A coalition known as the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has voiced strong dissatisfaction with the escalating insecurity in various parts of Nigeria. The group has called on President Bola Tinubu to adopt a more proactive stance in safeguarding the lives and properties of Nigerians, warning against allowing the country to descend into a “banana republic.”
In a communique jointly issued by prominent leaders including Oba Oladipo Olaitan (Afenifere), Dr. Bitrus Pogu (Middle Belt Forum), Senator John Azuta-Mbata (Ohanaeze Ndigbo), and Ambassador Godknows Igali (PANDEF), the forum expressed grave concern over the Federal Government’s failure to effectively address security challenges, particularly the violent attacks by criminal herdsmen in Benue State.
The statement read, “The Federal Government of Nigeria and particularly the National Assembly must now accept their failure to provide the most fundamental security of life and property across the country whilst we witness the impunity of Fulani terrorists and their foreign collaborators wrecking genocidal attacks on indigenous communities across the nation and particularly in the Middle Belt region as happening currently in Benue State.”
The SMBLF urged the President and lawmakers to fulfill their constitutional obligation to protect citizens, emphasizing the urgency of the security crisis. To address insecurity at the grassroots level, the forum proposed enhanced autonomy for federating states, recommending that each state should maintain its own independent police command with complementary divisions at local government and community levels. They further demanded that police officers from Chief Superintendent rank and below be deployed within their states of origin.
The group also rejected the proposed National Forest Guards as an additional federal security entity, arguing that security formations outside the armed forces, police, civil defence, and State Security Services should fall under state jurisdiction, especially since lands and forests are constitutionally exclusive to federating states.
Condemning the “fire-brigade” deployment of military personnel to troubled areas, the forum described it as ineffective and a distraction from the military’s constitutional role of defending national territorial integrity. They called on states to emulate the Amotekun South West Security Network by establishing well-armed local security outfits to combat insurgency and terrorism.
The communique concluded with a stark warning: “These proposals should be the irreducible minimum as the alternative to calling out the people to take their destinies in their hands and procure instruments of self-defence from wherever possible if this carnage persists.”
The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum’s appeal underscores the growing frustration among regional leaders over Nigeria’s security challenges and the urgent need for structural reforms to protect citizens.
