Tinubu tasks North-Central stakeholders on collective action against insecurity

Says military action alone won’t end insecurity, urges communities to expose criminals

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President Bola Tinubu has called on traditional and religious leaders, communities, youths, women, development partners, and the private sector in the North-Central to strengthen collaboration with government and security agencies in tackling insecurity and building lasting peace across the region.

The President made the call on Monday during the 2026 North-Central Regional Security Summit held in Makurdi, Benue State.

President Tinubu, who was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, particularly urged traditional and religious leaders to serve as the first line of early warning and trusted voices of reconciliation in their communities, while calling on citizens to share intelligence with security agencies and refuse to shield criminals on the basis of kinship or sentiment.

The President also called on women and youths to take their rightful place in peacebuilding efforts, while urging development partners and the private sector to see the North-Central not merely as a region requiring assistance, but as an investment destination with enormous economic potential.

The President said the theme of the summit, “Collaborative Approaches to Strengthening Security and Regional Stability”, was apt, saying no single security agency, tier of government, or community could effectively secure the region acting in isolation.

He noted that insecurity transcends state boundaries and institutional mandates, requiring security agencies and communities to overcome rivalry, duplication of efforts, and the withholding of vital information.

He said: “No single agency, no single tier of government and no single community can secure this region acting alone. Insecurity does not respect state boundaries or agency mandates. Criminals move freely across local government areas while our responses are too often slowed by rivalry, duplication and the withholding of information. That must end.”

President Tinubu said his administration had deliberately strengthened the nation’s security architecture through enhanced collaboration among the Armed Forces, Nigeria Police Force, and intelligence services, as well as the acquisition of new platforms and advanced capabilities for the military.

He added that the administration was rebuilding Nigeria’s indigenous defence industry through the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) Act, while improving the welfare of troops to enhance their operational effectiveness.

Tinubu commended the Armed Forces and other security agencies for the gains recorded against terrorists and other criminal elements, noting that terrorist commanders had been neutralised, thousands of fighters had surrendered, captives had been rescued, and normalcy had been restored to several communities.

He paid tribute to servicemen and women, police officers, and other security personnel operating in the North-Central, particularly those who had paid the supreme price in defence of the country.

President Tinubu, however, cautioned that military action alone could not guarantee sustainable peace in the region, stressing the need to address the underlying social, economic, and environmental factors fuelling insecurity.

He identified competition over land and water, climate change, desertification, unresolved land-use issues, weak local dispute-resolution mechanisms, and the proliferation of illicit weapons as some of the conditions sustaining violent conflicts.

“Military action alone will not deliver lasting peace to the North Central. Force can suppress violence; it cannot resolve the grievances that produce it,” he said.

The President said the Federal Government’s response would, therefore, continue to combine kinetic operations with developmental interventions.

He cited the Federal Government’s efforts through the Ministry of Livestock Development to transition from open grazing to modern, settled livestock production as part of measures to protect farmlands, improve pastoral livelihoods, and remove a major trigger of conflict.

He also highlighted the Reclaiming the Ungoverned Space for Economic Benefits Programme of the Ministry of Defence, which is designed to deploy the experience of retired military personnel towards securing and reviving communities recovering from violence.

President Tinubu said investments in irrigation, mechanised agriculture, rural roads, and access to credit under the Renewed Hope Agenda were aimed at transforming the region’s vulnerabilities into economic opportunities.

Addressing traditional and religious leaders, the President said their closeness to the grassroots placed them in a strategic position to detect emerging threats and prevent disputes from escalating into wider conflicts.

“To our revered traditional rulers and religious leaders, you hold an authority that no uniform confers. You know your communities intimately. You know when a stranger arrives, when a young man falls into bad company, and when a quarrel between two families is about to become a conflict between two peoples.

“I ask you to be our first line of early warning and our most trusted voice of reconciliation,” he said.

He also urged them to firmly reject inflammatory rhetoric from whatever quarters, warning that the country had suffered considerably from reckless rhetoric around ethnic, religious, and other differences.

President Tinubu similarly called on communities to take greater responsibility for their security by providing timely information to security agencies and refusing to harbour criminal elements.

“Security begins with you. I call on every citizen to share information with the security agencies, to refuse to shield criminality out of kinship or sentiment, and to resist those who would recruit our sons into violence for a handful of naira,” he said.

“To our women, who bear the heaviest burden of every conflict and yet remain the most effective peacebuilders in every community, your place is not at the margins of this conversation but at its centre.

“And to our young people, your energy is this region’s greatest asset. This administration is committed to expanding the opportunities that make a rifle a far less attractive prospect than a livelihood,” he assured.

The President further directed the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Gwabin Musa (retd), OFR, to transmit the outcomes of the summit to him and report on the implementation of its recommendations.

He warned against producing another communiqué that would be “filed away and forgotten,” insisting that the summit must come up with practical recommendations backed by clearly identified responsibilities, timelines, and measurable outcomes.

“I expect this gathering to produce clear and practical recommendations, each with an identified owner, a defined timeline and a measurable outcome.

“We will be judged not by the quality of our deliberations here, but by whether a farmer in this region sleeps more soundly a year from now,” President Tinubu said.

He commended the Ministry of Defence and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, North-Central, for organising the summit, which is the second in a series of regional security engagements following the South-East Regional Security Summit held in Umuahia on July 30, 2026.

The President declared the 2026 North-Central Regional Security Summit open, commended the government and people of Benue State for hosting the summit, and praised the resilience of the people of the North-Central in the face of security challenges.

Earlier, the Minister of Defence, retired General Christopher Musa, said the summit was organised to hear from the people of the region about the real threats on the ground and find common ground to address the challenges.

While noting that everyone was interested in security in the region, Musa commended the people for not giving up on themselves. He harped on the need not to allow cattle to graze on farms, saying collective efforts should be made to ensure farmers are safe in their communities and farms while also ensuring that livestock production thrives without friction.

He pledged that the Federal Government remained committed to improving security across the nation and tackling challenges that undermine it.

Welcoming participants to the North-Central Zonal Security Summit, Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, said the theme of the summit, “Collaborative Approaches to Strengthening Security and Regional Stability”, could not have come at a more critical time.

He noted that its focus on banditry, farmer-herder conflicts, kidnapping, violent extremism spillover, organised crime, and community resilience spoke directly to the realities confronting communities across the North-Central region.

According to him, Benue State, and indeed other parts of the North-Central, face a unique security challenge that requires a collaborative security strategy. “It is my considered position that our diversity should be a source of strength rather than weakness. What are those things that unite us, and what are those things that divide us and breed insecurity?”

Alia called for the setting aside of differences to confront the enemy of insecurity, saying that if that was done, half the battle was already won.