Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has condemned the weaponisation of security in Nigeria for political purposes.
Speaking at the 2024 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, Okonjo-Iweala emphasised that security and development are intertwined, and politicians’ actions have led to the country’s current state.
She criticised politicians for instigating insecurity to discredit their opponents, resulting in loss of lives and property.
Okonjo-Iweala urged for an end to this practice, stressing that technological innovations can aid in tracking crude oil theft and holding perpetrators accountable.
The former Minister of Finance called for collective action to stop the theft of national assets, emphasizing that excuses for inaction are no longer acceptable. Her keynote address, “A Social Contract For Nigeria’s Future,” highlighted the need for a secure environment to achieve socio-economic development.
“We cannot have socio-economic development without security.
“We certainly cannot have security without development. We all know that security has been weaponised in our country for political purposes by political actors, leading partly to the situation we have now.
“We have politicians who believe that the best way to make their opponents look bad is to instigate insecurity, making it look like they can’t govern, regardless of whether this leads to loss of lives and property of innocent Nigerians. This has to stop,” she stated.
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