Insecurity: Oyetola Calls For Synergy Between Govts, Traditional Institutions

Governor, The State of Osun, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola says the current scale of security challenges in the country requires a more cordial relationship and engagement between the government and the traditional rulers for a more effective approach to security delivery.

Oyetola said this on Wednesday in Osogbo while speaking at a National Summit on Security organised by the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding. The theme of the summit is ‘Security and Insecurity in Nigeria; The Role of Traditional Institutions.’

According to him, the traditional institution is the closest body to the grassroots and the custodian of the people’s culture and tradition. “All crimes emanate from homes, communities, villages and towns. The traditional institution is, therefore, naturally the first port of call on security matters,” he added.

The governor therefore, advocated that government should regularly engage with traditional rulers while programmes such as the security summit should also be consistently held at the state and national levels for optimum effect.

Oyetola noted that his government holds traditional rulers in the State in high esteem and regularly engage with them on security matters and other issues of importance to the State.

“We regularly engage with them on security and other issues and carry them along on our policies and programmes as a way of delivering same to the people. We convene Town Hall Meetings across the State to engage in security talks and compare notes on how to better secure the State.

“In situations of insecurity, traditional rulers must collaborate with the security agencies, sensitise and encourage their subjects to provide intelligence, expose the criminals in their domains, have dossiers on their residents, educate the people on government policies and programmes, and broker peaceful coexistence among ethnic and religious groups under their domains.

“The first step to nipping crimes and insecurity in the bud is to intensify our community watch system to identify the bad eggs among us and bring them to justice before they turn around to kill, kidnap and terrorise us,” the governor said.

“As a government, we have adopted bottom-up approach to address security matters. We are also collaborating with the governors in the South West and soliciting the assistance of the highest leadership of the military, the Police and other security agencies to secure the region and the State,” he said.