Kwara APC Governorship Candidate Urges Students to Shun Social Vices, Says They Fuel Insecurity

The All Progressives Congress, APC Governorship candidate and Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Engr. Yakubu Danladi-Salihu, has admonished Nigerian students to shun all forms of social vices, saying they are part of the root causes of insecurity in the country.

Rt. Hon. Engr. Danladi-Salihu spoke on Thursday at a security summit organized by the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Arts, FOHSSA at Al-Hikmah University in Ilorin.

Representing the Kwara State House of Assembly Speaker, Hon. Musa Idris Buko keynoted the session with the topic “Curbing Insecurity In Nigeria: The Roles Of Students, From Awareness To Action,” analyzing the root causes of insecurity and the roles of Nigerian students in mitigating the global trend.

Danladi praised FOHSSA for choosing a timely and critical topic, stressing that understanding the causes of insecurity must come first before any action can be taken to tackle it. He listed neocolonial traps, global conflicts, porous international borders, and vast ungoverned spaces as major global drivers of insecurity.

He also identified complex borders, national parks, mining, grazing reserves, poaching, fake news, ransom payments, drug abuse, and weak grassroots governance as issues.

Using Kwara as a case study, Danladi noted that the state shares over 50% of Nigeria’s 800km border with the Benin Republic through Baruten Local Government Area.

“Kwara ranks 10th in landmass nationally, with boundaries touching Niger State, the 2nd largest. Baruten and Kaiama LGAs are the 2nd and 7th largest LGAs in Nigeria, and Baruten connects to Borgu, the largest Local Government Area via Kaiama. Kainji Lake, Old Oyo, and the new Kampe National Park in Patigi, plus over 147,000 hectares of grazing reserves and mining sites, all compound security challenges”

The youngest Governorship candidate in the country admonished students to imbibe the core values of honesty, integrity, ethics, and shun drug abuse, fake news, cultism, and other social vices that could damage their image and that of their parents.

The Speaker acknowledged and commended the efforts of the governments of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on youth inclusion in governance and their sustained efforts to restore lasting peace across troubled areas in the state and country.