The way the Nigeria security crisis has been keeping pace with the declining fortune of the economy is pointing to the fact that only the Alternative or appropriate Security Strategy can end the crisis. The alternative or appropriate strategy is to eliminate the conditions that predispose nations to security crisis, and the guide on how to do it was provided in 2013 by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the then Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of Nigeria economy. Here her:
“Growth in the economy benefits only 10% of the population, inequality is on the increase and the growth is not creating the jobs–this will surely lead our nation and economy to severe troubles: if we don’t put our mind in job creation, the economy will fall into greater troubles”.
What was the Minister saying in plain language? She was simply warning that the orthodox development concept which we adopted from the unset as a colonial subject and continues to operate till this day has skewed the economy to be working for less than 10% of the population pushing large numbers to extreme condition and that it is not creating the jobs, insisting that unless we adopt the Alternative Development Concept which alone can activate the secondary growth window so that the economy is able to work for everyone, our nation will soon run into severe security crisis. Today, we are full scale into what the woman predicted in 2013.
Incidentally, two Military Generals who has been part of this war on insecurity in the persons of Generals Ihejirika and Burutai, like some friendly countries who are experienced in our type of terrorism, had warned that this type of war cannot be won on the battle field or with war machines alone: because this is not a conventional war, it is a security war and security wars require more of Non Kinetic than Kinetic capacity to succeed. And Sir, Thomas Moore was to put it in plain language when Britain was faced with something similar to what we are facing today in the 16th century. He said: There is no amount of punishment, no matter how severe it may be, can deter a people nearing death by starvation from taking to stealing and violence, because it is easier to die in the battle for survival than to die of starvation. The ultimate solution, he insisted, is a development model that will ensure that men gets their basic needs so that at no time shall large number of citizens be pushed to extreme condition were they will have to be induced by circumstance beyond their country to stake their lives and freedom for survival.
The economic model that will provide an end to our type of violence or terrorism can only be produced by Alternative to the Orthodox Development Concept, technically referred to as Science Push Export Alternative (SPEA). However, the Nigerian situation has grown horns, so we will need the fortified version of the alternative concept called Applied Growth Solution (AGS). AGS is indeed, the only formula to end today’s complications in our country permanently. 20% of what has been spent on arms and rehabilitating repentant bandits and terrorists added to the SPEA or Applied Growth Solution would have been enough to avert today’s troubles, but today’s policy structure denied us the chance to deliver either of them to the government. Unless Nigeria adopts the Applied Growth Solution and urgently too, our country will run into far more severe complications in no distant time and we are ready to give it to our country, particularly the next government, at no extra cost.
…….SANNEM Secretariat……