Constitutional lawyer and Chairman of Eagle FM, an Ijebu based radio station, Asiwaju Kunle Kalejaye (SAN), has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take decisive action by declaring a national emergency on banditry, kidnapping and other forms of terrorism across the country.
Kalejaye made the plea in response to the increasing public concern over insecurity, branding the wave of violence as a national shame to the government and the people of Nigeria and the world community.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said that the Tinubu administration must take more far-reaching and decisive actions to stem the growing security problem before it further erodes the nation’s security architecture, The Guardian reports.
He noted that failing to take urgent action may dent public confidence in the country’s security agencies, especially the Nigerian Army, which may seem unable to protect the country enough from elements of criminality.
Public confidence in the military had already been badly eroded, partially because bandits, kidnappers and other criminal elements were increasingly disguising themselves in military uniforms while they carried out their activities, Kalejaye said.
Unless immediate measures are made to reverse the trend, the prestige and integrity that have historically been associated with the armed forces could continue to decline, leaving military people and symbols open to public contempt and suspicion, he said.
The legal scholar while commending the government’s efforts to tackle insecurity, however, insisted that such efforts may yield limited benefits unless accompanied by a clear national proclamation to show Nigeria’s collective will to face and defeat terrorism.
Declaring a national emergency on terrorism would be a clear message that the nation absolutely condemns violence and is prepared to use all available resources to counter it, he said.
The Ibadan-based legal icon, also, called on the federal government to develop and implement real methods to destroy terrorist activities, saying that the culprits had become more bold by the day.
He said illegal enterprises were not just the preserve of rural communities anymore but were now migrating into the country’s big towns and cities.
He said it is a situation where the country is continually threatened by insecurity and where democracy is celebrated, which negates the spirit of democratic administration and portrays the country in a negative light.
Kalejaye underlined that the protection of life and property is one of the primary constitutional responsibilities of any government.
Effective management of security, he said, had to be proactive and not reactive.
This also entails the early identification of dangers to national security and neutralising them before they become too powerful to contain, he said.
He urged President Tinubu to quickly declare a state of emergency on terrorism and associated crimes, noting that such a declaration would signal Nigeria’s absolute condemnation of these activities and its determination to stamp them out.
“It is left for President Tinubu to salvage our nation at this perilous time,” Kalejaye insisted.
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