President Bola Tinubu has again assured his administration will work to eliminate terrorist and bandit groups tormenting northern Nigeria, saying insecurity remains his greatest concern.
Speaking through Abbas Tajudeen, speaker of the house of representatives, at the 25th anniversary of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the launch of its endowment fund on Saturday in Kaduna, the president said the security challenges inherited by his administration were grave but not insurmountable.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by Musa Krishi, special adviser on media and publicity to the speaker, Tinubu said the dysfunction accumulated over decades had fractured bonds and strained national unity.
“Nothing troubles me more gravely than the security crisis bedevilling Nigeria, especially northern Nigeria,” he said.
“Affliction in any part of the country is a setback for every part. We cannot prosper when one limb of the national body is paralysed.”
Tinubu noted that the layers and sophistication of insecurity facing the country were daunting, but insisted his administration was pursuing solutions with urgency.
He cautioned that the north must not abandon its responsibility to protect the vulnerable, adding that neglecting widespread poverty and fear would amount to collective failure.
“But let no one believe that hope is lost,” he said. “The dysfunction inherited over decades fractured bonds and strained unity.
“Yet the ethnic and religious diversity gathered here today is a declaration of the collective resolve to overcome polarisation and resist any agenda designed to divide.”
On the situation in the region, Tinubu reaffirmed: “We are not only determined to ensure that terrorist and bandit groups tormenting the North are eliminated, but we are also equally committed to reversing the region’s economic decline.”
He added that every generation has its own distinct calling — from resisting colonialism to shaping a democracy capable of holding Nigeria’s diversity together.
