The Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, says it is about time NAN charts a course on pathways to peace and economic prosperity in the continent.

Ali stated this in Abuja on Monday while speaking on the agency’s Inaugural International Lecture on Insecurity in the Sahel slated for Thursday, Oct. 3.

The topic of the lecture is “Insecurity in the Sahel (2008-2024): Dissecting Nigeria’s Challenges – Genesis, Impacts and Options’’.

He said the lecture is expected to interrogate the root causes of the violence troubling the Sahel.

According to Ali, given its strategic importance in the last 48 years of existence, NAN must play a very pivotal role in giving direction on political, economic, and social issues.

“What NAN is doing is to tell the world that beyond reporting factually and objectively, it can intervene on contemporary issues with the view of finding pathways to a greater nation and continent,’’ he said.

The managing director explained that the lecture was aimed at igniting an international conversation around flashpoints in the Sahel.

“Security is the basic; without security, a nation cannot make progress, there will be no economic and social development.

“We’ve seen it in the Northwest where bandits take front row seats and conducting their nefarious activity with impunity, without any fear of reprisals.

“Agriculture has been suffering in the Northeast where there is insurgency,’’ he said.

Ali further explained that the lecture would look at a wide range of issues on insecurity while proffering ways government could tackle the menace headlong.

“We are not looking at insecurity from a local or national level; we’re taking it on a wider paradigm, a bigger scale.

“So. we think there is a nexus also between what’s happening in the Sahel and here, just like we believe that there is a nexus between corruption and insecurity,’’ he added.

Ali expressed the optimism that the outcomes of the lecture, after being compiled and sent to appropriate quarters, would contribute to finding lasting solutions to the insecurity issues in the Sahel.

NAN reports that the lecture is also expected to provide public discourse on the debilitating challenges of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, militancy and violent ultra-nationalism among others in the country.

It will also examine its impact on Nigeria’s territorial integrity and lay bare the options available to policy strategists based on the country’s security architecture. (NAN)(www.nannnews.ng)

Edited by Rotimi Ijikanmi/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu