Catholic group proffers solutions to insecurity

By Chinelo Obogo

Catholic Men Organisation (CMO) has urged governments, at all levels, to take drastic actions to protect lives and property of citizens.

Chairman, St. Leo’s chapter of CMO, Maurice Offiong, stated this at a forum tagged: ‘A day with the Parish Priest’ with the theme: “Insecurity in Nigeria: Implication for ethnic and religious harmony” at the church’s in Ikeja.

Offiong said the security problems in the country calls for urgent attention and drastic actions from all, saying it is the masses, who cut across all ethnic and religious divides, that bear the lion’s share of the brunt of the problem.

A security expert, Adetayo Oluwaseyi, who spoke alongside other experts at the event advised President Muhammadu Buhari to commence the process of restructuring the country and recruitment of more Nigerians into the military to tackle insecurity.

Oluwaseyi, who was a principal staff officer of the Department of State Services and one of the security details attached to former president Olusegun Obasanjo, said Boko Haram is the result of the inaction of governments in the past to pay attention to a growing number of extremists who participated in wars and undergone trainings in Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and Algeria before returning to the country.

“The president must start the restructuring of Nigeria to douse the tension and agitation in different parts of the country. We also need to start massive recruitment into the military for emergency military service as a way of creating employment for jobless youths,” Oluwaseyi said.

Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Alfred Adewale Martins, represented by Wilfred Nwachukwu, described the annual forum as one where thought-provoking solutions are generated and affirmed that with God, the challenges in the country would soon be over.

Former presidential candidate and Chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria, Yunusa Tanko, said the turnaround for the country must include a demand for apologies from political leaders who for years spoke to citizens’ ethnic, religious and political inclinations in order to remain in power.