President Bola Tinubu on Thursday urged state governors to stop building flyovers in areas with low traffic and instead channel their significantly increased federal allocations into road networks that will improve living standards and give security agencies better access to remote areas.
He noted that states are 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. The delegation visited to congratulate him on the successful rescue of abducted schoolchildren and teachers from Oriire Local Government Area after 56 days in captivity.
Addressing Ladoja and others who had previously served as governors, the President 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 getting four to five times their allocation. Nobody is borrowing money to pay salaries now. Pensioners are receiving their pay.
They should do more instead of building flyovers where there is no vehicular traffic. Build roads and arterial networks to really enhance the quality of life and improve the accessibility of security agencies to penetrate those areas.”
Also at the meeting, Tinubu revealed that terrorists who abducted schoolchildren and teachers in Oriire last May demanded the release of their jailed members in addition to ransom, but the government flatly refused.
He said his directive to expand the Army from eight to 12 divisions was a direct operational response to the Oriire school abductions. The expansion, he explained, is designed to shorten response times and give security forces the numerical and geographic capacity to defeat terrorism and banditry.
Tinubu reiterated that his administration will neither negotiate with terrorists nor pay ransoms for rescues.
Speaking publicly on 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, aside from the money they were demanding.
And we said no deal. We are not going to negotiate with criminals.
They committed murder, and we were ready to go after their families and members of their communities. They grew up somewhere.”
He commended the security forces for the rescue operation, adding: “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 convey the same message to them.”
Tinubu said the rescue was possible because the military had a good understanding of the geography of the forest. He noted that every security event teaches the Federal Government new lessons that demand structural adaptation.
“As we emphasise the issue of security, each event teaches us new methods, opens our eyes, and challenges us to examine and re-examine our architecture, our strategy, our maps and operations.
And you will have seen that we have given both 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. In response, you have seen that from eight divisions, we are now moving to 12 divisions, to shorten response time and give it the teeth needed to defeat terrorism and banditry,” he said.
The President added: “It is very necessary, and we are doing it. We have also embarked on what was missing. Several decades of fear 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 against abuse.
We will protect it from abuse, and you, traditional rulers, will also have a role to play.”
The President blamed the surge in kidnappings and terrorist attacks on the security collapse in Nigeria’s Sahel neighbours.
“Some of them are non-Nigerians. Look at 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 forest guards as well as create state police,” he said.
