Sir Obi Enemo, the
Anambra Director of National Orientation Agency (NOA) has described as callous
the unfortunate bomb blast in Abuja, saying it was a wakeup call on the
country’s security agencies.
Enemo made the call in
an interview with newsmen in Awka on Thursday. He said the current
security challenge was one that demanded intelligence gathering which could be
received only if the Police could its relationship with the community so
that people could feel safe to volunteer information on suspicious moves their
environment.
He regretted that people
could perpetrate such carnage on their fellow citizens
under any guise,
and called moral reorientation that could arrest ugly trend.
He advised people
anywhere to be security conscious, saying they should know that it is our
problem so we need general security consciousness , please report a
suspicious movement on people.
“It shows the
callousness of the perpetrators, they are not normal human beings, and I want to
believe strongly that these perpetrators of this evil do not represent any religion because no religion preaches violence, these people are just wicked.
“However it is a wakeup
call on our security agencies especially the police in every part of the
country, we have been talking about the police being the true friends of the people
for over a long time, they should do everything possible to be the true friends
of the people, this is the only way they can gather intelligence.
“At appoint there was
the concept of community policing, the police hierarchy should advance it this
time , this is what we need, security and information go together so they should
get down to the people, so those few who are not comfortable with their
activities should feel safe to report", he said.
On the ongoing national
conference, the chief orientation officer urged to address the major
national issues of security, even development and equality now that they were going
into the committee stage, pointing out that they need to discuss as Nigerians.
He said the dialogue was
important at this time of our national life as it was the only true way out of
any situation and appealed to Nigerians to have confidence in the delegates
and respect their opinions .
"NOA has always
advocated dialogue because even at the wind of any strife, people still
have to sit and dialogue so it is a good opportunity for Nigerians to discuss how
far we have fared as a country and the way forward, it a great omen for this
country.
"We should not
forget that we have to think and talk Nigeria, sectionalism, ethnicity,
religion, tribalism, these are some of the mindsets that have marred the
journey so far, and it will never be the way forward.
They have been at the
preliminaries all along, they are now going into the
committees and these
committee are going to address some of the major national
issues and I have
confidence in the calibre of people there, so let us not put
the cart before the
horse, Nigerians should respect the decisions of those we
have sent", he
advised.
By Abuchi Ifeasinachi