…Urges African leaders to emulate Tinubu
Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, has said that democracy and good governance are the permanent panacea to the security challenges besieging African nations.
He argued that democracy begets good governance, which in turn begets quality health care, good education, and employment opportunities for the citizens. He insists that when good governance thrives, the conditions that encourage insecurity will diminish.
Speaking as a keynote lecturer to the participants of Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) 18, at the National Institute for Security Studies in Abuja on Thursday, Uzodimma urged African leaders to adopt the model of good governance practices evident in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government in Nigeria which he said has significantly brought down the disruptive activities of non state actors in the country.
He explained that the model involves the government not leaving any void for non state actors to exploit and unleash havoc on the nations.
Uzodimma, who spoke on the topic – NON STATE ACTORS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: Challenges Responses and Way Forward – noted that African leaders must embrace democracy and good governance to defeat insecurity.
“Non state actors, both constructive and destructive, thrive in spaces where the state is absent or ineffective. The more capable the state, the less space exists for malign actors to operate,” he declared.
He said President Tinubu had long discovered that strategy resulting in the progress the nation is making in combating insurgency and banditry.
“African nations must embrace good governance because it delivers education, healthcare, economic opportunities, and justice,the very foundations that deny disruptive non state actors the conditions they need to thrive and flourish,” he said.
Uzodimma said that even with his own experience in battling insecurity in Imo state, it had been established that when the government delivers on good governance, it makes it extremely difficult for disruptive non state actors to make progress.
The Imo State Governor disclosed that as part of the strategy to neutralise disruptive non state actors, his government invested in infrastructure across the state and created youth empowerment programmes, skills acquisition centres and entrepreneurship funds to provide alternatives to criminality.
He said the strategy became effective as young people who were gainfully engaged did not find criminality lucrative while communities were provided the necessary infrastructure that no longer made them vulnerable to manipulation.
Uzodimma said that it has become imperative for African leaders to explore more effective ways of empowering communities economically so as to dissuade the people from engaging in insecurity.
He also urged them to balance containment and engagement in the quest to find a lasting solution to insecurity, insisting that governance and security are inseparable.
“Military operations create temporary stability. But good governance creates lasting peace. So we must recognize these facts when weighing the options in Containment and engagement,” he submitted.
He, however, called on the intelligence community to brace up to the security challenges by understanding that “security is inseparable from governance, economic opportunity and justice.”
” You must be strategic thinkers who recognise that non state actors are not anomalies to be eliminated but realities to be managed.”
The ceremony was attended by intelligence chiefs from different parts of Africa.
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