Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has warned that insecurity in the North Central region poses a serious threat to the food security of more than 200 million Nigerians.
Governor Alia stated this while hosting participants at the North-Central Regional Security Summit at the New Banquet Hall, Government House, Makurdi.
He said the region’s farms supplied food to various parts of the country, while its mineral resources were also important to Nigeria’s economy.
He said, “When the North Central is insecure, it is not only our problem, the whole country feels it on its dining table.
“Our farms feed this nation. Our roads carry the yams, rice, tomatoes that end up on tables from Lagos to Maiduguri.”
He said the region must adopt collaborative approaches to strengthening security and regional stability by actively involving traditional rulers, border communities and grassroots intelligence networks.
The governor noted that the people of the region must set aside their differences to confront the enemy, which is insecurity, stressing that with unity, half the battle is already won.
He pointed out that collaboration must translate into practical measures that reach the custodians of the land, who often have the earliest warning of threats.
Governor Alia said he pushed for Benue to host the meeting because of the historic insecurity along the Benue-Plateau axis.
He stressed that lasting solutions must also tackle the socio-economic drivers of crime, including poverty and idleness, alongside improved intelligence-sharing and community engagement.
Alia highlighted the region’s central role in food production and mineral resources, stressing that when the North Central is insecure, it is not only the region’s problem but that of the whole country, as people feel its effects on their dining tables.
He urged participants to adopt and implement operational recommendations that could outlast individual administrations and deliver measurable impact on the ground.
The governor also commended President Bola Tinubu for his commitment to tackling insecurity nationwide and called on all stakeholders to align with the objectives of the summit.
The summit, organised by the Ministry of Defence in partnership with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, brought together governors, security chiefs, community leaders and other stakeholders from across the North Central to proffer solutions to the insecurity bedevilling the region.
Participants at the summit described it as a strategic effort to localise security responses to banditry, farmer-herder clashes, kidnappings, violent extremist spillovers and organised crime plaguing the region.
The stakeholders also acknowledged the Federal Government’s efforts aimed at decentralising security planning and building peace from the community level upwards, advising relevant authorities to implement the outcomes of the summit to promote peace and stability in the region.
North Central insecurity threatens food security of 200m Nigerians – Alia
