The General Assembly of the ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) has urged the Federal Government to immediately deploy the newly acquired state-of-the-art combat Tucano and Alpha jets to tackle protracted banditry and other criminalities in the country.
This is contained in the communique of a virtual meeting of the organisation, on the State of the Nation, which is its 44th meeting of the AAN Board of Trustees (BoT) held alongside the General Assembly.
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The event also witnessed the election of a new executive committee to pilot the affairs of the board for the next three years, with Dr. Jummai Umar-Ajijola, Chairperson; Imoni Mac Amarere, Vice Chairperson; and James Dyesle Milaham, Treasurer.
The organisation said Nigeria is faced with an unprecedented wave of different but overlapping security crises -from kidnapping to extremist insurgencies- with almost every corner of the country being hit by violence and crime.
“The state-of-the-art combat Tucano and Alpha jets newly acquired must be deployed immediately to help in further neutralizing the criminal elements with precision and bring the protracted insurgency to an end. Contemporary hi-tech security management networking as adopted by advanced countries of the world should be embraced,” the communique signed by the Convener, Yusuf Ogwuzebe said.
The AAN said the Twitter ban by the Federal Government has had severe economic costs and that it is a step backwards for civic engagements also threatens the civic space which has continued to shrink in recent years.
“We would like to call on the Nigerian government to rescind its decision on the Twitter ban as it has had a huge socio-economic impact not only on the lives of emerging young entrepreneurs who depend on the social media for their livelihood.
“But it is also a counterproductive move for a nation seeking to create more jobs and reduce poverty as part of its post COVID-19 recovery strategy. The also raises human rights and reputational concerns about the leadership of the country.”
The group regretted that the public fiscal deficit, financed mostly by domestic and foreign borrowings, is widening with high debt service payments, estimated at more than half of federally collected revenues, thus posing a major fiscal risk to Nigeria’s economy.
They also said that the ongoing Review of the 1999 Constitution offers opportunity for Nigerians to shape the constitution with the goal that it reflects the desires and aspirations of the citizens.
“Adopting the principles of fiscal federalism will be a practical approach to solving the challenges governments at all levels face today, such as the generation and equitable distribution of income, efficient and effective allocation of resources, and economic stability. Revenue drive and allocation of resources can be done effectively by states and local governments with strong measures to curtail graft and corruption.”
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