST DIFFICULT CHALLENGE FACING NIGERIA -BUHARI

 Nigeria is endowed with enormous natural and human resources sufficient to place it among the first 20 developed countries of the world. It is Africa’s largest producer of oil and the sixth-largest oil-producing country in the world. With a population of over 170 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and its largest economy. Coupled with the possession of over 100 tertiary institutions producing more than 200,000 graduates per annum, the country possesses abundant human capital critical for national development.

  Despite its huge resource endowment, the majority of its population wallows in abject poverty while unemployment and insecurity is growing. Its economic fortune has been dwindling due to a fall in the global price of crude oil. The result is that the country has been caught in-between affluence and affliction. Writers on Nigeria’s political evolution posit that bad leadership is a major factor why Nigeria has been reduced to a giant with clay feet.

 The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), says insecurity, manifesting as insurgencies, banditry, kidnapping, and urban crime of all sorts, is the single most difficult challenge facing the nation.  He said that his administration is ready to use everything within its powers to end insecurity in the country and bring perpetrators of criminal activities to book.

 The president stated this at a dinner with the 469 members of the National Assembly, held at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja, on Tuesday. He expressed concerns that insecurity had inhibited government’s ability to build infrastructure, provide the much needed social services to the people, and to attract investments that drive innovation, create industries, and provide jobs and create wealth. 

 ‘‘Some of the people who perpetrate these various manifestations of insecurity do so for profit, others, in the name of discredited ideologies.

 ‘‘Whatever their motivations may be, their actions are an existential threat to our country.

‘‘In the circumstances, we must do everything within our power, without consideration of distractions, to put an end to their activities and bring them to book. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted from this objective or waver in our commitment, and I am confident that together, we will triumph in our present efforts,’’ he said.

  Buhari also used the occasion to hail the ninth National Assembly for discharging their legislative duties with maturity and competence, describing the legislature as ‘‘full partners in national development’’. He particularly commended the minority parties in the legislature for their cooperation and support for government programs.

‘‘Our ability to govern in the best interests of the Nigerian people depend a great deal on effective collaboration and the partnership between the Legislature and the Executive.

‘‘The obligation to check and balance each other is not an invitation to conflict, and it should not be characterized by quarrelsome disagreement when consultation, engagements, and compromise have proven time and again to be a more effective approach.

‘‘In the ninth Assembly, you have distinguished yourselves by your conduct in office, by the scale and quality of your legislative interventions, and by your capacity for engaging with the difficult questions facing the country with maturity and competence,’’ he noted.

The president listed some legislative accomplishments of the ninth Assembly ranging from returning of the budget cycle to January to December; the amendment of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA); the Nigeria Police Act; the Finance Act; and the Deep Offshore Production Sharing Contract Act, among others.