By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
The Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Gwabin Musa (retd.), has identified national unity and social cohesion as critical elements in addressing Nigeria’s security challenges, urging citizens to rise above ethnic, religious and regional divisions.
Musa also called for the reintroduction of modern, technology-driven tollgates on major highways across the country, describing them as essential security infrastructure for tracking criminal activities, monitoring vehicular movements and protecting lives and property.
The Minister’s Special Assistant on Media, Leah Katung-Babatunde, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday, following Musa’s participation as a panellist at the Abuja Round Table, themed “Promise to Proof: The Renewed Hope Conversation.” The session focused on “Safe to Farm, Travel and Trade: Protecting Lives and Livelihoods in Every Community.”
The Defence Minister described the removal and destruction of tollgates across the country as a strategic mistake, noting that modern tolling systems could serve as effective security checkpoints through the deployment of advanced Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
According to him, automated tollgates would eliminate the need for cash transactions while enabling security agencies to capture vehicle registration details, monitor movements along interstate highways and track suspected criminals.
He explained that technological integration would address the operational abuses associated with the previous tollgate system, making automated tolling an effective non-kinetic approach to tackling insecurity.
Musa also stressed the need for a comprehensive and reliable national identification system, advocating the integration of unique identification numbers, facial recognition and biometric data to strengthen identity verification and intelligence gathering.
He said a centralised digital identification architecture would help close existing security loopholes, eliminate identity ambiguities and improve the ability of security agencies to detect and track criminal elements.
On military involvement in internal security operations, the Minister explained that although the constitutional responsibility of the Armed Forces was to defend the country’s territorial integrity, the military had continued to support civil authorities whenever security challenges exceeded the operational capacity of the police.
However, he expressed concern over the prolonged deployment of military personnel for internal security operations, noting that many troops had spent years away from their families, particularly in the North-West and other troubled regions.
He said the Federal Government was taking steps to strengthen police recruitment, training and operational capacity to enable the police to assume greater responsibility for internal security.
The Minister said the ultimate objective was to build a stronger civil policing system that would allow military personnel to gradually withdraw from prolonged internal security deployments, return to their barracks and concentrate on their primary constitutional responsibilities.
He added that strengthening the country’s security architecture would also enable security agencies to move from reactive responses to more proactive measures, particularly ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Musa maintained that Nigeria’s major security challenge was not a lack of resources or military firepower but the divisions among its people, insisting that national cohesion remained indispensable to lasting peace and stability.
He urged Nigerians to discard historical grievances and embrace one another as fellow citizens, irrespective of ethnic, religious or regional differences.
“We must begin to view one another simply as human beings and fellow citizens, rather than dividing ourselves along ethnic, regional, or religious lines,” he said.
The Minister reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment, under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, to creating an environment where Nigerians could safely engage in farming, travelling and commercial activities across the country.
