Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, has said that combining kinetic and non-kinetic strategies remains key to addressing insecurity across the country.
Diri stated this during a courtesy visit by participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 19 of the National Institute for Security Studies at Government House, Yenagoa.
Represented by his deputy, Peter Akpe, Diri emphasised the need for a balanced approach to security, stressing that military action alone is insufficient.
He stated, “We welcome you and also appreciate you for choosing Bayelsa for this particular study tour. These studies are so important, but most of the time, because we don’t study, we don’t get empirical data or information on what is really going on. And so, we tend to theorise everything.
“We take this study very seriously. Therefore, we commend the Director General and the entire leadership of the National Institute for Security Studies (NISS), Abuja, for your consistent investment in the intellectual and professional capital of our national intelligence and security architecture.
“Distinguished participants, your chosen theme — ‘Ethnic Militias and Resource Competition in Africa: Implications for National Security’ — could scarcely have found a more appropriate field laboratory than Bayelsa State, and indeed, the wider Niger Delta.
“Bayelsa is the heart of the Niger Delta. Beneath our creeks, our mangroves and our communities lie the wealth that has powered the Nigerian economy for over six decades. Yet, for so long, our people lived with the painful paradox of plenty—gas flares lighting the night sky over our communities without electricity, pipelines crossing farmlands that no longer yielded crops, and a generation of young men and women growing up to watch wealth pass them by.”
He added, “On the issue of national security, I believe that no military strategy, however sophisticated, can substitute for inclusive governance, equitable resource sharing, and a credible social contract between the state and its citizens.
“And so, in Bayelsa, the Prosperity Administration of His Excellency, Senator Douye Diri, has continued to use more of the non-kinetic approach by prioritising youth empowerment, skills acquisition, scholarships and the opening up of our communities through critical infrastructure.
“Because we understand that an idle, hopeless and excluded young person is the most fertile recruiting ground any militia, anywhere in the world, can ever hope for. I respectfully urge you to look closely at what has worked here in the Niger Delta, what has not and why.”
Diri reiterated that adopting both approaches would help curb banditry, kidnapping, insurgency, and other forms of criminality.
Earlier, the team lead, Vivian Okpeh, said the EIMC 19 is a 10-month intensive training programme designed to equip participants with advanced skills in intelligence management, strategic leadership, and national security policy formulation.
She added that the study theme was selected due to the growing influence of militia groups and their implications for governance, economic stability, and national development, while calling for stronger collaboration with Bayelsa state.
The country has, in recent years, grappled with a complex security landscape marked by insurgency in the North-East, banditry and mass kidnappings in the North-West and North-Central, as well as militancy and oil-related crimes in the Niger Delta region.
In the Niger Delta, agitation for resource control and environmental justice has historically fueled unrest, with armed groups emerging over perceived marginalisation despite the region’s contribution to national oil revenue.