The Deputy Governor of Bayelsa, Rear Admiral Gbogboria John-Jonah (rtd), has identified internal security as Nigeria’s greatest challenge.
Jonah made this known when he received a delegation of participants of Senior Course 40 of the National Institute of Policy and Strategy Studies, NIPSS, Jos, at the Government House.
The delegation was on a study tour of the state.
He called on leaders to rise to the challenge by carrying all sections of the country along.
According to the deputy governor, community policing can go a long way towards ensuring security coverage of all the nooks and crannies of the country through intelligence gathering.
He said: “If there is anything that should be of concern to any Nigerian today, it is the subject of internal security, which is the greatest challenge for us now.
“I sympathise with the security agents, who are always called to do their duties in the very complex situations that we have in the country.
“I must assure you that what is paramount in our minds is a country that is unified.
“We must all have interest of the country at heart. To accommodate the interest of various groups in the country means we must have a leadership that carrie everyone along.
“You do not need to fight to win a war; if you win without fighting the better, but if it becomes inevitable that you must fight, then you fight.
“My prayer is that Nigeria should transit to a position where we don’t have to fight to win wars; that is what we should work towards while preparing adequately for any contingency that should arise.
“The first step to take in this regard is to see how you can gather information and the essence of community policing is that you will spread the policing to everywhere and you have the capacity to gather more information from the people because the communities are involved.”
He stressed that although community policing might not solve all the problems, it would ensure coverage of larger parts of communities.
In his remarks, Group Capt. Muhammad Gumni (rtd) said that the team was in Bayelsa to learn some of the best practices and to interact with relevant stakeholders as part of their study tour as mandated by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said that part of the team’s mandate was to research on internal security and community policing issues as well as come up with recommendations that are evidence-based and fact-driven.
He said: “Bayelsa is one of the twelve states where the institute felt there are practices that the participants can learn from so that they can come up with a very good report.”