Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo on Saturday, said the nation’s security challenge demand that leaders device smarter means of curbing the menace.
He added that the country must begin to manufacture its own weapon if it must quell insurgency as the sale of weapon to tackle terrorism has been politicised.
Speaking at the grand finale of Obafemi Awolowo University’s 45th convocation ceremony held at the school’s Amphitheatre in Ile-Ife, he said hope is on the rise, as some Nigerian companies have began manufacturing of military equipments.
“The Insecurity problem that we are experiencing, the rise of terrorism in some part of the country, the access to illegal weaponry by non state actors tells us that we must be smarter in policing the country using smart drones and surveillance equipment.
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“The politicisation of means of purchase of weapons tells us that we must manufacture our own arms. Already, some Nigerian companies led by Profex, a Nigerian company is already manufacturing APC’s and exporting it to several African countries.
“Other companies and Government owned DICON, is manufacturing different types of ammunition. Yes, the challenges are much but the means to resolve it and the elements are here already. Young Nigerians are rising to the challenges facing the country.
“It is however said, right here in Ife, that it is effective economic planning and even more, effective implementation, that could help us to avoid a disaster and make phenomenal progress. And so, our National Development Plan 2021-2025, is an attempt to chart a path for the future, the future belongs far more to you graduands, so you need to pay more attention to it”, he added.
In his convocation lecture, Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akerodolu, SAN, lamented over country’s faulty structural arrangement, saying the federal government need to unburden itself with too much power to douse rising ethnic national agitations.
Delivering a paper titled, “When Is A Nation? Exploring the socio-Political Crisis In Post Independence Nigeria”, he stressed that the diverse ethnic nationalities in the nation should be allowed to thrive on their own, noting that Items such as education, health care, judiciary, police, prison services and resource control should be on the Concurrent list.
He lamented that the states are almost entirely dependent on hand-outs from the Federal Government, saying no state is empowered to take independent decisions for the benefit of its people.
“Approvals must come from the centre on virtually everything. This Constitution vests all the lands in a State in the State Governor who holds same in trust for the people. The incessant attacks on farmers by criminal herders, who destroy the crops of these long suffering downtrodden members of the society, expose the impotence of State Governors.
“Strange elements have been invading states to prospect for mineral resources without recourse to the authorities. Farmlands have been destroyed and the people are constantly exposed to ecological disasters to assuage greed.
“Unscrupulous elements grant prospecting licenses to people who move into lands with marauders. The security of these States is compromised, heavily”, he said.
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