President Bola Tinubu on Thursday told state governors to halt the construction of flyovers in areas with low traffic and instead invest their increased federal allocations in road networks that improve living standards and boost security access to remote communities.
Tinubu said states are now receiving four to five times what they used to get from the Federation Account, and should use the funds more productively.
He spoke when he received a delegation of traditional rulers from Oyo State led by the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, who visited to congratulate him on the successful rescue of abducted schoolchildren and teachers from Oriire Local Government Area after 56 days in captivity.
Build Roads, Not Flying Over Where There Is No Traffic
Directing his remarks at Ladoja and others who had served as governors, the President said:
> “The cost of operation is high. But the money that I’m pushing to the states, if you had it during your own time, or during my time, it would have been different.
> They are taking four to five times their money. Nobody is borrowing money to pay salaries now. Pensioners are receiving their pay.
> They should do more instead of building flying over where there is no numeric traffic; build roads and artery networks to really enhance the quality of life and the accessibility of the security agencies to penetrate those areas.”
Tinubu also revealed for the first time that terrorists who abducted school children and teachers in Oriire in May demanded the release of their jailed members alongside ransom.
“We refuse to negotiate for ransom. These criminals wanted us to release from detention members of their criminal gangs that were already arrested, that was one of their conditions, outside of the money they were looking for.
And we said no deal. We are not going to negotiate with criminals,” he said.
“They committed murder, and we were ready to finish with their families, members of their own communities. They grew up somewhere.”
The President said his directive to expand the *Army from eight to 12 divisions* was a direct response to the Oriire abductions.
The move, he explained, is to shorten response times and give security forces the numerical and geographic capacity to defeat terrorism and banditry.
“As we emphasise the question of security, each event teaches us new methods… And you will have seen we’ve given a geographical and numerical answer to the challenges.
We refused to pay ransom. We have the geography of the forest… from eight divisions, we are now moving to 12 divisions, to shorten the response time,” Tinubu stated.
Tinubu added that the Federal Government would establish *state police* with “guardrails from abuses” and enhance the capacity of *forest guards*.
He blamed worsening kidnappings and attacks on security collapse in Nigeria’s Sahel neighbours — Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic.
“Some of them are non-Nigerians. You see the problem of insecurity in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic; it is adding more fuel to our challenges,” he said.
He commended the armed forces for the Oriire rescue and urged traditional rulers to play a greater role in community security.
