Lawan: With insecurity, it’s a pipe dream to think investors will come to Nigeria

Senate President Ahmad Lawan says investors will avoid Nigeria if insecurity is not tackled decisively.

Speaking on Wednesday, Lawan said there is a collaboration between the national assembly and security agencies to seek ways of finding solutions to the issue of kidnapping and insecurity across the country.

He said funding was a major setback in the fight against insecurity, but that the legislature, with the support of the executive arm of government, would explore the possibility of sourcing funds separately from what is set aside for security agencies in the 2020 budget.

Lawan said the national assembly requested Babagana Mungono, national security adviser, to come up with a proposal for the purchase of drones to be deployed across the country to facilitate the arrest of kidnappers.

He also said Isa Ali Pantami, minister of communication and digital economy, has been directed to device means of tracking kidnappers and other criminals through active phone numbers used during negotiations.

“In the last one month, I’ve been holding regular meetings with security agencies, including the ministers of communications and the federal capital territory, ” Lawan said.

“What we are trying to do is to get a better and result-oriented approach to fighting kidnapping and insecurity.

“We have insisted that no amount of resources will be too much because we need to protect our people and secure the country.

“It will remain a pipe dream if we continue to ask investors to come to Nigeria; even those in Nigeria will not invest properly if the security situation remains very dicey.

“This is something that the national assembly will have to do together with the executive arm of government. We have to look for something out of the ordinary for funding.

“We have to go out of our way to look for resources outside the national budget.

” If we can release seven billion naira to Distribution Companies (Discos) or Generation Companies (Gencos), nothing stops us from looking for such money to address the security situation of the country.

“We have already given a request for the NSA to come up with the different designs and models of drones. We hope there should be drones properly deployed to ensure kidnappers are arrested.

“We have to find a way to be able to track kidnappers through phones. We should have launched the national emergency call centre with a specific number about two weeks ago.

“We have tried to reconcile all security agencies to have one specific number instead of separate and different ones. We want the emergency call centres to be established across the country.”

He said the federal government will launch an emergency call centre for the purpose of contacting various security agencies in times of distress.