Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
Following the spate of insecurity in the country, the Charles Ugomuoh Foundation for Good Governance and Humanitarian Initiative, has said political will is the only panacea to end the malaise in the country.
The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Charles Ugomuoh Foundation, AIG Charles Ugomuoh (retd), made the submission during the inauguration of the foundation in Abuja.
Ugomuoh, a public security expert and a former senatorial candidate in the 2019 general election, stated that in order to put an end to banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery and other forms of insecurity in the country, there must be political will on the part of the government.
He maintained that with the government exercising the political will to fight insecurity, every other thing will fall in place.
Ugomuoh said: “Honestly, there has to be a political will by the government. With the political will, every other issue will fall in place.”
Speaking further, Ugomuoh said security cannot take place in the absence of sufficient intelligence, even as he said synergy amongst the security agencies is very important in order to tackle insecurity.
“There must be synergy amongst the security agencies. There should be synergy. Now, it is easy to advise. Go and flush out the kidnappers, destroy the kidnappers den. Flush out the bandits, destroy their den.
“It is easy to advise, but it must go with the political will. And the field officers must be provided with the adequate equipment to fight and also to protect themselves.
“Inasmuch as we citizens are talking of human rights for ourselves, when you deploy a soldier or a policeman to a front without enough equipment, you are also depriving him of human right because he is also liable to lose his life,” Ugomuoh added.
Ugomuoh further emphasised on the issue of synergy amongst the security agencies, while also calling on the government to give listening ears to security matters.
According to Ugomuoh, “Government should listen because you talk, you tell them this and it becomes a jamboree. It ends up in the file and it is not looked at.”
Earlier, Ugomuoh said he was establishing the foundation to close the gap in the human capital development index of the country.
He noted that there were all forms of insecurity in the country such as food insecurity, health insecurity, including general insecurity.
Also speaking, a trustee of the foundation, Professor Godwin Owoh, a professor of economics, said the foundation was focusing on the state of the nation from three perspectives namely: Economy, politics and security.
Owoh added that the economy which was situated within the COVID-19 context, was likely to increase the appetite for corruption in the country since a lot of funds were flowing in left and right, with very weak financial reporting and very weak oversight function by the National Assembly.