Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, says he won’t hesitate to sack underperforming service chiefs if insecurity persists under his watch as president.

Mr Obi, who was featured on Arise TV on Monday, said as the Commander-In-Chief, he would take responsibility for the country’s security challenges. 

“That means, whatever happens, we will deal with it decisively and someone will have to be responsible for it. If you are not doing it, you are out. We are not going to wait,” he said. 

As one of the major challenges bedevilling Nigeria, insecurity has dominated public discourse with heightened terrorism, banditry, and kidnapping across the regions. 

Speaking further, Mr Obi said his top priority as Nigeria’s president would be in consonance with the 1999 Constitution; to secure and protect the lives and properties of the people. 

He maintained that his government, if given the chance, would deal decisively with the security challenges in the country.

According to him, the menace was already affecting food production as a result of herdsmen/farmers clashes in some parts of the country. 

“My first responsibility in this country is to secure lives and property. It is a critical thing because unless you do it, nobody will invest,” Mr Obi further revealed.

“The farmers can’t go back, so there is no food production, there is nothing that can happen without food production,” the LP presidential candidate added.

When asked what strategy he intends to use in tackling insecurity if elected president, however, Mr Obi said he won’t disclose his plans even if placed under duress. 

“Even with a gun on my head, I can’t give you details of what I’m going to do with the issue of insecurity but I’m going to be commander-in-chief,” Mr Obi asserted. “I will deal with it decisively. I can’t tell you how I’m going to deal with it because if I tell you, it won’t work.”

With over 200 million people, Nigeria has been grappling with insecurity for over a decade with rising crime rates, especially Boko Haram and bandits attacks.

The activities of the Boko Haram terror group, which hitherto began in 2009 in the northeastern part of the country, have also spread across other regions. 

Aside from misusing religion for subversive activities, armed gangs, kidnappers and separatist groups have exacerbated the security situation in Africa’s most popular nation, killing, maiming, and destroying properties worth millions of naira. 

Despite several operations to put an end to insecurity, notably kidnapping for ransom, the government has yet to find a genuine solution to the country’s security dilemma.

On Sunday, the United States Embassy alerted its citizens in Nigeria of a possible terror attack in the country’s main capital, Abuja.