There cannot be meaningful economic development in a country bedeviled by insecurity.
This was the submission of discussants at the Third Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers held on Friday at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
The discussants, Mike Ejiofor, a former Director of the Department of State Services, and Prof Akpan Ekpo, a former Director General of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management, posited: “No security, no economic development.”
Dr. Mathew Hassan Kukah, the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, had delivered the Keynote Speech on the theme: “Economy, Security And National Development: The Way Forward.”
Ejiofor pointedly said: “Security is not negotiable for any nation that wants its economy to thrive.”
According to him, if there is no security, there can’t be solid foundation for economic growth and development, stressing that nobody will invest in an environment that is not secured.
Ejiofor lamented the presence of cabals that hijack successive governments in the country.
In his words: “The truth remains that people hijack leadership in every government because every government has its own cabal but it’s more pronounced in this government.”
Ejiofor noted that kidnapping, banditry and Boko Haram have aggravated insecurity across Nigeria, contributing to relocation of big businesses out of Nigeria, hence massive loss of jobs.
Proffering the way forward, the former boss of the DSS advocated good leadership, stressing that leaders must live by example.
He also enjoined the leadership to come up with deliberate polices to eradicate
poverty, unemployment, injustice to aid improvement in security situation, adding: “It is our collective responsibility to make Nigeria work.”
Ejiofor, while congratulating GOCOP for its commitment to sanitising the online space, said: “Greatest challenge in the country is fake news.”
He said this must be fought by credible online media practitioners.
Also discussing Bishop Kukah’s presentation, Prof. Ekpo also posited that there can’t be meaningful growth and economic development if there is no security.
He noted that unemployment and underemployment are major causes of insecurity.
While submitting that security is a function of leadership and followership, Expo charged the government of the day to put things in proper perspective to get the security issue right.
