President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has warned that military action alone cannot bring lasting peace to the North-Central, saying force may suppress violence but cannot address the grievances and underlying conditions fuelling insecurity in the region.
Tinubu gave the warning yesterday in Makurdi at the 2026 North-Central Zonal Security Summit, where he called for stronger collaboration among governments, traditional rulers, religious leaders, communities, security agencies, youths, women and the private sector to tackle the security challenges confronting the zone.
The summit, organised by the Ministry of Defence in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement (North Central), was themed: “Collaborative Approaches to Strengthening Security and Regional Stability.”
Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, the President said insecurity in the North-Central had become too complex for any single government agency, security institution or community to tackle alone.
“No single agency, no single tier of government and no single community can secure this region acting alone. Insecurity does not respect state boundaries or agency mandates.
“Criminals move freely across local government areas while our responses are too often slowed by rivalry, duplication and the withholding of information. That must end,” he said.
Tinubu declared: “Military action alone will not deliver lasting peace to the North-Central. Force can suppress violence; it cannot resolve the grievances that produce it.”
The President identified competition over land and water, climate change, desertification, unresolved land-use disputes, weak local dispute-resolution mechanisms and the proliferation of illicit weapons as some of the factors sustaining violent conflicts in the region.
He said the Federal Government would therefore continue to combine kinetic operations with developmental interventions aimed at addressing the root causes of insecurity.
Tinubu urged traditional rulers and religious leaders to play a greater role in preventing conflicts, describing them as critical sources of early warning and reconciliation within their communities.
“You hold an authority that no uniform confers. You know your communities intimately. You know when a stranger arrives, when a young man falls into bad company, and when a quarrel between two families is about to become a conflict between two peoples.
“I ask you to be our first line of early warning and our most trusted voice of reconciliation,” he said.
The President also warned community leaders against inflammatory rhetoric, saying the country had suffered greatly from reckless statements around ethnic, religious and other differences.
He called on citizens to provide useful intelligence to security agencies and stop shielding criminals because of family, ethnic or community ties.
“Security begins with you. I call on every citizen to share information with the security agencies, to refuse to shield criminality out of kinship or sentiment, and to resist those who would recruit our sons into violence for a handful of naira,” Tinubu said.
He further urged women to take their rightful place in peacebuilding efforts, noting that they often bear the greatest burden whenever conflicts erupt.
“To our women, who bear the heaviest burden of every conflict and yet remain the most effective peacebuilders in every community, your place is not at the margins of this conversation but at its centre,” he said.
Tinubu also addressed the youth, assuring them that his administration would expand economic opportunities that would discourage them from taking up arms.
“This administration is committed to expanding the opportunities that make a rifle a far less attractive prospect than a livelihood,” he said.
Tinubu demands action, not communiqué
The President directed the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Gwabin Musa (retd.), to transmit the outcomes of the summit to him and provide a report on the implementation of its recommendations.
He warned stakeholders against producing another communiqué that would eventually be “filed away and forgotten.”
Tinubu insisted that the summit must produce practical recommendations with clearly assigned responsibilities, timelines and measurable outcomes.
“I expect this gathering to produce clear and practical recommendations, each with an identified owner, a defined timeline and a measurable outcome.
“We will be judged not by the quality of our deliberations here, but by whether a farmer in this region sleeps more soundly a year from now,” he said.
The President commended the Ministry of Defence and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, North Central, for organising the summit, the second in a series of regional security engagements.
Defence Minister warns against open grazing on farms
Speaking at the event, the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd.), reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to improving security and tackling challenges fuelling instability across the country.
Musa warned against cattle grazing on farms, stressing the need for livestock production to thrive without creating conflict with farmers.
He called for collective efforts to guarantee the safety of farmers in their communities and on their farms.
The minister said the summit was organised to hear directly from people in the region about the security threats confronting them and find common solutions.
He stressed that everyone had a stake in restoring peace and stability to the North-Central.
Alia: Diversity must unite us
In his welcome address, Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, said the summit came at a critical time, given the security challenges confronting communities across the zone.
He said the summit’s focus on banditry, farmer-herder conflicts, kidnapping, violent extremism, organised crime and community resilience directly reflected the realities facing the region.
Alia said Benue and other North-Central states required a coordinated security strategy, urging stakeholders to look beyond their differences and confront insecurity collectively.
“It is my considered position that our diversity should be a source of strength rather than weakness. What are those things that unite us, and what are those things that divide us and breed insecurity?” he asked.
The governor called on stakeholders to set aside their differences and unite against insecurity, saying such unity would amount to winning half the battle.
Tags: Bola Tinubu, North-Central insecurity, security summit, Benue State, Hyacinth Alia, Christopher Musa, farmer-herder conflict, banditry, kidnapping, terrorism, North-Central Nigeria, military action, peacebuilding, community security, Nigeria security
Meta description: President Tinubu says military action alone cannot end insecurity in North-Central Nigeria, urging stakeholders to tackle the root causes of violence through collective action and development.
