NEPAD advocates more synergy among security stakeholders
The Chief Executive Officer of African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for African Development (AUDA-NEPAD), Princess Gloria Akobundu, has advocated for synergy among stakeholders in addressing security challenges in Nigeria. Akobundu made the call at the closing of a two-day Summit organised by AUDA-NEPAD in collaboration with Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) on Thursday in Abuja. The theme of the summit is: `Terrorism, Insurgency and Incidents of Electoral Violence: Role of Security Agencies.” She said the objective of the summit was to find a way forward towards addressing the nation’s security challenges, adding that all must accept the situation and find common solution. AUDA-NEPAD boss commended participants for the deliberations and recommendations, adding that the agency would come out with the implementation plans for the recommendations. “We have agreed to implement the recommendations from the summit and everything discussed by all the distinguished and respected participants in this summit will be looked into. “What the president wants from every one of us is an enabling environment to grow our economy and to ensure that we live in harmony and peace. “Having said that we have to ensure the implementation but we will not stop there. “We are also going to carry out the advocacy not just at the national level but also at the local level in collaboration with the critical stakeholders who can implement properly, the outcome of this summit,” she said. Akobundu said the agency would go further to organise a round table to discuss how the implementation would be carried out. She said that INEC, national assembly, security agencies, Nigerian air force, media, civil societies, peace and conflict resolution, national and international observers and ministry of justice would be part of the round table. She added that states and local governments would be engaged on the implementation plan of the summit recommendations through the Nigerian Governors Forum. Umar Bindir, Former Secretary to Adamawa state government, said that the major objective of the summit was to address key challenges facing the country in terms of terrorism and other security issues. Bindir commended AUDA-NEPAD and NARC for bringing key stakeholders such as academics, technocrats and security agencies together to discuss ways toward addressing those challenges. According to him, the summit has addressed the technical aspect of tackling terrorism, insurgency and electoral violence, adding that if the recommendations are implemented, the country will be close to solving the security challenges. He said the participation of the youths in the summit would go a long way towards ensuring the implementation of the various recommendations. Also, a participant, Dr Oke Ikechukwu, Executive Director, Development Specs Academy, said the collaboration would lead to greater synergy in dealing with terrorism and challenges arising from elections. Ikechukwu said there should be synergy between election managers and security agencies through organised intervention and structured engagement. Read the full article