The Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), General Christopher Gwabin Musa, has
identified t Low human capacity index as one of the major factor affecting the security situation in the north.
He made this known when he presented lecture titled ‘'Dialogue: Assessing the Present Security Situation in Northern Nigeria” at the organized by the Institute for Development Research and Training, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria at Weekend.
General Musa said human capacity index refers to the level of investment of a state in its people in terms of education, health and social services.
According to the United Nations Development Programme, the current average Human Capacity Index for Nigeria is 0.548 with the states having the lowest Human Capacity Index in Nigeria being from Northern Nigeria.
According to him, this indicates that the attention given to education, health and social services in this part of the country is quite low.
“This trend in turn could be linked to the requirement for good governance and people-centric policies to enhance the socio-economic conditions of the people in the north".
The CDS said to achieve a high human capacity index it would therefore be underpinned by transparency, non-discrimination, minimized corruption and efficiency of governmental policies.
Gen. Musa maintained that the seeming distrust in the relationships between government and the people negatively affects patriotism, and willingness to place common good over personal interest.
While accountability to citizens across all strata of government remains paramount to ending insecurity in Northern Nigeria.
He maintained that being a civic duty, the love is missing in those individuals who keep sacrificing the common good and the well-being of the larger population including committing various atrocities for personal pecuniary gains.
To ensure adequate security, all citizens must be involved in the business of security, until this is internalized, the security agencies which are significantly less than one percent of the population will struggle to fill the massive gaps in the security architecture.
“The curriculum in our schools and institutions of learning as well as well as nurturing from parents and guardians must continually stress the importance of individual and collective civic responsibility to the safety and wellbeing of all.
“Individuals therefore need to watch out for the good of others and pursue well-defined national security interests".
Accordingly, people must be conversant with actions to be taken and who to report unusual occurrences to as part of their responsibility to national securities
End.
