Setting security agenda for Tinubu
By Trek Africa Newspaper
President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu

The 2023 general election is done and dusted with the conclusion penultimate Saturday of supplementary polls in some states marking the official end of the 2023 general election cycle. There are however some security challenges inherited by the incoming administration of which nothing less is expected.
Therefore, as the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, awaits the May 29, 2023 handover date to accede office of the president, one pressing issue he would inherit is the insecurity still ravaging some parts of the country.
With at least 7,222 Nigerians killed and 3,823 abducted as a result of 2,840 violent incidents between January and July 2022 according to reports, this leaves a lot of burden on the president-elect.
Securing the country is, therefore, one of the major areas where Nigerians expect the president-elect to test his political grasp and dexterity.
To that extent, national security has been a fundamental and core governance challenge since the return to democratic rule on May 29,1999 particularly as new socio-political forces jostle for power and control of public offices. We know of the Jukun – Tiv crisis, the Zaki Biam incident and even the extremist tendencies of the Maitasine kind among many others.
The security situation worsened around 2009 with the emergence of the Boko Haram insurgency that opened a pandora box leading to the death and displacement of thousands in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states residents along the larger North-east axis.
In retrospect
Security was a fundamental determinant in the electoral defeat of erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan by President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015, despite the deferment of the general election by six weeks in order to clear the Islamist insurgent that had threatened even the Federal Capital Territory Abuja and held the nation captive.
Even though the Buhari administration came in with so much promise being a stern ex-military president, Nigerians are yet to experience peace and security with the worsening cases of violent murders by insurgents, bandits, and militant herdsmen in addition to the other criminalities encouraged by the proliferation of small and light weapons.
Today, more number of other non-state armed groups are spreading violence all over the country. The Boko Haram insurgency in the Nort-east is competing with banditry in the Nort-west while violent herdsmen are ravaging the North-central. The South-east is contending with a mixture of kidnapping and separatist agitations. For a moment kidnapping-for-ransom crept into the South-west, spectacularly displacing armed robbery. The South-south is engulfed by a rising spate of cultism and oil bunkering.
Losses
Insecurity has no doubt undermined the economic development of the nation as critical institutions and civilian infrastructures have constantly come under attacks. It is estimated that rising violence in the country has cost Nigeria roughly N119 billion, about 11% of its GDP. Similarly, projects worth N12 trillion were reportedly abandoned across the country due to insecurity.
According to experts, insecurity drives out investment and increases unemployment among others. According to the global terrorism index, in 2020, over $40.6 billion worth of investments were diverted from Nigeria as a result of insecurity.
Another implication of the persistent insecurity is the radical shift in governmental expenditure as the security budget increases exponentially. Analyses of the annual budget and spending on defense and security-related expenditures show a total difference of over N700 billion in seven years, at the expense of other important sectors, such as health and education.
Despite these huge expenditures, the situation has remained relatively unchanged negatively affecting the country’s global image, as the ‘Giant of Africa.’ The farmers-herders clashes in the North-central farming belt region of the country has also constituted a significant threat to the nation’s food supply and security.
While the security agencies are grappling with the situation in their usual reactionary and fire brigade approach amid calls for their reform, not much seems to have been done to tackle the root causes. Such causes that are rooted in poverty, growing inequality, illiteracy and ethnic and religious intolerance.
As Tinubu mounts the rein
Tinubu therefore is coming into office armed with experience as the former governor of Lagos state, Nigeria’s most populous state and the nation’s commercial nerve centre. A man reputed to be very strategic and pragmatic in finding solutions to policy problems, with an array of tested and trusted lieutenants willing to loyally carry out his biddings, this has no doubt heightened expectations for people desperate for relief and sustainable solutions.
While outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari had relied heavily on the military approach to address the widespread insecurity in the country, even labeling it as a plot by foreign powers and elements to undermine the Nigerian state, many would expect the incoming administration to adopt a radically different approach to stem the tide.
Tinubu had during his campaign promised that if elected president, he would negotiate with all agitators in the South-east to end rising insecurity in the region. He said negotiation was the best way for people to get their demands and complaints, instead of resorting to violence.
“We want peace. I will talk to all agitators. You can’t get your wishes by conflict but by sitting round the table to complain,” Tinubu said.
Oshiomhole gives insight
Speaking on what to expect from the President-elect on security, former Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, who is also a close ally of Tinubu, said the president-elect would adopt non-kinetic measures, such as making education and skills acquisition compulsory for that class of citizens considered as recruitment materials for subversive activities.
Oshiomhole said: “Those we refer to as bandits are people in my view whom the country has dehumanised as young children, denied them access to education, spent all their lives begging, living from hand to mouth under the weather (and) nobody cares.
“The public can’t locate their parents and now they are in their late twenties, not educated and they must survive. Even if they must survive on begging, those who can give alms are getting fewer and now they decide to resort to what we now call banditry.”
It is, therefore, expected that the approach to insecurity in the next dispensation would combine both militaristic and human security approaches anchored on a vibrant economy and strong national integration.
In an interview, a retired General who spoke under anonymity, advised the incoming government to rejig the country’s security architecture, by appointing competent persons to head the various security agencies, without ethnic or religious bias.
He advised that the salaries and allowances of members of the Armed Forces and paramilitary should be reviewed upwards to boost their morale. (This should be at par or higher than those working in NNPCL, CBN, NCC, NASS members, etc.
“The necessary modern equipment to enable them to perform their duties should be provided as well. Deliberate recruitment should be carried out for the armed forces and the police.
Inter-agency cooperation, especially in the area of information sharing, should be a priority, instead of rivalry. The welfare of troops and their families must be given top priority, especially the families of those who paid the supreme price.
Above all, he said “More boots must be on the ground to increase the number of security personnel who must be adequately trained and equipped.”
Gabriel wrote from Abuja
