Uba Sani: We must overhaul our security architecture | No synergy among agencies

Uba Sani, governor of Kaduna state, has called for a complete overhaul of the nation’s security architecture to address the insecurity challenges.

Sani spoke on Thursday at the 6th annual interfaith peace conference which was held in Kaduna.

He said poverty and insecurity are the biggest challenges facing the country, adding that addressing the issue of poverty is critical to restoring the people’s faith in democracy.

“We are still struggling to address developmental challenges, especially in the areas of infrastructure, education, health, agriculture, and security,” he said.

“This is the time for all stakeholders to join hands to tackle our security and developmental challenges. We must however approach our problems from a position of knowledge.”

He said the approach to tackling insecurity must be evidence-based involving a comprehensive diagnostic review of the causes.

“If you know the causes of the problem, you will be able to fashion effective immediate, short term and long term strategies towards addressing it,” he said.

“Our actions have been ad-hoc and reactive. They do not flow from research. Our compass is faulty. We must get the correct compass.

“To make progress in the area of security, we must ask the critical questions and fashion the appropriate strategies.

“How can we reset our security architecture in such a way that the proactive instead of reactive approach will be adopted in tackling insecurity in Nigeria?

“To overcome insecurity in Nigeria, there is a need for effective intelligence gathering and surveillance so that law enforcement agents can be proactive and reasonably predict potential crime with near perfect accuracy rather than being reactive.

“We must modernise the security agencies with training, intelligence sharing, advanced technology, logistics, motivation and change of orientation by security personnel.

“We must carry out a complete overhaul of our security architecture. Our security institutions must be reformed to align with global best practices.”

Sani said except security operations are decentralised, criminal elements will continue to constitute a threat in “our communities”.

“This is why we have been agitating for state police. Nigeria is a federation. A state governor should be in effective control of security in his state,” he said.

“A situation where a divisional police officer will wait for clearance from his superiors before carrying out the instructions of the governor is unacceptable.

“There is a need for effective coordination and cooperation among and across security agencies. Lack of synergy for a long time weakened our efforts and strengthened criminal elements in Nigeria.

“For example, when a military operation is being carried out in one state, blocking forces are hardly stationed in neighbouring states.

“When the heat is too much, the criminal elements take refuge in neighbouring states and end up taking out their frustrations on innocent civilians.”