Alia calls for unified North Central security strategy

Gov. Hyacinth Alia has called for a collaborative security strategy to tackle banditry, kidnapping, farmer-herder conflicts and organised crime in the North Central geopolitical zone.

Alia made the call on Monday in his welcome address at the North Central Zonal Security Summit in Makurdi.

The governor said the summit’s theme, “Collaborative Approaches to Strengthening Security and Regional Stability“, was timely, given the security challenges confronting communities across the region.

He said the multidimensional nature of insecurity required coordinated action by governments, security agencies, traditional institutions, community leaders and other stakeholders.

According to him, setting aside differences to confront insecurity would significantly improve the region’s chances of defeating the challenge.

“Collaboration cannot just live in communiques. It must reach our traditional institutions and our community leaders, the custodians of our land.

“They know things we do not know. They hear things before we hear them. Any strategy that leaves them out is, frankly, incomplete,” he said.

Alia noted that the North Central’s ethnic diversity should be a source of strength rather than division.

He said the region’s cultural heritage was fundamentally oriented toward peace, stressing that insecurity in the zone had consequences for the entire country.

The governor described the region as strategically important to Nigeria’s socioeconomic development because of its agricultural, mineral and other economic resources.

“When the North Central is insecure, it is not only our problem; the whole country feels it on its dining table,” he said.

Alia said Benue and other North Central states played critical roles in feeding the nation, adding that securing the region was essential to national food security.

He commended the Ministry of Defence and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement for organising the summit.

The governor said the initiative would help localise security efforts through intelligence sharing, engagement with border communities and stronger community-level peacebuilding mechanisms.

He also stressed the need to address poverty and idleness, which, according to him, could be exploited by hostile elements to recruit vulnerable people.

Alia said the summit demonstrated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to addressing security challenges across the country.

He urged participants to identify fully with the objectives of the summit and ensure that its operational outcomes were implemented.

“Let it be remembered for the security architecture it leaves behind, something Benue and the North Central, and indeed Nigeria, can still point to five years from now,” he said.

The governor expressed appreciation to participants for attending the summit and welcomed them to Benue, the host state.