By Amaka Abayomi

The rising security challenges, which have led to the fall in the standard of education, poor leadership and governance, bad politics, among others, were brought to the fore at the recently held 14th Mike Okonkwo annual lecture.

Themed Overcoming the Nigerian Security Challenges: A Panacea for National Growth and Development, the lecture was delivered by a former Minister of Finance and National Development, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu.

Identifying falling education standard, bad governance, absence of adequate judicial system and inequities as fallout of security challenges, Kalu said providing security is beyond having a large army or police force which is almost always geared towards government officials without any consideration for the common man.

“From the Aba women’s riot to similar struggles by Niger-Delta communities, these socio-political events of pre- and immediate post-independence further illustrate the interplay of security and orderly growth and irreversible cumulative development.

“The near total cessation of production and commerce is a measure of the total absence of security in Nigeria. This is because investment can only happen when there are certain measures of security as no one would want to tie down his money in an unsecured environment.

“Improvement in security can overcome challenges from administrative lapses, but deliberate retraining programmes will be required to beef up performances and overcome security challenges.”

Meanwhile, winners of the annual essay competition were presented with their prizes. Folatomi Alli-Balogun of Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Lagos emerged winner and won N100,000, a personal laptop, a trophy and three internet-ready desktop computers for her school.

Mark Nwanbiankea of Lagos State Senior Model College, Badore, came second and was rewarded with N75,000, a laptop and two internet-ready desktop computers for his school.

Third was Samuel Effion Edet of Government Technical College, Calabar, who went home with N50,000 and an internet-ready desktop computer for the school. Okonkwo said the competition was his little contribution to the emergence of a new Nigeria.