The Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, was interviewed by the British-Nigerian journalist, Zain Ejiofor Asher, on CNN yesterday, and he was asked several questions about the challenges facing Nigeria, and how he intends to tackle those challenges if he gets the chance to become the next President of the country.
During the interview, Zain Asher said that the security situation of the country is so bad now that Nigerians could barely travel from one part of the country to the other without fearing for their lives. She said that she’s talking about banditry, kidnapping, Boko Haram, and terrorism, and asked him what his plan for that is if he wins the forthcoming election.
In his response, Peter Obi said that tackling insecurity is very important now because without security there can be no development. He said that the security apparatus of the country needs to be strengthened, and our security agents properly motivated.
He said – “What we need to face head-on is the issue of security, because unless you have security, farmers can’t go back to their farms, you can’t attract investment, nobody will ever want to go to an insecure place… You need to reorganize the security architecture, ensure that there’s multi-level policing. In short, state police has to be decisively dealt with… you need to bring in more personnel into the security system, equip them properly, ensure that they are properly motivated…
Insurgency has become one of the toughest challenges facing Nigeria. Several people have been kidnapped and killed by these criminal elements in the past years, and in the Northern part of the country, farmers can hardly go to their farms without the fear of being kidnapped or killed by bandits.
Although the nation’s security agents have been waging war against these insurgents, the war against them is still far from over. Many political pundits believe that anyone vying to become the next President of the country must give the people a clear picture of how he intends to solve this insecurity problem if given the chance to rule Nigeria.
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