In an effort to bring lasting solution to the menace of terrorism and insecurity in Nigeria, the Department of Sociology, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida IBB University, Lapai held a two-day National Conference recently with a view to bring together high profile scholars to stimulate discussions that would proffer solutions to that social menace.
Speaking at the National Conference, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Muhammad Nasir Maiturare charged scholars in the country to initiate theoretical and empirical diagnosis activities and prescriptions that would help to lift the nation out of the present social quagmire.
According to him, “as privileged intellectuals saddled with the responsibility of being the light of the society, we have a duty to engage in academic discourse that will espouse the value of promoting mutual understanding among our diverse peoples and minimize negative and hateful tendencies, which lie at the root of insecurity and terrorism”.
Professor Maituare, while urging the participants of the conference to engage actively in the discourse so as to create a better record that will be nationally and internationally acknowledged in the course of time also reiterated his administration’s readiness to ensure that IBB University becomes a reference point in academic excellence in Nigeria.
The Keynote Speaker at the conference, Professor Omololu Soyombo of the Department of Sociology, University of Lagos averred that terrorism and insecurity emerged in Nigeria as a result of failure of the society and social institutions that voluntarily or involuntarily refused to meet the basic needs of the people.
He pointed out that whenever there is social, economic and political disequilibrium in the society, people get frustrated and agitated thereby responding in violent ways.
Professor Soyombo who is a former Dean Faculty of Social Science, University of Lagos also explained that each parts of the society contributed to its maintenance and when the parts function effectively, the society will be at the state of equilibrium otherwise there will be disintegration and chaos.
The keynote Speaker identified major factors associated with terrorism and insecurity to poverty and unemployment among others that are common among the youths, which he said created a large pool of potentials recruits for terrorism.
The Don therefore, proffers some solutions to the control of terrorism in Nigeria to include, the need for social welfare and employment generation, good governance, intelligence policing and inter-agency collaboration information as well as need for national value reorientation and crime punishment among others.
Earlier, the Head of Department of Sociology, Dr. Charles Onuora Okwuwa in his welcome address stated that Nigeria is experiencing unimaginable social upheavals that were virtually absent some decades past, hence the need for the conference to congregate scholars in social sciences discipline so as to provide solutions to the devastating social menace in the country.
By Temitope Isaac
Department of Sociology
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