President Bola Tinubu has urged state governors to focus on expanding road networks instead of constructing flyovers in areas with little traffic, saying increased federal allocations should be used to improve infrastructure and strengthen security access to rural communities.
The President made the remarks on Thursday while receiving a delegation of traditional rulers from Oyo State, led by Rashidi Ladoja, who visited the Presidential Villa to congratulate him on the rescue of schoolchildren and teachers abducted in Oriire Local Government Area after spending 56 days in captivity.
Addressing members of the delegation, including former governors, Tinubu said states now receive significantly higher allocations from the Federation Account than in previous years.
“The cost of operation is high. But the money that I’m pushing to the states, if you had it during your own time, or during my time, it would have been different.
“They are taking four to five times their money. Nobody is borrowing money to pay salaries now. Pensioners are receiving their pay.
“They should do more instead of building flying over where there is no numeric traffic; build roads and artery networks to really enhance the quality of life and the accessibility of the security agencies to penetrate those areas.”
Speaking on the rescue of the abducted victims, Tinubu disclosed that the kidnappers demanded both ransom and the release of detained members of their criminal network, but the Federal Government rejected the conditions.
“We refuse to negotiate for ransom. These criminals wanted us to release from detention members of their criminal gangs that were already arrested, that was one of their conditions, outside of the money they were looking for.
“And we said no deal. We are not going to negotiate with criminals.
“They committed murder, and we were ready to finish with their families, members of their own communities. They grew up somewhere.”
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The President praised the armed forces for carrying out the rescue operation successfully.
“I agree that we should commend the men and women of the armed forces for their excellent performance.
“On behalf of them, I accept your message, and I will forward the same thing and the same message on.”
Tinubu explained that lessons from the Oriire abduction informed his decision to increase the number of Army divisions from eight to 12 in a bid to improve response time and strengthen the fight against terrorism and banditry.
“As we emphasise the question of security, each event teaches us new methods, opens our eyes, challenges us to examine and re-examine our architecture, our strategy, our map and operations.
“And you will have seen we’ve given a geographical and numerical answer to the challenges.
“We refused to pay ransom. We have the geography of the forest. We know what it is, and in answer to it, you’ve seen that from eight divisions, we are now moving to 12 divisions, to shorten the response time, to give that response time the teeth that is needed for us to defeat terrorism and banditry.”
The President also reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to establishing state police, stressing that safeguards would be put in place to prevent abuse while giving traditional rulers greater roles in community security.
“There will be state police, and that state police will have guardrails from abuses.
“We will protect it from abuses, and you traditional rulers too will have a role to play more.”
Tinubu further attributed the growing security challenges in Nigeria to instability in neighbouring Sahel countries, saying the crises in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic have worsened cross-border threats.
“Some of them are non-Nigerians. You see the problem of insecurity in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic; it is adding more fuel to our challenges.
“In fact, that is why we must enhance the capacity of the forest guards as well as create the state police,” he said.