Abdulsalami, Ibn Chambas to Grace Inaugural NAN Lecture on Banditry, Kidnapping

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

Former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and erstwhile President ECOWAS Commission as well as African Union Chief Mediator on Sudan, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, are among top dignitaries who have indicated intention to grace the Inaugural Annual International Lecture of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to enliven public discourse on the debilitating challenges of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, militancy and violent ultranationalism, among others in the country.

The agency in a statement issued yesterday  in Abuja by its Managing Director, Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, said Abdulsalami and  Chambas will attend the lecture billed for October 3.

The lecture holds at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre, Abuja.

According to the statement, Abdulsalam, who was Nigeria’s head of state for six months in 1998, will chair the epochal forum, while Chambas, a renowned expert on security and conflict resolution, will speak on the topic, “Insecurity in the Sahel (2008-2024) : Dissecting Nigeria’s Challenges—Genesis, Impacts and Options”.

Also invited are President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and members of the Federal Executive Council as well as the top echelon of Nigeria’s political establishment and  top brass of the military.

The statement said members of the diplomatic corps and the academic community and media executives from local and African news agencies had also signified intention to attend.

It added that the sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu  Sa’ad Abubakar,  Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, and Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe are leading traditional rulers that are also invited.

“What are the causal factors responsible for driving violence in this benighted region?

“Who are the non state actors at the heart of this ring of violence? How is it impacting on Nigeria? How do we as a nation contend with this present and clear danger?

” What prognosis can we make going forward? The lecture is expected to elicit responses to these posers,” Ali said.

Equally, he added that the lecture would also interrogate the root causes of the violence troubling the Sahel, examine its impact on Nigeria’s territorial integrity and lay bare the options available to policy strategists based on the country’s security architecture.