Victor EzejaTo tackle the menace of insecurity in Nigeria, Cross River State Governor Prof. Ben Ayade has hinted that the Federal Government needs to have a strategic collaboration with the international community.
Prof. Ayade said such partnership is necessary as according to him, Nigeria’s security problem is partly linked to her mineral resources utilization which some countries in the international community are interested in.
Ayade made the assertion as guest at Channels TV SunriseDaily program on Thursday morning where he talked about his strategies for addressing insecurity, power and economic issues when elected as president of Nigeria.
The Cross River governor who is serving his second term in office had on Tuesday while speaking with newsmen after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, declared his intention to run for presidency under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 election.
Detailing his plans for security, Ayade said the first thing to do in seeking international collaboration is to identify countries of interest and strategically have an alliance with them to provide technology, intelligence and other necessary supports needed to combat the raging security crisis in different parts of the country.
He said, “The manipulation of our natural resources to become the source of our disadvantage is very huge. If you check what happens to African nations, once you have natural resource, it becomes a source of your crisis. Either you have an Ebola Virus coming after you or HIV coming after you; there is an international conspiracy that is so orgasmic that what is required is the unity between the led and the leaders.
“How to get international support when the source of the problem actually has International connection? That complexity requires sophistry of the president to know how to move to where and which country to have his own strategic allignment with. Today, if you go to some of these North African countries, young men are being hired at $120 a month to come into Nigeria and kill, so much that some of the locals begin to depend on terrorists to protect them. The kidnapping that we just saw in a train, are they not releasing them for a ransom? So, even the locals are beginning to say, oh! kidnapping is a better trade than trading in cattle,” the governor observed.
He observed that such criminal activities by bandits and terrorists have created a new menatlity among the people and has sociological implications. He equally noted that Nigeria is being attacked by terrorists from two fronts- one, Boko Haram drawing it’s basis from Al-Qaeda and ISWAP linking with ISIS.
Speaking further on insecurity, he linked it to poverty and unemployment which makes the young people to get easily recruited by criminal organisations both locally and internationally. He gave examples of how he created a social welfare programme for people without jobs in his state to disuade them from indulging in criminality, and said his first strategy of addressing poverty is to reduce unemployment to the barest minimum.
Ayade also said he would consider deploying necessary technology for combating insecurity and not necessarily using human contacts all the time.
“We need to embrace technology; have a satelite positioning system that allows one an infred spectroscopy into what happens within our theater of war across the Northern hemisphere of our country. We also need to have a situation where we can have a direct attack without using human contact, which means employing the technology of drones.”
Speaking about power, Ayade who is also a former senator, said the Federal Government is carrying the burden of having stable power supply and should therefore decentralize the structure of delivery for efficiency. He said each region should be allowed to have a specific power structure that generates and distributes may be under private sector control for effective management.
He equally hinted on investment in renewable energy sources to boost power supply, noting that many countries are now moving away from gas-to-power model of electricity supply to renewable energy technologies.
“The solution to power is simple; regionalise the country. We have a massive atlantic coastline from where we can use hydro technology as a way to produce electricity to serve the whole of the country.
“I think the model we used in the telecoms should be applied in the power sector. If we have six major power generation and distribution companies, make them fully independent, and let them only pay royalties to the Federal Government, you will find out that Siemens or GE would be able to run their systems and generate electricity. Kano and Jigawa have large deposits of silica, best candidates for production of photovoltaic cells, so you create solar energy there.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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