Tinubu seeks community-based action against insecurity in North Central

by · The Eagle Online

President Bola Tinubu has declared that military action alone cannot bring lasting peace to the North-Central region, urging stakeholders to adopt a community-based security strategy to tackle the root causes of violence.

Tinubu gave the charge on Monday at the 2026 North Central Regional Security Summit in Makurdi, Benue State, emphasizing that security architectures must be built from the grassroots upward rather than strictly controlled from Abuja.

Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, Tinubu challenged regional leaders to move past empty rhetoric and draft practical, measurable blueprints to end banditry, terrorism, and communal clashes

While insisting that the summit must not end with another communiqué that would be forgotten, the President said recommendations from the gathering must have clear responsibilities, timelines and measurable outcomes.

“Nigeria does not need another communiqué to be filed away and forgotten. I expect this gathering to produce clear and practical recommendations, each with an identified owner, a defined timeline and a measurable outcome,” he said.

The summit, organised under the theme, “Collaborative Approaches to Strengthening Security and Regional Stability,” brought together governors and representatives of states in the North Central, security chiefs, traditional and religious leaders, ministers, community representatives, development partners and other stakeholders.

Tinubu said the North Central could not be secured by any single security agency, government or community, noting that criminals did not respect state boundaries.

“No single agency, no single tier of government and no single community can secure this region acting alone. Insecurity does not respect state boundaries or agency mandates,” he said.

He said criminals moved across local government and state boundaries while responses were sometimes slowed by rivalry, duplication of responsibilities and withholding of information, stressing that such practices must end.

The President said his administration had strengthened collaboration among the Armed Forces, the Nigeria Police Force and intelligence agencies, while new platforms and capabilities had been acquired for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

He also said the Federal Government was rebuilding Nigeria’s indigenous defence industry through the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) Act and improving the welfare of security personnel.

Tinubu commended troops and other security personnel for their sacrifices, saying terrorist commanders had been neutralised, thousands of fighters had surrendered, captives freed and normalcy restored to several communities.

He, however, acknowledged that military action alone could not guarantee lasting peace in the North Central.

“Force can suppress violence; it cannot resolve the grievances that produce it,” the President said.

He identified competition over land and water, climate change, desertification, unresolved land-use issues, weak local dispute-resolution mechanisms and the proliferation of illicit weapons as some of the factors fuelling violence.

Tinubu therefore called for a security strategy that combines kinetic operations with development, particularly in agriculture, livestock production, rural infrastructure and economic empowerment.

He said the Federal Government was pursuing the transition from open grazing to modern and settled livestock production through the Ministry of Livestock Development, stressing that the policy was aimed at protecting farmlands, improving pastoral incomes and addressing a major source of farmer-herder conflicts.

The President also cited the Reclaiming the Ungoverned Space for Economic Benefits Programme, which he said would leverage the experience of retired military personnel to secure and revive communities recovering from violence.

He added that investments in irrigation, mechanised agriculture, rural roads and access to credit under the Renewed Hope Agenda were designed to transform the region’s vulnerabilities into economic opportunities.

Addressing traditional rulers and religious leaders, Tinubu urged them to serve as the first line of early warning and trusted voices of reconciliation in their communities.

Also Read

“You know your communities intimately. You know when a stranger arrives, when a young man falls into bad company, and when a quarrel between two families is about to become a conflict between two peoples,” he said.

He also urged them to reject inflammatory rhetoric, warning that careless statements about ethnic, religious and communal differences had caused considerable damage to the country.

The President called on citizens, particularly young people and women, to cooperate with security agencies by providing timely information and refusing to shield criminals because of kinship or sentiment.

He said his administration was committed to creating opportunities that would make criminality and violence less attractive to young people.

Tinubu also called on development partners and the private sector to invest in the region, stressing that peace and economic development were mutually reinforcing.

He said every factory established, farm expanded and young people employed in the region would contribute to strengthening its security.

The President said the success of the summit would ultimately be measured by its impact on ordinary people.

“We will be judged not by the quality of our deliberations here, but by whether a farmer in this region sleeps more soundly a year from now,” he said.

In his welcome address, Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State said the summit had come at a critical time, given the challenges of banditry, farmer-herder conflicts, kidnapping, violent extremism, organised crime and community displacement across the North Central.

Alia said the region’s diversity should be regarded as a strength rather than a source of division, insisting that the multidimensional nature of insecurity required a collaborative response.

“The moment we set aside our differences to confront the enemy of insecurity, half the battle is already won,” the governor said.

He stressed that collaboration must go beyond government meetings and communiqués to include traditional institutions and community leaders who possess intimate knowledge of their communities.

According to him, community leaders often receive information about emerging threats before security agencies, making their involvement indispensable to an effective security architecture.

Alia said the North Central’s strategic importance to Nigeria’s economy made its security a national concern.

“When the North Central is insecure, it is not only our problem — the whole country feels it on its dining table,” he said.

He noted that the region supplies a significant portion of the food consumed across the country while contributing to commerce, transportation and mineral resources.

The governor said securing Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger and the Federal Capital Territory was therefore directly linked to Nigeria’s food security and economic stability.

He disclosed that he had moved to secure Benue as the host state after learning of the planned summit, describing the Benue-Plateau axis as a historically important reference point in the security challenges confronting the region.

Alia commended the Ministry of Defence and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, North Central, for organising the summit, describing it as an important effort towards localising security responses.

He said security could not be left entirely to soldiers carrying rifles, but must involve intelligence sharing, border-community engagement and efforts to address poverty and idleness.

The governor urged participants to ensure that the summit produced concrete outcomes capable of strengthening the security architecture of the North Central for years to come.

“I have sat through enough summits in my time to know how easily a good speech can substitute for a good outcome. Let this not be one of those,” Alia said.

Also speaking, the Minister of Defence, Gen Christopher Musa (retd.), said he was concerned that stakeholders were still discussing insecurity in the region despite previous interventions.

Musa said the summit was designed to listen directly to communities and other stakeholders about the threats they face and the solutions they consider workable.

He said security agencies and communities were all victims of insecurity and urged stakeholders to avoid blaming one another.

“This is not a place where we come and throw blames at each other. It is a place where we should find solutions. That’s the only way we can move forward,” Musa said.

He said the Armed Forces and other security agencies had important roles to play in protecting lives and restoring order but could not resolve the crisis without timely intelligence, effective coordination, conflict prevention, responsible governance, community engagement and economic opportunities.

Musa said the North Central remained strategically important to Nigeria’s agricultural production, commerce, national cohesion and food security, warning that insecurity in the region had consequences beyond its geographical boundaries.

He called for an honest assessment of what was working and what was failing in the current security architecture, particularly in coordination, intelligence sharing and cooperation across state boundaries.

The minister urged participants to develop practical measures capable of ending the cycle of violence.

“The killing, the shedding of blood is enough. We must have a new North Central region where peace and tranquility exist, and we can achieve that working together as brothers and sisters,” he said.

Musa also urged stakeholders to address farmer-herder tensions by preventing livestock from entering farmlands and ensuring that communities and herders worked together to resolve disputes.

He said the recommendations from the summit would be presented to President Tinubu for action.

“I want us, by the time we leave here, we should be proud of ourselves that we are providing solutions on the way forward,” he said.

He expressed confidence that Nigerians could overcome the security challenges through collective action.

“Nigerians are resilient. And when we are determined to achieve something, we will do that,” he said.

The minister said the ultimate objective was to create a safer, more prosperous and united Nigeria, expressing optimism that the renewed collaborative approach would help end killings and restore confidence across the North Central.

The summit also featured presentations by state governors and their representatives, experts and retired security personnel.

[wpadcenter_ad id='745970' align='none']

Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp