The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has urged Nigerians not to lose hope in the country amid the challenges facing the country but work collectively to ensure a better Nigeria.
Obaseki gave the charge on Tuesday while receiving members of the South-South Zone Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by its National Vice Chairman, South-south, Chief Dan Orbih.
The governor, who identified insecurity as one of the country’s biggest challenges, blamed mismanagement of the nation’s economy for the worrisome trend.
“The way the ruling party has managed and mismanaged the economy of this country is the reason why we are having the level of insecurity that we are faced today. The lawlessness, indiscipline by the ruling party has brought us to where we are.
“We should not lose hope in Nigeria but focus on how to create confidence to give our people hope by managing the country well. The challenges of insecurity just show the dysfunctionality of our federal system.
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“We run a federation; we have three tiers of government: Federal, State and Local Governments. Why should security be exclusive to the federal level? What happened to the other two? Until we address that structural imbalance, we are not going to be able to deal with security at its core.”
He continued: “The country has a major problem and it’s only the PDP that can help the President solve the problem but not his party. Let us as party men and Nigerians help rescue the nation and call on those that have the capacity to rescue Nigeria. Security is local and we can rescue this nation; that is why Edo is relatively peaceful.
“In the South-South, we must stand up to defend ourselves economically, politically and security wise. We have pretenders in the region who try to exploit the region and we must stop them.
“When you concentrate resources at the centre, you can’t get results. The security structure that we have in Nigeria has expired; we need a new security arrangement. The system that we operated till now is not tenable,” he noted.
While addressing the governor earlier, Orbih said: “The South-West and South-East have both formed a security network to protect its people. As South-South, we need to look for a way to check insecurity and protect our people in the region.
“We appeal to you to lead the stand for state policing. It’s time to rejig the security architecture of Nigeria. We urge you to lend your voice to the struggle to make the country safe for all.”