By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – AS insecurity challenges persist across the country, a nonprofit organisation, iTeach Africa Initiative, yesterday, called on the Federal Government to utilise the intelligence of women as a panacea to insecurity.

Speaking with Vanguard, the Executive Director, iTeach Africa Initiative, and Empower Her for Governance Initiative, Mrs. Ebimoboere Alaibe-Elezieanya, made the call while speaking on an epoch-making security conference tagged ‘Inclusion & National Security Summit’, to be held in Abuja.

Alaibe-Elezieanya stressed that the security intelligence of women is a potent way to tackle the current insecurity affecting the country, because they are the closest persons who gather reliable intelligence that would help security agencies and also to discourage youth from engaging in violent crimes.

According to her, the essence of the Inclusion & National Security Summit holding in August 2026 is to bring together stakeholders to see how women can be brought to the front burner as far as to the decision table, where they can also contribute to the process to bring lasting solutions to the problem, because women are intelligence assets that should not be left behind rather be included to address the problem.

She also made it known that the Summit is not going to be a talk show but a sure way out of the current insecurity challenge that would change the narrative using the strength of women to restore peace in troubled communities and also the actors of violence embracing peace, and it is a national move to end the protracted insecurity challenge, which women, girls and children are currently the most hit.

She said: “We are using the military assets as the force more than we are using community strength – intelligence. Women are peacebuilders. Women can go out of their way to make sure that the community is peaceful. I believe that the women in the north are a great asset for the issues that are happening for the government to solve, but engage some of the women there, and they will be able to tell you when it started, who started it, and who can calm the situation.

“For decades, national security has often been viewed through a narrow lens—military deployments, intelligence operations, weapons procurement, and counter-terrorism strategies. While these are important, experience from Nigeria and around the world has shown that security cannot be sustained when large segments of the population are excluded from decision-making processes.

“Women are among those who experience the consequences of insecurity most directly. They bear the burden of displacement, care for families affected by violence, lose livelihoods, suffer gender-based violence, and often become the primary support system for communities devastated by conflict. Yet despite carrying a disproportionate share of insecurity’s costs, women remain significantly underrepresented in the institutions and forums where security decisions are made.

“Everyone has their skill sets, and everyone can be able to solve this problem. Whether it’s international, national, we all have something that we are good at.”

She also said the women can be trained in the communities and will be great assets, “As a woman, I know that we are assets that the government can use. Moreso, women can be trained, as a mother, you are most attentive to the tiniest of changes around the communities.”