The President has assured Nigerians of the commitment of President Bola Tinubu to addressing the worsening insecurity situation in the nation.
The Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, said it would be wrong to under-emphasize the efforts of his principal in tackling security challenges confronting the nation.
Speaking with News Central on Thursday, Bwala clarified that insecurity is a global challenge that is not peculiar to Nigeria.
Addressing Rivers’s state of emergency, the presidential spokesman clarified that the President took the action to avoid a breakdown of law and order in the state.
“State of emergency is not what you declare randomly or just like that. There has to be a cogent and compelling reason as well as security report about the imminent threat not just to that state but to the nation. And then that gives the president the leverage to declare state of emergency. Because state of emergency is actually seizing the opportunity to deploy federal troops and do what you needed to do by bringing extraordinary circumstance that will suppress the insecurity and bring the state to law and order,” he said.
The former critic of President Tinubu’s policies, who turned aide, stressed that insecurity remains a global issue. He stated that the government relied on security agencies to live up to their expectations.
“Now, insecurity is a global phenomenon. There is no part of the world today where they don’t have one form of insecurity or the other. In Nigeria, we have had this problem of, I won’t use the word clash, but extrajudicial killing, whether on the part of herders, traders, farmers, bandits, armed robbers, or in fact, individuals who want to break the law and order.
“As a government, if you want to find a solution to a problem like that, what you do is that you put much of your trust in the law enforcement and intelligent platforms who have the infrastructure and the reach to be able to be able to look at the position, the cause of the problem, to look at intelligent based report on how to cop the insecurity or how to avoid it or how to suppress it,” he stated.
The presidential spokesman explained that President Tinubu’s government has performed well in addressing insecurity.
He emphasized that between April of 2024 to February of 2025, Nigeria recorded peace and victory against criminal elements.
Bwala further slammed opposition politicians and social media users for exaggerating the nation’s insecurity and under-emphasizing the government’s efforts.
He continued, “It is not what will drive impulse on the part of policymakers because of trending communication or conversation in the social media. Were it not for maybe the last, let’s say, three weeks to one month, where we see the resurgence of insecurity, in the last several months we have enjoyed peaceable security situation throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Apart from three weeks ago, if you take out these three weeks ago, let’s say from April of 2023 to say January or February, no, April of 2024 to January or February of 2025, we have very minimal insecurity situation. In fact, during those periods, we have had cases where the bandits themselves were surrendering, we have cases where territories were recovered, bandit leaders were killed, there were so many arrests of people who were subverting the government. And we have, in Abuja, reduced cases of kidnappings and criminality in the rest of Nigeria.
“Now, when it comes to insecurity, it is not like you are treating malaria, where if you administer the injection, then you have permanently for that period, dealt with insecurity. Now, insecurity is like virus. You have to keep fighting it every now and then. You have to keep fighting it.
“Unfortunately for us in Nigeria, we have a situation where oppositions don’t even know how to play the opposition the way it ought to, in the sense that they can see insecurity and even wish that it increased, so they can use that to say the government has not done anything. Meanwhile, the lives of people that will be lost will not be determined or determined by political party affiliation. So, we are working hard and will be able to deal with that.”
