President Bola Tinubu on Thursday urged state governors to stop building flyovers in areas with low traffic and instead channel their significantly enhanced federal allocations into road networks that would improve living standards and give security agencies better access to remote areas.
He noted that states were now receiving four to five times what they used to get from the Federation Account.
Tinubu made the charge when he received a delegation of traditional rulers from Oyo State led by the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, who came to congratulate him on the successful rescue of abducted schoolchildren and teachers from Oriire Local Government Area after 56 days in captivity.
The President, directing his remarks at Ladoja and others who had previously served as governors, said, “The cost of operation is high. But the money that I’m pushing to the states, if you had it during your own time, or during my time, it would have been different.
“They are taking four to five times their money. Nobody is borrowing money to pay salaries now. Pensioners are receiving their pay.
“They should do more instead of building flying over where there is no numeric traffic; build roads and artery networks to really enhance the quality of life and the accessibility of the security agencies to penetrate those areas.”
Also at the meeting, Tinubu said terrorists who abducted school children and teachers in Oriire last May had demanded the release of their jailed members alongside their ransom demand but were flatly refused.
He revealed that his directive to expand the Army from eight to 12 divisions was a direct operational response to the Oriire school abductions crisis, saying the increase was designed to shorten response times and give security forces the numerical and geographic capacity to defeat terrorism and banditry.
Tinubu explained that his administration will neither negotiate with terrorists nor pay ransoms for rescue.
Speaking publicly about the incident for the first time since the rescue of the Oyo abductees on July 10, he said, “We refuse to negotiate for ransom. These criminals wanted us to release from detention members of their criminal gangs that were already arrested, that was one of their conditions, outside of the money they were looking for.
“And we said no deal. We are not going to negotiate with criminals.
“They committed murder, and we were ready to finish with their families, members of their own communities. They grew up somewhere.”
He also commended the security forces for the rescue operation, saying, “I agree that we should commend the men and women of the armed forces for their excellent performance.
“On behalf of them, I accept your message, and I will forward the same thing and the same message on.”
Tinubu said the rescue operation was possible because the military had the geographical layout of the forest, and that every security event taught the Federal Government new lessons that demanded structural adaptation.
“As we emphasise the question of security, each event teaches us new methods, opens our eyes, challenges us to examine and re-examine our architecture, our strategy, our map and operations.
“And you will have seen we’ve given a geographical and numerical answer to the challenges.
“We refused to pay ransom. We have the geography of the forest. We know what it is, and in answer to it, you’ve seen that from eight divisions, we are now moving to 12 divisions, to shorten the response time, to give that response time the teeth that is needed for us to defeat terrorism and banditry,” he said.
The President added, “It is very necessary, and we are doing so. We have equally embarked upon what was missing; several decades of fears and uncertainty about what to do about security at the local level will be corrected.
“There will be state police, and that state police will have guardrails from abuses.
“We will protect it from abuses, and you traditional rulers too will have a role to play more.”
The President blamed the intensified kidnappings and terrorist attacks on the security collapse in Nigeria’s Sahel neighbours.
“Some of them are non-Nigerians. You see the problem of insecurity in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic; it is adding more fuel to our challenges.
“In fact, that is why we must enhance the capacity of the forest guards as well as create the state police,” he said.
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