The President of the Nigerian Society for Criminology, Prof. Oludayo Tade, on Sunday tasked President Bola Tinubu to intensify efforts towards securing Nigeria and protecting Nigerians.
Tade stated that this was important because the insecurity challenge facing Nigeria has both national and transnational dimensions.
This was contained in a statement issued in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Sunday.
The call followed a series of kidnapping incidents and the subsequent killing of victims, even after ransoms were allegedly paid by their relatives.
Online reports that a pregnant woman and some residents of Igboho in Oorelope Local Government Area of Oyo State were kidnapped last week. The bandits reportedly killed the woman and a relative who had taken money for her ransom.
It will also be recalled that scores of teachers and students were abducted during coordinated attacks on Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yawota; Community Grammar School; and L.A. Primary School, Esiele, in Oriire Local Government Area of the state on Friday, May 15, 2026.
Tade, in the statement, said the just-concluded 2026 International Conference of the NSC, themed “Securing Nigeria and Protecting Nigerians,” emphasised the need for the government to improve the economy to reduce the propensity for crime while sustaining attacks on bandits, kidnappers and terrorists.
He said, “As the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Tinubu must protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria and ensure that Nigerians are free from the fear of travelling on roads or being abducted from schools and their communities.
“The first constitutional duty is to protect lives and property, and not doing that efficiently indicates failure. Nigerians need to experience and feel secure, and Nigeria must be protected from terrorists entering the country. Their local collaborators in and outside government must be fished out and punished. The President must display the political will to secure Nigeria and Nigerians.”
The don also urged Tinubu to review upward the welfare packages for security personnel who become incapacitated or lose their lives in counter-insurgency operations, stressing that officers protecting Nigeria and its citizens, as well as their families, deserve better welfare support.
Speaking on the just-concluded fourth International Conference of the NSC held at Cosmopolitan University, Abuja, Tade said the keynote speaker, Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja, called on the Federal Government to fulfil its responsibility of protecting Nigeria and Nigerians.
“Nigeria is tearing at the seams because of a profound sense of insecurity among citizens who feel that the situation is so terrible that disintegration may not be that bad. Even that option is, however, just another pathway to chaos, as the outcome might be worse. The only way forward is for the Nigerian state to do its work, secure the country and protect citizens. Our first step should be to realise that, in spite of everything going on, there is value in protecting Nigeria.
“The Nigerian state is undergoing a three-dimensional crisis. The first affects the political economy and is generated mainly by public corruption over the past four decades, which has created a run on the treasury at the national and state levels, threatening to consume the goose that lays the golden egg.
“The second is the crisis of citizenship symbolised by ethno-regionalism, the Boko Haram insurgency, farmer-herder killings, agitations for Biafra, militancy in the Niger Delta and indigene-settler conflicts.
“The third element relates to the frustration of the country’s democratic aspirations in a context where the citizenry believes in ‘true democracy’ but is confronted by a reckless political class that is corrupt, self-serving and manipulative. These issues have largely broken the social pact between citizens and the state.”
At the conference, Tade and his executive team were returned for a second term in office following what was described as exemplary leadership of the society.
The Chairman of the NSC Board of Trustees, Prof. Etannibi Alemika, praised the executive and called for greater research-based evidence on the social problems confronting Nigeria to help policymakers make informed decisions.
The NSC is the premier professional and academic organisation for criminologists, security practitioners and scholars in Nigeria.
It promotes research-driven solutions to crime and advocates evidence-based policies in criminal justice, law enforcement and public security.