Hosting the North Central Security Summit, Governor Hyacinth Alia calls for solutions beyond military deployment, grassroots intelligence, traditional rulers, and tackling poverty as drivers of insecurity.
Makurdi, Benue State — August 31, 2026
Governor Hyacinth Alia has urged the country to embrace "collaborative approaches to strengthening security and regional stability," warning that long-term solutions to the North Central's insecurity crisis must extend well beyond military deployments.
Speaking as host at the New Banquet Hall, Government House, Makurdi, while welcoming participants to the North Central Regional Security Summit, Alia said durable answers require integrating traditional rulers, border communities, and grassroots intelligence-sharing into the security response, rather than relying on troops and checkpoints alone.
Alia told governors, security chiefs, community leaders, and other stakeholders converging in Benue that the summit must move from rhetoric to concrete, community-led action.
"The moment we set aside our differences to confront the enemy of insecurity, half the battle is already won," he said, stressing that collaboration must translate into practical measures reaching the traditional custodians of the land, who he said often hold early warning of emerging threats before violence erupts.
The governor said he personally lobbied for Benue to host the gathering, citing the historic insecurity along the Benue - Plateau axis.
He argued that effective responses must go beyond security operations to confront the underlying socio-economic drivers of crime, including poverty and idleness, alongside improved intelligence-sharing and deeper community engagement.
Framing the region's stability as a matter of national concern, Alia pointed to the North Central's role as a major hub for food production and mineral resources, warning that insecurity there threatens food security and supply chains far beyond the zone itself.
"When the North Central is insecure, it is not only our problem, the whole country feels it on its dining table," he said.
Alia appealed to delegates to ensure the summit produces durable institutional outcomes rather than symbolic statements, urging the implementation of operational recommendations capable of outlasting individual administrations.
He commended President Bola Tinubu's commitment to tackling insecurity and called on all participants to align with the summit's objectives.
Alia's remarks align closely with those of Water Resources Minister Prof. Joseph Utsev, who separately addressed journalists after the same summit, linking the region's security challenges to its water and agricultural potential.
Organised by the Federal Ministry of Defence alongside the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, the summit drew Governors Alia, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa, and Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau, alongside representatives from Niger, Kogi, and Kwara States, and was addressed on Tinubu's behalf by SGF Senator George Akume, reflecting a rare, high-level convergence of federal and state leadership around the North Central's escalating security crisis.
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