By Dickson Omobola

LAGOS—THE Aare OnaKakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, yesterday, fingered the government’s inability to utilise modern gadgets and intelligence-gathering mechanisms in defending its territory as a reason for the increasing insecurity in Nigeria.

Adams, who highlighted the protection of lives and property as the fundamental duty of government, said there must be an adequate intelligence-gathering strategy to end insecurity across the nation.

Speaking at a One-Day Security Summit held in partnership with some Netherlands security experts in Lagos, he said the right time to wage war against bandits and terrorists was now.

His words: “We must wage intelligent war against kidnapping and the time for that fight is now. For any development to take place in any polity, evil must not be appeased. It must be decisively dealt with and fought from all angles like the monster that it is.

“As it is being done in other climes, the Tinubu administration has no choice but to deploy intelligence and modern security networks to tackle insecurity in the land. This is the only way Nigeria’s economic growth can be realised.

“The principal task of security agencies is to defend the state against threats to its national security. Any threat to the economic growth of a country is also a threat to national security. Since those threats could be covertly organised, the service needs intelligence to counter these agents of darkness. A large part of success in security operations lies in inter-agency cooperation and coordination.”

Also speaking, the Executive Director of Ducaat Security Services, from the Netherlands, Mr Jaap Van Wissen, in his remarks, identified technology-driven security as the only alternative to economic growth and development.

He said: “The Netherlands have a good communication apparatus that is in tandem with the global trend. There is a need for artificial intelligence for Nigerians to strengthen the security architecture of the country. Nigeria can solve the spate of insecurity in the country through technology.”