Insecurity Threatens Nigeria’s Foundations of Nationhood, Says Gbajabiamila

Udora Orizu in Abuja

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has said that the current security challenges in Nigeria are a threat to the foundations of the country’s nationhood and portends great danger for Africa and the world if it persists.
Gbajabiamila spoke when he delivered a paper titled: ‘Democracy in Challenging Times: The Role of African Parliaments in Safeguarding and Delivering on the Dividends of Democracy’ at the School of Oriental Studies, London on Wednesday.
The Speaker, however, noted that the Nigerian Government has responded to the challenges by taking certain measures such as increasing funding for the police and the military and recruiting personnel for security agencies, among others.
He said: “The most pressing of these challenges today is the national security crisis that threatens the foundations of our nationhood and portends great danger for Africa and the world if it persists. First, to address present challenges and then to build resilient institutions that can withstand uncertainty in troubled times, more than anything else, our focus must remain on the young and vibrant youth of Nigeria and Africa who have so much to offer the world and who have proven that they can thrive under challenging circumstances given half a chance.
“However, we cannot do this for as long as our present national security challenges persist. The government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has responded to the reality of our present challenges by increasing funding provisions for the police and armed forces, accelerating recruitment and training to put more boots on the ground and also acquiring weapon systems designed to give the security agencies an advantage. Now the topic of this paper speaks to ‘dividends of democracy,’ a term that has been loosely and broadly interpreted to mean different things to different people but what exactly does it mean or what is a universally acceptable definition of the phrase dividends of democracy. For me and the House, we understood that the best dividend of democracy is a just society, where individual rights are recognised and respected. Where citizens have the freedom to dream big dreams and the social resources and infrastructure to achieve those dreams.”