Nigeria Needs Collective Efforts to Tackle Insecurity, Says Yusuf

By Emma Okonji and Nosa Alekhuogie

Former Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof Usman Yusuf, has said President Muhammadu Buhari led government has failed in tackling the growing insecurity in the country, insisting that the situation calls for collective efforts of all Nigerians to put an end to brutal killings of Nigerians.

Yusuf who spoke yesterday on the Morning Show of ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, said: “It is clear to everybody that the government has failed to protect us but I am glad the nation is now paying attention. What happened recently in Borno State, where rice farmers were killed in their numbers, had been happening in the North-east in the last twelve years and all across the North-west for the last five years. It’s now we are getting media attention.“

According to him, “The government and all Nigerians must agree that things are not working and the government must involve the people . The way security is done in this country is that things come from Abuja without involving people. We are in big trouble, the insecurity in this country has increased in recent times with killing of people, raping our women, cattle being rustled, and villages burnt. Its high time the federal government puts this nation on war footing and mobilise every body.

“We have been at war for the last twelve years, the southern part of Nigeria didn’t even know there was anything happening.”

Yusuf however explained that there were not enough soldiers and policemen to handle the country’s insecurity, saying it is not a shame.

He suggested that communities and the military should train our youth to fight against killings, kidnapping and banditry.

No nation can call itself secure if it does not have control of it’s airspace, waterways and highways and forests.

We cannot be secure and will only be deluding ourselves if we think things will change and if we should continue like this. Everybody must sit up and know that security is not for the government and military alone but ours. I have friends in the United States of America who are from Somalia who call me and say they are worried about Nigeria because this is the way Somalia started and look at where we are today, Yusuf said.

“ When we speak, it’s not that we are against the government, we brought them in, and they must do what we ask. If government doesn’t protect us, then it’s of no good to us. I call on every Nigerian to speak up.

The president must talk to us and address the nation, because what we have been having is mountains of mortality and deaths in the north, we have had little or nothing from our president, even though we elected elected him and put him in the villa to protect us.”

Speaking further, Yusuf said, I’ll urge our people to continue to speak up and hold our government responsible because we voted them into power. The North west gave President Muhammadu Buhari more votes than all the other five geo political zones put together, yet he has never addressed us and has turned his back against us . Our people are dying so we have every reason to be angry.

He equally advised the use of drone technology, stating that they are cheaper to purchase and control than the big jets and bombs being thrown around.