Sam Amadi to FG: Review strategies periodically to curb insecurity

Sam Amadi, director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, says the federal government should periodically develop and review strategies to mitigate the country’s security challenges.

Amadi spoke during a policy dialogue organised by the school in Abuja on Thursday.

The theme of the dialogue was: ‘Appraising the success of counter-terrorism measures in the defence of democracy in West Africa’.

The former chair of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said there is a need for governments in West Africa to be proactive in tackling terrorism and security threats.

“If we can develop more capability to reinforce kinetic force with the capacity of the state to be more persuasive and efficient, terrorism and insecurity crisis in Africa will reduce,” he said.

“Government needs to do more, not just to police, but to be analytic and get the experts to sit together from time to time to examine, review, develop and deploy more effective strategies to address the problem of insecurity.

“There are a lot of counter-terrorism measures at the level of states, national, regional and continental levels. The Africa Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) are equally involved, yet they have not been very effective.”

Senator Iroegbu, convener of Geo-Politics Series, said the challenge countries are encountering with terrorism has to do with how easy it has become for insurgents to recruit.

“When there is high crime in any society and people are available to be recruited by criminal elements, by terrorist organisations, then it becomes more difficult for states to deal with such problems,” he said.

“This is what is happening in the Sahel region, which now has turned into the headquarters of terrorism.”