The Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal yesterday said federal and state governments were fully committed to liberating Nigeria from its current security challenges.
He stated this at the opening of a four-day Annual National Conference of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.
The theme of the conference is ‘’Security, National Integration and the Challenges of National development’’.
Tambuwal said that the nation’s security forces were being repositioned to be efficient and diligent in discharging their constitutional duties.
He explained that repositioning the agencies became necessary because insecurity was undermining the efforts of the three tiers of government to develop the country.
‘’In the past five years, resources meant for national development were often diverted to address issues of insecurity,’’ he said.
The governor said that the conference was timely and its theme apt, and urged the participants to chart the way forward for Nigeria.
Doing so, he said, was critical for the nation to restore its lost glory in the comity of nations.
He said that the state government would partner the university in training and retraining of nurses, midwives and agricultural professionals, among others.
The Guest Speaker, Prof. Tijjani Bande, stressed the need for social justice at all levels.
Bande, who is the Director-General, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State, called for a marshal plan to decisively deal with the increasing threats to security.
Represented by Prof. Salisu Muhammad from the institute, he listed some of the security threats as insurgency, kidnapping, armed robbery, dearth of infrastructure, poverty and unemployment.
Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Abdullahi Zuru, commended the state government for its enthusiasm to promote education.
He said that security and welfare of the people should be the primary purpose of government, and promised that the conference would come up with ideas that would help to move the country forward.
Zuru, observed that Nigeria’s quest for national integration and sustainable development was being undermined by the menace of insecurity.
He said that the activities of insurgents, militancy, kidnapping, armed robbery, and communal violence had compromised national development and cohesion.
He explained that management of the university was ready to provide the necessary platforms for scholars from across the country, to discuss and proffer solutions that could effectively tackle the problems.
“The university’s intellectual community is ever ready to share its modest knowledge on how to deal with the current threat of insecurity,” he said.
Zuru, promised to continue to support the faculty in its bid to promote and advance scholarship to stimulate robust discourse on topical and timely issues affecting, not only Nigeria, but humanity as a whole.