By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
The Director-Generak, National Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, said the colonial masters didn’t didn’t have good intentions for West Africa to survive.
He said the colonialists main goal was for West African nations not to survive for too long before being consumed by wars and other strifes.
This was as the Director General of the Department of State Services (DG SS), Mr. Yusuf Bichi, warned that States with weak institutions were most vulnerable to trans-national criminal networks,that seek to subvert legitimate authorities within the sub-region.
Osaghae, and Bichi spoke, Thursday, during the 2021 Distinguished Personality Lecture at the National Institute for Security Studies (NISS), Abuja.
Speaking as the guest lecturer, the NIIA boss urged ECOWAS member-states to emplace good governance through accountability, probity and other mechanisms that guarantee stability.
While drawing a Nexus between good governance and security, the diplomat declared that, “there is a disconnect between the State and the citizens”, when trust is lost.
His words: “The perennial crises that had their origins in the malformation of colonial constructions. We have to see how we can manage them.
“And I dare to say that, by the time we succeed in West Africa, against all odds – because the odds were so stacked against us, and they still are.
“We were never programmed to survive, and to continue to exist. We have shown that there is creativity, and more creativity.
“Let us use those creative energies within the context of regionalism”.
Also speaking, the DG SS raised concerns over the deliberate attempts by elite in some countries, to sabotage sustainable development.
Represented by a national director, Mr. Folasade A.,the Spymaster bsaid: “States with weak institutions and rule of law, are most vulnerable to predications by trans-national criminal networks, which find ready partners in elite, local businessmen, security forces, and ordinary citizens.
“In parts of West Africa, the States have been captured by elite. That is, politicians, businessmen, members of the security establishment, who seek to neutralise law enforcement, and enable criminal activities, from which they can profit.
“From the rise of extremism in the Sahel…the emergence of religious radicalism across Africa, has presented growing threats”.
The lecture was attended by participants of the Executive Intelligent Management Course (EIMC 14), drawn from about twenty four agencies of government, the Gambia, Ghana, and Liberia.