Insecurity won’t end with guns — Amaechi warns

By Nnasom David

Former Minister of Transportation and ex-Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has warned that Nigeria’s security challenges will persist unless leaders combine economic empowerment and inclusive governance with military force.

Speaking during an interactive session with youth members of the African Democratic Congress Coalition on Sunday, October 12, 2025, Amaechi said the root causes of insecurity in Nigeria were poverty and inequality—not religion or ethnicity.

“Any leader who wants to resolve the issue of insecurity in Nigeria will know that physical policing alone will not be the solution. No matter how much you equip the police and the army, the other people will continue to equip themselves to fight back the state actors,” he said.

Amaechi stressed that over-reliance on the military without addressing economic deprivation only fuels instability, noting that true national security begins with policies that expand opportunities and restore citizens’ trust in government.

“I said this when I was governor — if you deny people legitimate sources of income, they will create illegitimate ones, such as kidnapping, banditry, and armed robbery,” he said.

The former governor added that the real solution to insecurity lies in physical and social development that uplifts communities and gives citizens a stake in national stability.

Reflecting on his tenure as Rivers State Governor, Amaechi said his administration pursued a four-pronged approach to restoring peace — enforcing the law, building the capacity of security agencies, fostering inter-agency collaboration, involving citizens in community policing, and improving the social and economic wellbeing of the people.

“When we got in, we started building primary schools in every village, constructing primary healthcare centres, and opening roads in rural communities. But beyond that, we localized the contracts, meaning contractors came from the same communities where the projects were sited. When you pay them, they pay their workers, and that money circulates in the community. It created jobs, kept people busy, and reduced crime,” he explained.

Amaechi said this integrated approach — pairing law enforcement with development and citizen engagement — weakened the incentive for young people to turn to crime.

“We didn’t just say, ‘If we catch you kidnapping, we shoot you.’ No. We created alternatives first, then policed the state. People knew that if they got involved in banditry or kidnapping, they were lawbreakers, not freedom fighters,” he said.

He recalled that his administration’s strategy restored peace and public confidence, noting that he often verified the impact of security policies personally.

“I personally went out at night to places that had once been unsafe, like nightclubs — not for recreation, but to test the effectiveness of the strategies we had put in place to combat insecurity and to confirm that our security measures were restoring public confidence,” he revealed.

Amaechi concluded that Nigeria’s leaders must learn from that model by securing livelihoods as a foundation for securing lives.

“You can’t police hunger. You build peace when people have work, dignity, and faith in government,” he said.

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