Former president, Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday paid a condolence visit to the National Leader of the pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, over the murder of his daughter. Mrs Funke Olakunrin.
Jonathan, who arrived the Akure residence of the father of the deceased at exactly 10:21am, described the death of the 58-year-old, Mrs Olakunrin, as an act of terror.
He noted that every generation and government has their own challenges, but emphasised that it is high time the present administration devised innovations aimed at putting a total stop to the incessant attacks and killings.
The ex-president said, “We know we will all die and it does not respect age. But the circumstances of death matters such much. Particularly in this particular case, it is quite a painful incident.
“Every generation of human beings faces problems and that generation must find ways of solving that problem. Every government faces some unique problems.
“Insecurity has been with us immediately after the civil war. That was the first time we experienced armed robbery in Lagos. From armed robbery, it graduated to kidnapping.
“The first major kidnapping I described as commercial kidnapping because some money exchanged hands which happened in 2006 when I was also a governor of Bayelsa State. From commercial kidnapping it moved to terrorism in the north and now some kind of terrorist attacks all over the country, when people will just come out of the road and spray bullets on innocent people that is terror attack. You have no reason to attack somebody you don’t even know, that is terrorism.
“It now a major problem to the country and my belief is that the federal government working with the state government must design a different approach.
“I was there as a president for some time, security challenges were there with me, I also inherited some. But it is getting worse everyday. And we cannot continue to use the same old method.
“The police, the SSS, the armed forces we must deploy technology and I believe if the federal government will need to set up a special unit, just like we set up EFCC and ICPC to handle specific issues of corruption, they will know that their total responsibility is to manage this issue of kidnapping and terrorist attacks on people going on the road or going to the farm.”
Jonathan noted that all other policies and programmes of government for the benefits of the masses will amount to nothing without adequate measures of security of lives and property.
He, however, urged that the CONFAB report drafted during his administration should be looked into as solutions to the present challenges facing the country are embedded in it.
“We can’t continue that way, it is not just possible, because we can’t talk about managing the economy of this country if people are not safe. Economy is for the people, they must alive to enjoy infrastructure. Even if you tar all the roads in the country and people cannot move around, then the road become meaningless.
“In 2014, when I was a sitting president, we had a national conference where a number of things were discussed. The issues of security, state and regional police were discussed.
“I always believe that if the government look into that report because it was not written by me, so we should not play politics with issue of national issues. If we look into that report, they are recommendations.
“A lot of things were discussed during the national conference organized during my time as president. The issue of security, state and community policing were discussed. I always believe that government should look at that report, it was not written by me.
“We should not play politics with serious national issue. If we look at that report, there are recommendations that bother on security and if there is area that need to be expanded because I believe everyday new idea comes, it should be updated. There is nothing wrong holding a specific meeting to look at the issue of security. I believe the federal and state government having a new approach, deploying technology and having more money to protect our people,” he said.
