….may adopts UAE system
•Report by Mudasir Opeyemi
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has promised to tackle insecurity in Nigeria by adopting technology.
Atiku said he may also adopt the security system being in use in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to tackle Nigeria’s security challenges if given mandate to lead the country next year.
Speaking during Channels Television’s Peoples Townhall on Sunday alongside his running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, Atiku said the UAE system is primarily based on adopting technology to monitor what is going on across the country.
He maintained that adopting the UAE approach by monitoring everybody’s movement will discourage people from committing crime.
“The security architecture I admire is the UAE security architecture and it’s primarily based on monitoring. You don’t see policemen in uniform in UAE, you don’t see soldiers but virtually everybody is being monitored on a daily basis and particularly if you are a visitor, from the moment you step into the country or go out, anywhere you are going you are being watched and that is the deployment of technology as far as security is concerned.
“That is to say we are aiming for the ultimate, but we have to deal with our current security structure. How we reform it to ensure that we give our people a more secure environment to undertake their own legitimate businesses wherever they may be, whether in the rural areas, semi urban and so on,” Atiku said.
Atiku further stressed that he’s yet to fully understand what Boko Haram means adding that the issue of Boko Haram still looks like imagination to him.
He said when he was serving in Borno State (when it was the North East)as a Customs Officer, he was patrolling the entire North East and remote areas.
“I still cannot find a place in the Borno area where any body can hide and cannot the seen. I cannot honestly understand the Boko Haram phenomenon.
“Sometimes when returning from Europe 30 feet above, I could see a man walking in Borno State. So, where is the place to hide?
“To the extent that they said there is a place called Sambisa, I have been there i didn’t see a forest it’s just shrubs here and there.
“We have deployed the Nigerian military which used to be the one of the best in the World they have fought in a number of theatres in the international arena and excelled.
“And here we are deploying the Nigerian military with all its might yet we cannot eliminate them
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The former Vice President said his plan is the immediate requirement that any government should do now because there is a security challenge in every geopolitical zone and each geopolitical zone is peculiar.
Speaking about how to resolve agitations by separatists including the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) if elected in the 2023 elections,Atiku said the demands of pro-Biafra agitators were not beyond negotiation.
“The IPOB issue in the South-East is basically, as far as my understanding is concerned, about the realisation of Biafra. Is it possible for Biafra to be realised today? How? By negotiations or by going through another civil war, which we can’t afford to?
“I believe we should be able to negotiate with the agitators from the South-East, as far as the issue of Biafra is concerned. We believe what they need is more autonomy as far as their sub-region is concerned..
“That is why we proposed restructuring of the country, by which we mean devolution of more powers and resources. After all, there was Eastern Nigeria in the First Republic and they developed at their own pace and with their own resources,”he said.
Highlighting on what he described as middle-of-the-road solutions, the former Vice President said he saw no reason restructuring and devolution of more powers and resources could not quench the various agitations of the separatist groups.
“The agitations are in different perspectives, to my understanding. One of them is political and political has the sense of ‘how does the South-East participate in power sharing in the country?’ And we are in a democratic society.
“There is no one single geopolitical zone in this country that on its own can achieve political power without crossing the Niger or being in alliance with other geopolitical zones.
“I think this is what they should begin to think: How do they partner with other parts of the country to secure political power for their own interests or to protect their own interests. I think these are the ways to go as far as agitations by IPOB are concerned,” Atiku said