Chinwe Odita, Political Editor
The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Adams, has called on the Federal Government to fast-track the creation of state police, saying it is the fastest way to end insecurity in Nigeria.
Speaking at the 7th Annual Lecture of SWAAYA, publishers of Freedom Online, themed “2027 Elections, Economy, Security and Nigeria’s Future” held on Thursday, September 3, 2026 at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Adams said local recruitment would make the difference.
“If government allows state police and ensures that local government people are recruited into it, the issue of insecurity will be solved within 6 months,” he declared.
The Yoruba generalissimo and former factional leader of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, argued that policing works best when officers understand the terrain and communities they serve.
Also speaking at the event, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, expressed optimism that Nigeria’s security situation is improving due to stronger international cooperation.
“We now have partners who are not merely sympathetic but present,” the governor said.
He disclosed that in July, U.S. President Donald Trump wrote to President Bola Tinubu, describing it as “a true honor to stand with you in the fight against terrorists.”
“Behind that sentence stand a Defense Cooperation Roadmap, a joint working group led by the national security advisers of both countries, and joint operations that have already produced results,” Sanwo-Olu added.
In his remarks, lawyer and political analyst, Dr. Benson Enikuomehin, said government must target those funding and enabling insecurity rather than only confronting foot soldiers.
“The insecurity in the nation did not start from the blues. It came as a result of scheming, the planning and orchestration of some persons to destabilise the country in order to win political positions,” he said.
“When they had won, the monster that they brought forward could no longer be taken back,” he added, referencing comments previously made by former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
Dr. Enikuomehin warned that insecurity has now become a business.
“It is like what people say in my area; they are like birds dancing on the road, their drummer is nearby.
These miscreants are sponsored by some persons and the sponsors are the ones the government should target.”
Using an analogy, he said: “If a big tree is felled and you cut it at the middle, in time that tree will sprout again because the taproot still gets moisture from the ground.
So until the sponsors are taken away, these miscreants will always have moisture to continue perpetrating evil.”
He urged government to identify, prosecute and jail sponsors, and where necessary apply the ultimate sanction.
“The sponsors must be identified, prosecuted, jailed and those that deserve the highest penalty should face it, so that there’ll be peace in the nation.
Once that is done, it will be like a tree that is felled and the roots uprooted. In a short time, the whole tree will die.”
Asked if some sponsors are in government, the legal luminary said some names had been mentioned internationally.
“Some of them have been identified and even named by Saudi Arabia.
The government is aware of it and should go after them. There are those who go to negotiate and speak with them in the forest. Who are these people? How easy is it to go to them in the forest?
“When you have a person that is mad, it is those who know the madman that will go and talk to him. A stranger cannot do that.”
He concluded: “Until the sponsors of insecurity are identified, whether they are in government or outside of it, we must fish them out and bring them to book.
Once that gangrenous hand is taken away, the whole body will be saved.”
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