President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) has challenged stakeholders in North Central Nigeria to deepen collaboration with government and security agencies, warning that no single security agency, government, or community can defeat insecurity in the region alone.
PBAT gave the charge on Monday, August 31, at the 2026 North Central Regional Security Summit in Makurdi, Benue State, where the Secretary represented him to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume.
With the summit themed “Collaborative Approaches to Strengthening Security and Regional Stability,” the President urged traditional and religious leaders to become the region’s first line of early warning and trusted voices of reconciliation.
He also called on communities to provide timely intelligence to security agencies and stop shielding criminals because of ethnic, family or community ties.
“No single agency, no single tier of government and no single community can secure this region acting alone. Insecurity does not respect state boundaries or agency mandates,” PBAT said.
The President said criminals moved freely across local government and state boundaries while security responses were sometimes hampered by rivalry, duplication of efforts and withholding of vital information.
“That must end,” he declared.
PBAT said his administration had strengthened collaboration among the Armed Forces, the Nigeria Police Force, and intelligence agencies, while providing the military with new platforms and advanced operational capabilities.
He also said the Federal Government was rebuilding Nigeria’s indigenous defence industry through the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) Act and improving troops’ welfare to boost their effectiveness.
The President commended the security forces for gains recorded against terrorists and criminal elements, including the neutralisation of terrorist commanders, surrender of thousands of fighters, rescue of captives and restoration of normalcy in several communities.
He, however, warned that military operations alone could not deliver lasting peace, stressing that the social, economic and environmental conditions driving violence must also be addressed.
“Military action alone will not deliver lasting peace to the North Central. Force can suppress violence; it cannot resolve the grievances that produce it,” he said.
The president told traditional and religious leaders that their closeness to the grassroots gave them an advantage that security agencies could not easily replicate.
“I ask you to be our first line of early warning and our most trusted voice of reconciliation,” he said.
He urged them to reject inflammatory rhetoric and help prevent local disputes from escalating into wider ethnic or religious conflicts.
The President similarly charged citizens to take responsibility for community security.
“Security begins with you,” he said, urging Nigerians to share information with security agencies and refuse to harbour criminals out of kinship or sentiment.
He warned young people against being recruited into violence for money, while assuring them that his administration would continue expanding economic opportunities and livelihoods.
Addressing women, PBAT said they must be moved from the margins to the centre of peace and security conversations.
“To our women, who bear the heaviest burden of every conflict and yet remain the most effective peacebuilders in every community, your place is not at the margins of this conversation but at its centre,” he said.
He told youths that their energy remains the region’s greatest asset, adding that the government would pursue opportunities that make productive livelihoods more attractive than criminality.
Host Governor Fr. Hyacinth Alia said the summit must move beyond rhetoric and produce concrete, community-led solutions to insecurity.
Welcoming delegates in Makurdi, Fr. Alia said traditional rulers, border communities, and grassroots actors must be integrated into the security architecture because they often have the earliest information about emerging threats.
“The moment we set aside our differences to confront the enemy of insecurity, half the battle is already won,” the governor said.
Fr. Alia said he pushed for Benue to host the summit because of the persistent security challenges along the Benue-Plateau axis.
He argued that the fight against insecurity must also address poverty, idleness and other socio-economic conditions that make young people vulnerable to recruitment by criminal groups.
The governor warned that insecurity in the North Central was no longer a regional problem, given the zone’s strategic role in Nigeria’s food production and mineral economy.
“When the North Central is insecure, it is not only our problem; the whole country feels it on its dining table,” he said.
The summit, organised by the Ministry of Defence in partnership with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, North Central, brought together governors, ministers, Service Chiefs, security agencies, traditional and religious leaders, civil society organisations, women, youths and private-sector representatives.
