Northern leaders who rose from a conference on Tuesday, July 2, have warned that Nigeria is gradually drifting into anarchy.
According to them, this is as a result of the failure of government to address the security challenges confronting the country.
The leaders include retired army generals, inspectors general of police, intelligence experts, academia and other technocrats.
The meeting, a two-day northern Nigeria security conference in Kaduna was organised by Arewa Research and Development Project in collaboration with Sir Ahmadu Bello Foundation, Savanna Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development as well as the Joint Committee of Northern Youth Associations.
Speakers at the conference warned against politicising the security situation in the region, adding that it would have dire consequences.
The meeting with the theme, “Organising and coordinating community response to the rising insecurity in the north,” deliberated on the security situation in the north-east, where Boko Haran had ravaged for 10 years and the north-west, where cattle rustling and banditry have held sway.
Dr. Usman Bugaje of Arewa Research and Development Project, one of the conveners of the meeting, expressed concern over the increasing spate of insecurity occasioned by kidnapping, armed robbery and banditry across the north and parts of the country.
He lamented that the failure of the Nigerian government to protect its citizens had forced many Nigerians to illegally amass weapons for self-defence.
According to him, “We should not play politics with the issue of security. We, as citizens, are not here to undermine government on what they are doing but to complement their efforts.”
On his part, the director, Centre for Defence Studies and Documentation, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, Prof. Usman Tar, noted that the Boko Haram insurgency was no longer “a north-east problem” as viewed in the past, stressing that it is now a transnational problem as it has spiraled into neighbouring countries. He said the military could only win the war if they changed “tactics,” arguing that there was need for an alternative approach to the fight against the insurgents.
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