Stakeholders in the education sector and security agencies converged on McPherson University, Seriki Sotayo, Ogun State to address the phenomenal rise of insecurity headlong under the auspices of the Campus Security Committee of the university.
The seminar was with the theme, “Managing Campus Security: The Roles of Members of Staff.”
Speaking at the forum, the vice-chancellor, Prof. Francis Igbasan, welcomed the participants to the parley and admonished them to talk on security matters regularly whenever they have current emerging security issues that are “peculiar, novel and capable of affecting our lives as members of the university community,” adding that the watchdog role is not for security personnel alone, but for everybody.
A security expert and don in the department of International Relations of the university, Dr. Paul Ojo, said through collaboration with the citizenry in the areas of intelligence sharing and obedience to the law, government at all levels could curb the rising insecurity in the land.
According to him, many of the security challenges confronting tertiary institutions in Nigeria today were both internally and externally induced, and that everybody has a responsibility to say something, whenever they see something strange and curious.
He hinted that internally induced security challenges could manifest in form of cultism, drug abuse and addiction, sexual harassment, examination malpractices, kidnapping and internet fraud, while government policies, political interferences, mismanagement of parents’ influence on university management, lack of respect for the culture of the host community and breach of campus security, etc. could trigger externally induced security challenges.
Head of the security unit of the university, CSP Oluwaseyi Lala said the best way to safeguard the university community from insecurity is to proactively prevent it collectively.
