Nigeria’s former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Barrister Victor Ochei, has intimated that Nigeria cannot be described as a failed state despite the security challenges facing the country.
Mr Ochei who is also the Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage in the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, said every nation across the world has its peculiar security challenges, adding that the issue of kidnapping, insurgency and armed robbery did not emanate from the Buhari administration.
The former Speaker emphasized that a country can only be described as a failed one when the legal tender is worthless and with complete breakdown of law and order, adding that such was not the case in Nigeria.
While accepting that more needed to be done in tackling insecurity in Africa’s largest economy, Mr Ochei said the Buhari administration has recorded a lot of successes in the fight against insurgency and other criminal activities across the country and should be encouraged to do more.
Mr Ochei’s assertion comes after Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka admonished that President Muhammadu Buhari could not end the insecurity challenge in the country, sitting down in Aso Rock-the workplace and official residence of the President of Nigeria.
Prof. Soyinka called for a national mobilisation to combat the menace of insecurity bedevilling the country.
He added that Nigeria’s sovereignty had been taken away by Boko Haram terrorists, bandits and other criminal elements.
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According to him, Nigeria has reached the “stage of desperation” and the government should be willing to “pay people to come and help us” in defence against Boko Haram insurgents, bandits, and other criminal elements.
“There are those on whose shoulders must be placed the primary responsibility and that include some former Heads of State who refused to see the inevitability of what we are going through right now,” Soyinka said.
“I am very glad that the northern elite are now speaking up, boldly and practically, (and are also) now taking measures which they should have taken years ago. They’ve moved beyond the unbelievable policies of actually paying killers to stop killing. I don’t want to mention names but some of them admitted that they were paying protection money to killers instead of dealing with that cancer in the only way which they should which, is excision, to take out killers instead of giving them money.
“You don’t appease evil and we are dealing with evil; there is no other word, we are dealing with the proliferation, the enthronement of evil in the society. And unfortunately, we have encouraged its manifestation, its proliferation, its entrenchment.
“So, let them get away with the issue of sovereignty. If they have to pay people to come and help us, then call them whatever you want. Please go ahead because we’ve reached that stage of desperation.
“But I will prefer a general mobilisation in which people are trained, farmers especially are trained to work with the hoe in one hand and the gun in the other hand, ready to protect their lives, their harvests and the rest of us.
“We are not unique, history is full of those situations. I will like to see a national mobilisation. Let’s be practical.”
Right Honourable Ochei, however, conveyed a much more sober view saying that he was in support of calls for the replacement of the service chiefs which will result in the injection of new bloods into the system and recommended that they employ new strategies in the fight against the bandits and other criminal elements in the country that have been terrorizing the citizens.
He expressed optimism that the current insecurity in the country will abate and appealed for patience and understanding as well as support from all stakeholders and Nigerians especially those from the affected zones in the collective bid to win the war against Boko Haram and other security issues threatening the peaceful co-existence of Nigeria.
Right Honourable Ochei particularly commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his resilience and commitment in strengthening the institutions and making Nigeria a progressive and safer country even as he gave an assurance that the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency was irrevocably committed to making the coastal waters safe.
