President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has warned that military force alone cannot bring lasting peace to the North Central, saying the grievances and underlying social, economic and environmental factors fuelling violence must also be addressed.
The president consequently called for stronger collaboration among traditional and religious leaders, communities, youths, women, development partners, the private sector, government and security agencies to tackle insecurity and build sustainable peace across the region.
Tinubu spoke yesterday at the 2026 North Central Regional Security Summit in Makurdi, Benue State, where he was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume.
In a statement by the SGF's spokesman, Yomi Odunuga, the President urged traditional and religious leaders to serve as the first line of early warning and trusted voices of reconciliation in their communities. He also called on citizens to provide timely intelligence to security agencies and refuse to shield criminals on the basis of kinship or sentiment.
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Speaking on the theme, "Collaborative Approaches to Strengthening Security and Regional Stability," Tinubu stressed that no single security agency, tier of government or community could secure the region acting alone.
According to him, insecurity transcends state boundaries and institutional mandates, making it necessary for security agencies and communities to overcome rivalry, duplication of efforts and the withholding of vital information.
"No single agency, no single tier of government and no single community can secure this region acting alone. Insecurity does not respect state boundaries or agency mandates. Criminals move freely across local government areas while our responses are too often slowed by rivalry, duplication and the withholding of information. That must end," he said.
Military action not enough
Tinubu said his administration had strengthened the nation's security architecture through enhanced collaboration among the Armed Forces, Nigeria Police Force and intelligence services, alongside the acquisition of new platforms and advanced military capabilities.
He added that the administration was rebuilding Nigeria's indigenous defence industry through the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) Act, while improving troops' welfare to enhance their operational effectiveness.
The President commended the Armed Forces and other security agencies for gains recorded against terrorists and other criminal elements, noting that terrorist commanders had been neutralised, thousands of fighters had surrendered, captives rescued and normalcy restored to several communities.
He, however, cautioned that military action alone could not guarantee sustainable peace, stressing that the root causes of violent conflicts must be addressed.
He identified competition over land and water, climate change, desertification, unresolved land-use issues, weak local dispute-resolution mechanisms and the proliferation of illicit weapons as factors sustaining violence in the region.
"Military action alone will not deliver lasting peace to the North Central. Force can suppress violence; it cannot resolve the grievances that produce it," Tinubu said.
He said the federal government would therefore continue to combine kinetic operations with developmental interventions.
The President cited efforts by the Ministry of Livestock Development to transition from open grazing to modern, settled livestock production as part of measures to protect farmlands, improve pastoral livelihoods and eliminate a major trigger of conflict.
He also highlighted the Ministry of Defence's Reclaiming the Ungoverned Space for Economic Benefits Programme, designed to leverage the experience of retired military personnel to secure and revive communities recovering from violence.
Tinubu said investments in irrigation, mechanised agriculture, rural roads and access to credit under the Renewed Hope Agenda were aimed at turning the region's vulnerabilities into economic opportunities.
Traditional rulers, youths, women as peacebuilders
Addressing traditional and religious leaders, Tinubu said their proximity to the grassroots placed them in a strategic position to detect emerging threats and prevent disputes from escalating into wider conflicts.
"To our revered traditional rulers and religious leaders, you hold an authority that no uniform confers. You know your communities intimately. You know when a stranger arrives, when a young man falls into bad company, and when a quarrel between two families is about to become a conflict between two peoples.
"I ask you to be our first line of early warning and our most trusted voice of reconciliation," he said.
He urged them to reject inflammatory rhetoric from all quarters, warning that the country had suffered considerably from reckless rhetoric around ethnic, religious and other differences.
The president also called on communities to take greater responsibility for their security by providing timely information to security agencies and refusing to harbour criminal elements.
"Security begins with you. I call on every citizen to share information with the security agencies, to refuse to shield criminality out of kinship or sentiment, and to resist those who would recruit our sons into violence for a handful of naira," he said.
Tinubu acknowledged the critical role of women in peace-building, saying they should be placed at the centre, rather than the margins, of security discussions.
He also assured youths that his administration remained committed to expanding economic opportunities and creating livelihoods capable of insulating them from recruitment into criminality and violent groups.
"To our women, who bear the heaviest burden of every conflict and yet remain the most effective peacebuilders in every community, your place is not at the margins of this conversation but at its centre.
"And to our young people, your energy is this region's greatest asset. This administration is committed to expanding the opportunities that make a rifle a far less attractive prospect than a livelihood," he said.
The President further urged the private sector and development partners to increase their economic commitments to the region, stressing that investment, employment and economic opportunities were essential components of sustainable security.
"Peace and investment reinforce one another. Every factory built, every farm expanded, and every young person employed in this region is a contribution to its security," he said.
Tinubu demands implementation
And to show his commitment to the summit, Tinubu directed the Minister of Defence, Gen Christopher Gwabin Musa (rtd), OFR, to transmit the summit's outcomes to him and report on the implementation of its recommendations.
He warned against producing another communiqué that would be "filed away and forgotten", insisting that the summit must produce practical recommendations backed by clearly identified responsibilities, timelines and measurable outcomes.
"I expect this gathering to produce clear and practical recommendations, each with an identified owner, a defined timeline and a measurable outcome.
"We will be judged not by the quality of our deliberations here, but by whether a farmer in this region sleeps more soundly a year from now," he said.
The President commended the Ministry of Defence and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, North Central, for organising the summit, the second in a series of regional security engagements following the South-East Regional Security Summit held in Umuahia on July 30, 2026.
He said the regional engagements reflected his administration's conviction that Nigeria's security must be built from the community level upwards, rather than exclusively from the nation's capital.
Tinubu also commended the Benue State government and people for hosting the summit and praised the resilience of North Central residents in the face of security challenges.
North Central insecurity threatens food security -- Alia
On his part, Benue State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, warned that insecurity in the North Central could have serious consequences for the food security of more than 200 million Nigerians, stressing that the region's farms feed the country.
Alia also noted that the region's hills contain minerals on which other parts of the country depend, arguing that insecurity in the North Central should therefore be treated as a national crisis rather than a regional problem.
Speaking at the summit, the governor called for a coordinated security strategy among North Central states, saying the region could no longer afford to tackle its security challenges on an individual-state basis.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the North Central holds a strategic place in the socioeconomic configuration of Nigeria. This is sacrosanct. It is not merely a function of landmass; it is a function of our plurality and the vast economic potential embedded across our territory," he said.
Alia added: "I will say something plainly here. When the North Central is insecure, it is not only our problem -- the whole country feels it on its dining table. Our farms feed this nation. Our roads carry the yams, the rice, the tomatoes that end up on tables from Lagos to Maiduguri. Our hills hold minerals that other regions depend on.
"So, when we talk about securing Benue, Plateau, Kogi, and the rest, we are, in truth, talking about the food security of over two hundred million Nigerians. That is not an exaggeration. That is the arithmetic of it."
He described the summit as long overdue and an opportunity for the region to chart a new course towards peace, stability and development.
Alia urged participants to develop practical solutions to security threats, particularly at the grassroots level, and called for traditional institutions and community leaders to be incorporated into security strategies.
"Benue State, and indeed other parts of the North Central, are facing a unique security challenge that requires a collaborative security strategy. It is my considered position that our diversity should be a source of strength rather than weakness. What are those things that unite us, and what are those things that divide us and breed insecurity?
"The moment we set aside our differences to confront the enemy of insecurity, half the battle is already won. But collaboration cannot just live in communiqués. It must reach our traditional institutions and our community leaders -- the custodians of our land.
"They know things we do not know. They hear things before we hear them. Any strategy that leaves them out is, frankly, incomplete," he said.
Alia noted that the North Central had the highest level of ethnic diversity in the country but maintained that its underlying culture remained aligned towards peace.
"Our heritage does not breed violence, which is reflected in the proud sobriquets of our states," he said.
Political rivalry fuelling insecurity -- Sule
Nasarawa State Governor, Engr Abdullahi Sule, warned that political differences among leaders in the North Central were creating opportunities for militants and other criminal elements to exploit the region's security challenges.
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Sule called on political leaders across the region to separate politics from security and build trust and intelligence-sharing mechanisms to tackle insecurity.
He specifically appealed to the SGF, Senator George Akume, and Governor Alia to close ranks in the interest of peace and security, warning that political disagreements could undermine collective efforts against insecurity.
"We must develop trust between Benue and Nasarawa State," Sule said, arguing that political differences had created windows for militants to infiltrate communities and carry out criminal activities.
He recalled that although his predecessor, Tanko Al-Makura, and former Benue Governor, Samuel Ortom, had political differences towards the end of Al-Makura's administration, he deliberately built a cordial relationship with Ortom after assuming office.
"I visited him, and we held peace meetings at Yelewata. Following that relationship, the attacks reduced drastically from 2019 to 2023 until Governor Alia assumed office, and they heightened again," he said.
Sule said he would not tolerate any individual or group using Nasarawa as a base to attack Benue or any other North Central state.
"I will be stupid to accommodate militants who would attack Benue State or any north-central state. We must build trust and share intelligence," he said.
He also urged governments in the region to commit more resources to security agencies, particularly for modern technology and surveillance equipment.
"We now have more resources; we should deploy them to support security agencies to acquire technological gadgets, as no amount of money is too much to secure the lives of the people," he said.
Muftwang: Attacks go beyond farmer-herder clashes
Also speaking, Plateau State Governor, Caleb Muftwang, rejected the description of attacks on farmers in the region as mere farmer-herder clashes, insisting that some incidents amounted to deliberate invasions of farming communities.
Muftwang said each state had peculiar security challenges requiring locally developed frameworks, adding that truthfulness and political will were necessary to confront banditry, kidnapping and attacks on farming communities.
"We must trace them to their hideouts and stop them. We are too reactionary, and our borders are porous," he said.
He advocated the establishment of structured community networks across localities to serve as the first line of defence against criminal elements.
For her part, former deputy governor of Plateau State, Mrs Pauline Tallen, proposed establishing a North Central Border Coordination Committee to strengthen security collaboration among states in the region.
Tallen said greater collaboration, sincerity and political will among leaders were required to stem the rising wave of insecurity across the North Central.
