Aviation minister, Osita Chidoka, on Thursday said the Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of the country has exposed the weaknesses in the foundation of the Nigerian state.
Chidoka made the assertion while presenting the 44th Convocation Lecture of the University of Nigeria Nsukka.
The minister spoke on the theme ‘Rebuilding the Nigerian dream: Mapping the building blocks’.
He said Nigeria is currently “a nation punching below its weight,” adding that it was a country of missed opportunities.
The minister noted that although many people believed that the cure for Nigeria’s problems lie at the national and federal levels, it would be best to address the country’s challenges from the foundation.
He spoke of “missing blocks” in Nigeria’s structure, a situation which he said had compounded the country’s problems.
Chidoka said, “At the national level, these missing blocks have become a major obstacle to the security of lives and properties.
“Boko Haram has exposed the weaknesses in the foundation of our state and challenged its capacity.
“Indeed, a side effect of our adaptability in the face of difficult issues has been the absence of rigour in our institution-building and policy capacity.
“The insurgency is an existential crisis unlike any other before, destroying many of our underlying assumptions about ourselves.
“Before Boko Haram, Nigerians were unanimous that suicide bombing was alien to our culture and way of life.
“Today, the insurgency goes as far as using women and children as suicide bombers, and kidnapping and attacking civilian populations.
“No more only watched on CNN and other foreign channels, such horrors have become our everyday reality.”
He also canvassed an overhaul of the country’s security sector in order to make it relevant in the 21st century
In the same vein, he said government at all levels need to digitalise information and make records available to all citizens.
Chidoka noted that the absence of records had also made it difficult for the country to build social trust, as there is no way to verify one’s identity outside his locality.