Crime Prevention, Collective Responsibility-Obasanjo
From Josephine Lohor in Abuja
President Olusegun Obasanjo said yesterday in Abuja that all segments of the society were responsible for combating juvenile delinquency and crime.
Declaring open the Security Summit organised by the House of Representatives at Nicon Hilton Hotel, Abuja, with the theme: Juvenile Delinquency, Crime, Community Policing: Challenges and Prospects, the President stressed that these two social vices must be tackled at the family, school, community and governmental levels.
"Most of what we see now as criminality are actually symptoms of what had gone wrong at family, community, religious and state levels," he noted, adding that they were also "symptoms of discarded values or new ones we are trying to graft onto our society."
Obasanjo decried the attitude of family heads, school teachers, religious and political leaders who failed to measure up to expectations in their duties, adding that a holistic approach must be found to the problems,
"We just have to take it holistically without leaving any one out," he said, beginning from the family." A father who has refused to play the role of a father is creating problems for his family and society," he noted.
The President said that the idea of community policing appealed to him, stressing that it must be imbibed as one of the strategies to addressing the problems of Juvenile delinquency and crime.
He said that the fight would also be taken beyond Nigeria's porous borders to check smuggling of weapons through joint intelligence operations. The President who disclosed the recent seizure of 142 AK automatic rifles which he noted were enough "to equip a military company and wage war against a city," stressed that no criminal would find safe haven in the country.
Obasanjo commended the Special Security Committee of the House of Representatives for the Summit, adding that he would be favourably disposed to any suggestions from the Summit to complement government's current efforts to stem the social decay.
In his address, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, said that the Security Summit was an indication of the resolve of the House to support the maintenance of law and order. He also thanked President Obasanjo for attending, noting that it demonstrated his commitment to ensuring peace in the country.
In a vote of thanks, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Austin Opara, stressed the need for all citizens to be security conscious adding that the success of the current economic reforms depended on a crime free society.
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