Northern group says drug abuse and insecurity will halt 2023 elections if not given more attention
NEWS DIGEST – The Coalition of Northern Groups told the federal government on Sunday that it would take the end of insecurity and drug abuse for the 2023 general elections to hold without glitches.
The CNG’s plea comes off the heels of a 2021 ravaged by insecurity, abduction of school children, urban and rural banditry, all of which had greater consequences in the northwest and northeast.
It represents the latest of several efforts to amp the pressure on Abuja to deliver its promise to end insecurity in the country.
Spokesperson of the coalition, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, demands of the federal government to achieve the disarmament, reintegration and reconstruction of security in the North within the next few months.
“Unless this is done as quickly as possible, the 2023 elections would be greatly threatened and that would in turn affect the nation’s democratic progress and set the country back several decades,” said Mr Suleiman.
The CNG imagines that the federal government would review the current security structure in the North and make improvements where possible.
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They add that more security personnel, duly equipped, should be made available at affected areas and a network should be drawn to improve relations between communities if there was to be any chance of success.
In Sunday’s statement, the CNG expressed worries that drug abuse was becoming a societal problem and could pose some more security challenge in northern Nigeria.
Suleiman warned that the country cannot afford for drug abuse to become an apparent and full-blown problem and must construct measures to quash it now that it is still minimal.
“No nation can aspire to greatness or seek to remain secure and safe when its youth and the productive segments of society are left to indulge in self-destructive practices like drug and substance abuse,” he said.
Suleiman scolded a lack of collectiveness in the fight against insecurity and substance abuse in the country. According to him, the problem is seen as affecting one or two regions and not the others, causing the futility of many attempts to defeat insecurity.
“On the contrary, such challenges are cross-national issues that affect every one of us, regardless of where we live or come from,” he said.
“Every one of us must therefore become a stakeholder and a committed actor in this struggle to free our society and our country of this debilitating problem,” he added.
