A political scientist and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Prof. Pat Utomi, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to do more on the economy.
Utomi, speaking to ThisDay, stated that insecurity will continue as long as unhappiness, unemployment, poverty exist in the country.
He also hailed Buhari for taking the initiative to recognise June 12 as Democracy Day.
He said: “The life of 25 years from June 12 is a very short time. In the United States, people are still lobbying for people who ‘were convicted for one thing or the other’ about 200 years ago to get formal pardons.
“So in the life of a nation, I think that 25 years is not a terribly long period of time. At least people like us who were active in the (June 12, 1993) struggle are still around. Will it have been better if it was done 22 years ago? Sure. But I don’t think that it was bad being done eventually.
“It will start (the country’s healing process) but it won’t close because the open wounds are too many and too many people who are closer to those problems still bear personal animosities. It’s important to begin the healing process which is why I embraced the June 12 honours – it’s a good process.
“At the heart of Nigeria’s fragile security is the issue of underdevelopment and economic woes. With many hungry and angry people on the street, the country would continue to grapple with insecurity.
“I believe that and looking at the security architecture in Nigeria one important thing to bear in mind is the state of the economy. The more we have unemployed people and the more we have a bad or poor education – as most people are certificated but they’re basically illiterate – the easier it is for people who have grievances to recruit people and brainwash them to become agents of disruption of normal order.
“The general state of anomie that seems to be overtaking us in Nigeria for me significantly is economy. Therefore, the beginning of thinking insecurity is thinking a developmental state that aims to create a full employment economy – people who are educated enough in civic matters to resist those who seek to use them to abuse the state.
“Of course, there are other aspects of the security architecture that needs to be reviewed,” Utomi stated.
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