Hyacinth Alia, governor of Benue, says Nigeria should adopt “collaborative approaches to strengthening security and regional stability”.
Alia spoke in Makurdi, the Benue state capital, on Monday while welcoming participants of the north-centeal regional security summit.
He warned that long‑term solutions must extend beyond military deployments to include traditional rulers, border communities and grassroots intelligence‑sharing.
Governors, security chiefs, community leaders and stakeholders from the north-central converged in Benue state for a zonal security summit that Alia said must move from rhetoric to concrete, community‑led action to stem rising insecurity.
“The moment we set aside our differences to confront the enemy of insecurity; half the battle is already won,” the Benue governor said, noting that collaboration must translate into practical measures that reach custodians of the land who often have early warning of threats.
Alia said he personally pushed for the state to host the meeting because of the historic insecurity along the Benue–Plateau axis.
He further argued that effective responses require confronting the socio‑economic drivers of crime, including poverty and idleness, alongside improved intelligence‑sharing and community engagement.
Framing the north-central’s stability as vital to national welfare, the governor highlighted the region’s role in food production and mineral resources, warning that insecurity there threatens food security and supply chains nationwide.
“When the north-central is insecure, it is not only our problem, but the whole country also feels it on its dining table,” he said.
The governor appealed to delegates to ensure the summit produces durable institutional outcomes rather than mere speeches, urging implementation of operational recommendations that can outlast individual administrations.
He commended President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to tackling insecurity and called on all participants to align with the summit’s objectives.
Organisers of the summit led by the ministry of defence in partnership with the office of the senior special assistant to the president on community engagement described the summit as a strategic effort to “localise” security responses to banditry, farmer‑herder clashes, kidnappings, violent‑extremist spillovers and organised crime across the region.
