Rabiu Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party(NNPP), has said the persistent problem of insecurity in the country is very critical.
The former governor of Kano stated this in an interview with The Vanguard, discussing different sectors in the country. He said the problem of insecurity has ruined “education, religion and economy and agriculture”
“We live in a country where victims of insecurity are constantly being ignored while still being accused of exaggeration, lying, or both. The APC proved to be worse than the PDP; that’s why I left and almost everyone is disturbed about the ruling party’s inability to tackle certain challenges that the nation is facing currently which include insecurity and a failing economy.” He said
“Security affects everything in our lives. It affects education, religion, economy, and agriculture; it affects all aspects of our lives and that is why we cannot afford to take the issue of insecurity with levity.
Especially in the North, the other parts of the country are not going to wait for us in the area of development that is why we should put our differences aside and work together for a sustainable solution to the issue of insecurity”
“If you look at the issue of security which is very critical now because most people are finding it difficult to move from Point A to Point B, not only in the northern part of the country, even in the south, it’s a big issue. We have the issue of people going to the villages to destroy the places, picking up people in their houses, on the road and so on.”
So, that reminds me of my association with the military as their minister. I believe that with the right political will from the leadership in the country, with the supply of arms, ammunition and other equipment with good provision for the welfare of our armed forces and of course, our other security agencies, I have no doubts that the military has got the capacity we require for them to finish all that is happening today.
Our military remains competent and regarded as the best on the continent, going by their performances in peacekeeping missions on the continent and beyond. The challenge of insecurity in the country today requires the support of everyone, irrespective of political party or tribe.
Any right-thinking Nigerian and friends of Nigeria must condemn what is happening in the North today. We need a united and strong Nigeria where everyone goes about his or her legitimate business without fear.
Government should be more serious about security. As a former minister of defence, I never thought insecurity would go this low in this country within a short period. I always sit down to ask myself ‘how did we find ourselves in this mess?’ But as we always say, our issue is leadership
We live in a country where victims of unemployment are accused of laziness, where universities and other tertiary education institutions are frequently being shut down for months, and our children’s future is being jeopardised while leaders are busy throwing out hundreds of millions of naira to purchase party forms.
Kwankwaso also prioritised education as his major concern, boosting the work he has done in Kano state when he was a governor.
He said”My major concern is education. Education, education and education, but that does not mean we are stopping there. What I meant is that education is the key and in Kano State, we have done so well in almost all the areas that we can remember. My major concern is education. Education is my priority and we believe also in creating job opportunities for people. In Kano, we used education to tackle insecurity.
This is where and how we tackled the issue of insecurity in Kano State. We invested heavily in education. Educate the people and you get them off the streets. Aside from primary and secondary school education, we also established 24 different institutes in the state, ranging from the institute of film, reformation and sports among others”.