 Great to have you back on PlusPolitics. The House of Representatives and the Governor of Benway State, Samuel Othom, has called on the federal government to urgently declare a state of emergency on security in the country. The House and Governor Othom's calls took place in the event of the killing of no fewer than seven internally displaced persons, IDPs, and an attack on the Abagana IDPs camp located on the outskirts of Makodi, the Benway State capital, by suspected headsmen. Also, President Bahra reacts to the international community to support Nigeria in its insecurity challenges to avoid spielovers. Having in mind the various attacks and killings that have taken place in the country in the last few days is a state of emergency needed. Joining us to discuss this is Kwanum Terence, a security expert. Thank you so much for joining us on the program. Thanks for having me. All right. The last couple of days have been very, very dark across Nigeria, and I'm guessing a lot of people would say same. We've gotten to a place where we've started to whisper a state of emergency. Said it's a smarter day and me was, of course, in the news a couple of days yesterday, I believe, because of his views concerning the insecurity challenges. The Benway State governor, Samuel Othom, also made the headlines. Do you think that we really should start to talk about a state of emergency across Nigeria, seeing what we're currently dealing with? Yeah, I was already in the state of emergency, and I totally agree with the permission of the governor of Benway State to just let the governor of Othom and Senator Smarter Davis, and also the governor of Nigeria State. We are having the worst time of this insecurity, and if you could recall on this program, in the scope of 32 for growth, we have cautioned the U.S. that if we go through the point of trying to break in these passages, we might be able to fall into the hands of the salaries that we are dealing with, because these are very intelligent and specific people that we're up against. And today, we found our third way, the governor of Nigeria State has raised an alarming tower, which is less than two hours' drive to Abuja, the Boko Haram has posted their flag, and the Shiro, and the Mangu Luka government in Nigeria State, where they are completely taken over. You know that we have already passed that supply life to the country. So as we speak today, Nigeria have lost control of the services, where they are powering life to their community, to their people. And you see what happened in Benway State, where the Fulani herders, the militia Fulani herders, were able to leave their special homes, they have already displaced people in Nigeria State to come back and attack the United States. It's quite strange that people's special homes have been taken over in this country, and up to this moment, our security agencies have not been able to attack the Fulani herders from the communities they have occupied, that they have the audacity to also leave their special homes of these people and form a militia in Nigeria State to come less than five minutes' drive to the capital of Benway. Now if you are seeing the proximity, this crisis is coming to our state capital, Kauri less than two hours' drive to Abuja, Abangana of Nigeria State to come less than five minutes' drive to Makode. It means that we are already living with terrorists in our open centers, Abuja, Makode, Meena, and Esquire. Obviously we need a special mission that the only thing we need to discuss is how our way to deploy security to our country to be able to step down our because on the daily basis, either the stigma in Kazuna, the skillings in Borunu, the skillings in Zampara, up to the south-west and the south. So the entire country now is explaining and I think what we need now is how to be able to declare a state of emergency, come to a round table, and fully discuss how we are going to resolve it. And I think the president is turning it off because he has gone beyond understanding his aid to be able to address the crisis. Mr. Terence, we've had many round table discussions, we've had a lot of meetings with, you know, we've heard of a lot of meetings with the Northern Governors and President Mahmoud Bawari. We've had a lot of, you know, meetings also with the Speaker of the House of Representative and the President. I think we've had too many of these meetings, but, you know, results is, you know, what we're searching for. But this is what I want to ask. Help us understand how a state of emergency works. Do we have the infrastructure, the security infrastructure to carry out an actual state of emergency and implement it? Of course, the state of emergency that is being called in Nigeria is a state of emergency that every government activity will come to a hold until we secure our country. Constantly, the president needs to seek for help, call all the past leaders of this country together on the round table, and try to provide solutions to what is happening in this country. We also need to seek help from the international community so that they can be able to come and assist our secure our country. We don't need any other thing in this country except this country is secure because nothing is moving. We are at a bleak where nobody wants to come into this country. We are at a point where no citizen of this country wants to move one and fifty kilometers because no one is safe, no highway is safe in this country. So we're not talking about meetings between the Northern Governors or meeting between the Governor's Home and the Speaker and next one is there. We need a holistic meeting where all leaders of this country are not safe enough to come together on the round table and be able to provide a solution to what is happening in this country. We are always on this platform trying to look on one way or the other to be able to curtail this crisis. Why don't we empower our Governors in such a way that they are the commanders to the secretive oppressive oppressive within their domain so that they can properly coordinate the security arrangement within their domain and be able to curtail the security challenges in their state because by the time you deploy that from the state to the local government, to the community, to the cells, I think we'll be able to curtail what is happening within the community space. A situation where the Governors themselves are handicapped, they are crying hope that all their efforts have been ignored by the central government. I think that is where we have a challenge. So I think by the time we go to a round table and everybody comes to the round table and is able to provide solutions truthfully, we're able to go back and secure our communities because this is good that the attackers also know those communities that they are attacking and we are able to secure those communities right from the neighborhood who keep having this kind of attack within the neighborhood. Let's now talk about security on the state level. You've already mentioned some of the lapses and some of the reasons why Governors may not be able to secure their states but as it stands there's still a lot of facilities that are available at the state level for Governors to use. So where do you think that they haven't tried or they haven't done well enough? Remember there's also a security vote that they receive every month that is unaccounted for. So on the state level for someone like Governor Samuel or Tom in what way has he also failed to act in ways to protect his people? The Governors have no power at all to secure their people because the commissioners of police posted their security heads that are posted to work with them take orders from Abuja and so the security vote that is given to them is only to facilitate the activities of the security personnel within their state. They're buying vehicles for them and they're facilitating their mobility within the state to be able to secure their personnel. This security commander does not take orders from them. If Governors even go to the level of even organizing local militia or security like in Benoist state where you make reference to the law in Benoist state provides for the lifetime vote to be able to the laughter guards to be able to secure the farmers so that these and these headers are not going to bring their cows to consume their crops but then immediately the laughter guards were formed. The federal government now issued the direct signal even the laughter guards don't have the power to use their vote. So how will you be able to control somebody using sophisticated weapons with coastlines that these landfall guards have? So at the end of the day the people that have volunteered to be members of the laughter guards end up being consumed by their greater. So if we go to a round table and we empower Governors to be the commanders of the security permission that are operating within the state and the Governors know the terrain they are governing, I think we are going to have a better result and they will be more accountable for insubstituting within their domain. But the situation we have now where a Commissioner of Police needs to take direction from the ID, the commander of the Army or the Air Force within your state needs to take command from the Chief of Army and the Chief of Waste. The governor is complaining handicapped on where to direct the call. Any directive given to this person they must confirm their headquarters and in most cases they turn it down and that is why most times the governor has become handicapped and because to that the effectiveness of the military is also questioning because we had a situation in Benway where the military was attacked and their and their rightfuls were collected and so just weeks ago the military was able to do a operation within several days and most of the rightfuls were collected. The military was able to activate an entrance that was able to locate a rifle that was about 300 kilometers from the scene of the crime and they went there and collected the rifle. Now we are saying that these headers that are in the push why not do activate an operation with a commissary measure that you were looking for your way for when your personnel were looted where we lost their life because the city we value the life of every citizen of this country the same way you value the life of a military personnel. So it will activate a commissary measure of operation that you that took place when you lost your personnel as same we wouldn't have been where we are today. So the military have the object in the commander is the president needs to stick to our business and give directives and employees governors to be able to help us contain secretaries at the local level where this is happening. Okay you mentioned you know meeting coming together of all the heads you know and of course the leaders leadership in different levels in Nigeria to discuss and understand exactly what our problem is. Is it because well would you say it's because we don't know what our problem is or we refuse to accept what the problem is that you know that is making it difficult to tackle these issues and also you share your thoughts on the possibility of saboteurs in the government that have made you know ending this insurgency even more difficult. Yeah it is the saboteurs that have made it important for us to be able to bring our leadership together because by the time you bring all the heads of state the past head of state together they have different experiences from what you have and they might be able to confront if you confront these issues more than the way your advisors are advising your president. You will recall that the president few weeks ago gave a blackout direction that anybody will take a position that is not a secretive position to be shorter time and the defense minister came and countered that direction that the rule of law so people say we are taking a position of more than a secretary and not shorter time. So already we have the president that are countering his direction that he has given on this insurgency issue. So I think we need the leadership of this head of state, the head of president and next vice head that will have a new country to be able to come together and share news and see how we can be able to cover solutions. We have because we are alive today by the grace of God in the life of God that has even commanded the civil war in this country and we have stakeholders that we have been part of this crisis that would be able to assist the president give a different directive that this issue will be resolved. That to my own opinion and with the experience of our past with these security issues in this country I see that these governors are probably empowered to be able to command security operations within their state. I think this issue will be drastically reduced to the parents in a way because they know exactly the trouble spots in their places. They know exactly where to destroy security and cover up their state so that they can be able to assist them within their domain. So I think that will go a long way in helping also the president to be able to man up as commander in chief to be able to deploy command to his governors and I think by that will be able to drastically achieve a lot of results. And then the idea of police itself needs to estimate community policies that are going to the effective and robust moving up and down to the able to secure neighborhoods within communities because these are already in short of business that are supposed to control the issues of insecurity in this country. Assuming and effective and robust community policies will go a long way in there for the little personnel that we have so that they can be able to be at the trouble spots on time and sometimes be able to put a plan attached so that we can reduce the number of attacks to having this country because at the moment where we are headed it's quite unfortunate and it's so bad. Well quite unfortunate like you mentioned I'm sure a lot of people will agree. One of the things that you know the picture that has been painted by Governor Sunny Billu of Niger State Governor Samuel Othom, a smarter DME and a couple of others is it seems like the Nigerian government is dragging its feet with regards you know dealing with these issues. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of urgency with dealing with these issues of insecurity. We've also not been you know really even heard from President Mohammad Bwari in the last couple of months. It gets worse every day and Nigerians continue to call his name because of course he is a Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces but you know there's still nothing you know that you know the body language of the presidency shows you know to seem like there's any urgency. Why do you think that is and do you agree with those people who have said that the presidency seems to be dragging its feet or not you know be or be you know taking it as seriously as it should be? Yeah we are not surprised that the President is dragging his feet because the people that I choose and are taking responsibility of killing to this country in the past have almost made reference during their press conferences of their meetings with the President. The President is related with groups like the Miachi Alakauta Hori, the Miachi Alakapu Freedom of Social Care and the Florentine Islamist Movement. These three groups have at various times taken responsibility of killing to this country. They have also at various times made references to their meetings with the President. I want to recall properly there was a time they even asked for participation from the President to be able to calm down within the country and call on people who are in nothing and killing them of the wishes for peace to come into this country. Obviously the President is meeting with these people and at every point the governors have addressed issues of security concerns within their state and making these people the President always drags their feet even when governors are able to confront the President, he's always going to advise them to go and live with their people. The President that at the point have to say this country that the people that are killing these those citizens are remnants of the Gaddafi rebels that are running to this country. The same President at the point in this country admitted that the people killing his own citizens are coming from outside this country. I would not want to imagine that. The President that has identified people killing his own citizens as foreigners in this country will see us make a drastic action for these people to be recruited out and who is out of his own country. You are unaware that the thoroughly health care that we're talking about have been recognized by the global thriving index as the most major authority in this world. The President and his government has refused to identify these people and profile them as steroids in this country. So even if the segregated person is directed to go and protect crises that have been generated by these health men, don't go there to confront them as steroids. But when it does happen within the South East and within the Southern and from this country, the leadership of this country, the President, and his government is pushing to declare them steroids like the iPhone and XYZ. So we keep wondering if that is attaching these thriving health men that have been declared steroids by the global thriving index has to do with our President that anything that has to do with them is dragging his feet. Today the killing of this country are done by these people and that is why the President will drag his feet. But I feel that this country, you know, all of us, the country is far bigger than the President and now that the stakeholders themselves, the governors and everywhere in this business of this country have to realize what is happening and have reason not to call on him and think who can be able to drag him to where we want and who will be able to confront solutions to this crisis and that is the only option we have at the moment. Quantum Terrence, thank you so much for your time and thanks for speaking with us on PLOS Politics this evening to have a good evening. And thanks for staying with us. Do we need a state of emergency declared in Nigeria to address security issues? Let's hear what Nigerians have to say and when we return I'll give my take. With the seriousness of the insecurity in Nigeria, one has to see that the state of emergency is something that actually needs to be called because the more we go into the day, you know, the more serious the insecurity is and the way it's looking, the government is never ready to do anything. No, I don't think, I don't think, I don't agree that the state of emergency be called. Because it's an eternal problem and we have capable hands to solve the problem. Every country passes through one crisis of another but if we can come, bring our act together we can solve the problem of insecurity is not insurmountable because even if you bring a state of emergency it means the military take over and the militaries are part of the problem that is happening now. Very well, he's won't log about you. If you look at the system since this Corregomer came in they bestowed other matters because of the security matters. The promise are nothing has been done even the huge amount of billions put in place for to buy arms and other emissions even the last Chief of Army staff went with it even when alarm was raised because of the matter and nothing was done. Long overdue long overdue because as it seems the present leadership has lost it. So this state of emergency and security nation is long overdue. And just before we end the program for this evening my take. From 2015 when Nigerian headlines were plastered with news that Boko Haram were in control of about 20 local government areas in Nigeria's northeast to December 2016 when the Chief of Army staff presented a captured Boko Haram flag to President Muammar Dabwari to signify a full capture of Nigeria's territories back by Nigeria's armed forces to being faced now with not just Boko Haram but ISWAP bandits kidnappings and all sorts of security challenges till today that still remains our current reality. Hoisting flags in Shiroro Niger State has been spoken of mostly regarding the proximity to Nigeria's capital but what is so different in Abuja from Borno State Zamfara Yobi Katsina that creates this new tension. The lives in any other Nigerian state are very equal to those in Abuja. The panic and the demands for immediate action should not be dependent on how close it is to the nation's capital. It should value and of course a Nigerian life lost in Borno is the same thing with any Nigerian life lost in Abuja. So Nigerians the National Assembly the executive should wake up from our slumber. That's it on Plus Politics this evening I am Musao Ghe Ogboa. Thanks for joining us.