“So when we talk about security, the holistic approach is important. We have just about 350,000 policemen guarding 200 million people. By UN standard, it should be 1 to 450 people which means we need about 1.5 to 2 million policemen. We need manpower… And we need to incentivize the people who protect us.”

Ukaegbu in an interview on ‘Politico Politica’ with Isabella Akinseye published on September 30th, 2018

“Why do we have a problem of insurgency? Why are they arising? When you have a government that does not listen to its people, at some point they protest. What reason was Boko Haram Haram formed? Let us get to the root of the problem first before we can provide right solutions. We sit down and ask Boko Haram, what is going on? The root of it initially was pushing back against Westernization and Western culture in their regions. The question is: How do we get our people who feel like they do not want Westernization, after-all you have the Amish in the U.S. The Amish don’t use electricity. We have different factions without naming a whole bunch of them that retain their cultures and traditions without an encroachment from government because you understand it, you respect the people and their wishes. But also you give them the opportunity to learn the importance of what you are presenting to them. So why is it important that your people are educated? So you teach them in a way that they appreciate what you are bringing to them, and what they don’t like, they dump. So if we ask that question, let us start there and find ways to make sure that we solve some of those problems by listening and providing what would enhance their lives.

“The main problem we have at the masses level is the survival mechanism. Our government is run by people so selfish that they don’t understand that people have to eat. If I have value for my life and that of my neighbor I won’t be doing a bomb blast. If I feel there was something to lose by killing myself, I won’t be blowing myself up. Where did we drop the ball on those young lives? Once you lay down the foundation to ensure that there is no reason for someone to feel like they are justified in taking someone else’s life, then if you fight terrorism head-on, which is exactly what it is, you know you are doing it out of good conscience. But you have to give that young boy the opportunity to know that I should not be at Boko Haram.”

Ukaegbu in an interview with Samson Toromade of Pulse TV published on August 31st, 2018

“Of course security goes back to making sure they are well fed, their well being and families are taken care of, we will attract more people in the force because we need at least 5-10 million people in the police to secure a nation of 200 million. Not 350,000 who are ill-prepared, ill-skilled and almost uneducated. If we take care of them and incentivize them to understand the importance of being loyal to the country first and securing the nation, then if our police force is effective, it is easier to tackle insurgency at the local/community level. So this is a problem of our government not understanding the importance of listening to the people, making sure our security systems work and also making sure our judiciary works to criminalize and fight terrorism.”

Ukaegbu in an interview with Samson Toromade of Pulse TV published on August 31st, 2018.

“As with all our problems, it is extremely important to take a holistic look at how to solve our security issues. For one, we have failed at dealing with insurgencies in an effective way which is part of what has given rise to insecurity in our nation. Part of the problem is we have leaders whose perspective of leadership came from the colonial masters. Masters and servants; and when there’s an uprising with the servants, you suppress them to quietness. The truth is in a democracy, that does not work. If we start to listen to our people a little bit more, if we had a strong economy where every citizen of Nigeria believes that they have access to wealth, to security, to freedom, to opportunities to create their happiness and whatever environment they want, some of the problems we have as insurgencies will not arise. 2. If you look at our law enforcement agencies, we have about 350,000 policemen guarding a population of 200 million people. That is not sustainable especially when our population grows at almost 3% every year which means every year, we are adding about 6 million people to our population. The first thing we need to do is to make sure that the people who put their lives on the line everyday to secure you and I in our nation feel appreciated. We need to pay them livable wages. We need to make sure they understand that this is not the end of the road. You don’t choose to become a policeman because you cannot do any other thing. It should be a career of pride. I am serving and protecting the nation. And in turn, the nation has the responsibility to take care of your family when you’re not there. If anything happens to you in the line of duty, the well being of your family becomes the responsibility of the state. If we do that, it becomes easier to attract more people. The 30 million people we talked about who are unemployed now start to see becoming law enforcement agents as a viable career path. If we do that… we need about 1.5 to 2 million policemen across the nation and until it becomes appealing enough for someone to say I want to go lay my life down for my nation, we will still have a security problem. So pay people livable wages, make them feel they are appreciated, increase the number of law enforcement agents that we have. Once we do that, then start to have the dialogue, the discussions across the nation about the causes of some of these problems…”

Ukaegbu in an interview on Gatefield TV’s Conversations with Abang Mercy, published on December 23rd, 2018.

Chike Ukaegbu

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