Olayomi Koiki
Lagos – The Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said that the Nigeria’s insecurity is weaponised by politicians for political and selfish reasons.
Speaking on Sunday at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association in Lagos State, Ms Okonjo-Iweala said the actions of politicians have led the nation to its current state.
Ms Okonjo-Iweala, a former Minister of Finance in Nigeria, who delivered a keynote address entitled, ‘A Social Contract For Nigeria’s Future’, asserted that there would not be any development in the country without having adequate security.
“We cannot have socio-economic development without security,” she said.
“We certainly cannot have security without development. We all know that security has been weaponised in our country for political purposes by political actors, leading partly to the situation we have now.
“We have politicians who believe that the best way to make their opponents look bad is to instigate insecurity, making it look like they can’t govern, regardless of whether this leads to loss of lives and property of innocent Nigerians. This has to stop.”
Speaking further, the WTO DG said the massive crude oil theft has affected the strengthening of the nation’s foreign reserves.
According to her, there are enough technological innovations to track crude oil theft and bring those behind the act to book, adding that there should not be any excuses not to do so.
Ms Okonjo-Iweala added: “A second aspect of security relates to the security of national assets. Nigerians have seen for years how organised crude oil theft on a massive scale seriously undermines the economic and financial health of the country.
“All Nigerians must agree that stealing of our national assets of any type is intolerable and must be stopped.
“There is so much technology available now to track such theft, and there must be no more excuses for inaction.”
– Insecurity and violence in Nigeria –
For more than a decade, civilians in Nigeria have faced multiple security threats and risk of atrocities as result of attacks, kidnappings and extortion by various non-state armed groups.
Since the start of 2024 civilians have faced intensified violence across Nigeria, and near-daily attacks by armed groups resulting in kidnappings and other abuses against civilians.
Armed groups and gangs, including so-called “bandits,” have – for many years – perpetrated widespread atrocities, including murder, rape, kidnapping, organized cattle-rustling and plunder. Armed herdsmen are also destroying vast swaths of farmland, prompting many farmers to abandon their land out of fear of attack.