Rauf Aregbesola, Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, is confident that the country will resolve its current security problems, describing them as “temporary issues that will soon fade away.”
Aregbesola made the remark during a passing out parade for members of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps’ (NSCDC) Formed Female Squad at the corps’ Training College in Katsina State on Thursday.
“Let me assure Nigerians that our current situation is a temporary phase which will soon pass,” the former Osun State governor said during the event. “President Muhammadu Buhari has given the law enforcement agencies a renewed charge to route all troublemakers and restore peace to every troubled community in Nigeria. We shall not rest or tire until this task is completed.”
While urging Nigerians to help security agencies combat the various crimes plaguing the country, he clarified that only a few criminals are causing the country’s peace to be disrupted.
Stating that without the collaboration of the citizens, security agents will find it daunting in tackling Nigeria’s challenges.
“It is now the bounden duty of the remaining law-abiding citizens to isolate and give up the criminals embedded in our communities for there to be peace,” the minister added.
“These kidnappers, bandits, terrorists, ritual killers, and other criminals are members of our families, walk the same streets, work in the same farms and bushes, and trade in the same markets as we all do.
“It is far easier for security agencies to arrest one member of a family, where the family cooperates with law enforcement agencies than to put families and a section of a community under interdiction.”
The minister also urged security personnel to confront Nigeria’s insecurity problems by rethinking how to provide a safer and more stable atmosphere, which he believes is a prerequisite for growth.
“This training therefore couldn’t have come at a better time as it provides the Corps personnel with the requisite knowledge and skill required to confront head-on, the security challenges confronting us as a nation,” Aregbesola explained.
He also congratulated the chosen corps members on completing their training and making history, but urged them to stand out in their duties by ensuring the country benefits from their education.
“They should guard against and extirpate the rising tide of insecurity as well as kidnapping of students for ransom among other challenges,” the 63-year-old charged them.
“While promising that government will continue to do its utmost best to enhance the capacity of the Corps to effectively deliver on its mandate through adequate funding and provision of modern equipment and other logistics, I wish to charge the Corps personnel to imbibe the spirit of patriotism, civility, and professionalism in the discharge of their duties.”
