The Nigerian Defence Academy has again taken a front row in the discourse on national security and modalities for tackling current insecurity challenges with the convening of an International Conference on State and Security.
The conference was held at the NDA Ribadu Campus, on Monday in Kaduna.
The conference, organised by NDA Centre for Critical Thinking, Teaching and Learning, drew together experts, government functionaries and dignitaries, including the Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari and Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tellen, among others.
Mrs Buhari in her remarks, disclosed that without security, there would be no peace and development.
The first lady whose speech focused on security, peace and development noted that these three would be in jeopardy if urgent steps were not taken to address the menace of insecurity in Nigeria.
She also argued that it was high time the nation explore new approaches in dealing with insecurity.
Mrs Buhari commended the efforts of NDA in organising the international conference, meant to proffer solutions to security challenges plaguing the country.
In his presentation, Maj.- Gen Abdul-Malik Jibril (rtd) said that in the last two decades, the world had faced more security threats like terrorism, insurgency, banditry, and kidnapping among others.
Jibril noted that addressing the root causes of these threats was the only sustainable path toward completely eradicating security challenges.
He listed poverty, illiteracy and weak national security system as some of the root causes of insecurity in Nigeria and called for active government involvement in tackling these conditions.
The Commandant NDA, Maj.-Gen Jamil Sarham, who was represented at the conference by the Deputy Commandant, AVM Ibrahim Ali, expressed hope that the conference would inspire ideas that resolved current security challenges.
Sarham disclosed that the current insecurity could only be defeated by knowledge sharing, synergy and the exploration of new approaches to national defense.
He promised that NDA would continue to up the ante in the discourse of national security even as it worked to position itself as the premier military university in Africa.
Two former commandants of the Academy, Maj.-Gen Muhammed Idris (rtd) and Maj.-Gen Adeniyi Oyebade (rtd), called for transparency and sincerity on the part of all stakeholders in the fight against insurgency and other security challenges facing the nation.
