Former Governor of Anambra State and Vice Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019 elections, Mr Peter Obi, has declared that bad leadership and harsh economic realities in Nigeria had been responsible for rising insecurity in different parts of the country.
Mr Obi in an interview insisted that if government of the day had sincerely come up with programmes to lift Nigerians out of poverty level through small scale businesses and jobs creation for the youth, that insecurity in Nigeria would have been drastically reduced.
“People, especially the youth have the propensity to take to crime when they are exposed to abject poverty occasioned by unemployment and neglect. But the challenges can be addressed with good economic policies and implementation that will give energy to the private sector which will eventually support business growth and generate jobs creation, ” Mr Obi said.
He also condemned “government’s insincere approach to the fight against terrorism.” According to him, government had indirectly continued to encourage banditry, terrorism, kidnapping and other forms of security challenges in the country “by having round table meetings with the criminals.”
“When the government begins to call bandits and kidnappers to a meeting, then the end to insecurity is probably not in sight. When people are financially rewarded by the government, and handsomely too, for criminal activities, what makes you think others will not join the business, ” Obi asked.
He said the solution would only come if government could fashion out a workable security arrangement at all levels of government down to the grassroots in addition to creation of employment opportunities.
He declared that he supported the establishment of police force at the State, regional and federal levels, adding that this would help address security challenges at the grassroots and also give other levels of government the power to fight the problems in their areas.
Sun News
