By Grant Onyeke
Dr Adewole Adebayo, the 2027 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has advocated good governance, increased investment and improved education as measures to tackle insecurity and other challenges facing Nigeria.
Adebayo made the call in a statement on Wednesday following his address at the Arewa Awareness Summit on Unity Against Insecurity in Kaduna.
He said the country’s challenges required practical solutions, stressing that effective leadership and accountability were critical to addressing insecurity and promoting development.
“All the problems we have discussed today are my problems. They are challenges that I am committed to solving,” Adebayo said.
The SDP candidate said Northern Nigeria’s population should be harnessed as an economic advantage through investment in human capital, agriculture and other productive sectors.
“The North is the future of Nigeria, the future of the Sahel and the future of West Africa. Its population is an asset,” he said.
Adebayo urged Nigerians to use the democratic process to elect leaders who understood their concerns, noting that citizens had the power to influence governance through their choices.
“We are not as powerless as we think. We live in a democracy, and nobody can come to power except through the will of the people,” he said.
He called for increased investment in agriculture, saying the sector had the potential to create jobs, improve livelihoods and contribute to national development.
Adebayo also identified corruption as a major barrier to progress, stressing that institutional reforms would yield limited results without addressing corruption.
“No matter how you design or refine the system, if you do not deal with corruption, the problems will remain,” he said.
He further emphasised the need to expand access to quality education, describing education as a key driver of human capital development.
The SDP presidential candidate urged stakeholders to focus more on implementing solutions rather than repeatedly analysing the country’s challenges.
“We should spend less time describing our problems and more time implementing solutions,” Adebayo said.
Earlier, the Director-General of the Arewa for Peace, Unity, Cohesion and Development Initiative (ACI), Dr Abdullahi Idris, said the summit was convened to develop practical solutions to insecurity in Northern Nigeria.
He said participants were expected to develop strategies that would strengthen dialogue between communities and the government while promoting collective action against insecurity.
Also speaking, Prof. Mohammed Tasiu Dan Sabo, who represented Prof. Ahmad Rufai, said military operations alone could not guarantee lasting peace.
“There has to be a link between security, justice, governance and livelihoods,” he said, stressing that “lasting peace cannot be achieved through military operations alone.”
The one-day summit brought together traditional rulers, security agencies, religious leaders, academics, civil society organisations and youth groups to deliberate on practical approaches to addressing insecurity across the North. (NAN)
Edited by Tosin Kolade