Egbetokun Calls For Town, Gown Alliance To Secure Nigeria
Nigeria’s security challenge is no longer about weapons alone, it is about wisdom, morality, and collaboration.
The Inspector-General of Police, Dr Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, believes that real peace begins where knowledge meets conscience, and where the police and the people work as one.
The IGP, called for a new national security framework anchored on collaboration between the police, academia, and communities, describing it as the “Town–Gown Partnership.”
Delivering a keynote address titled “Securing Nigeria through the Town, Gown Partnership” at the Strategic Conference on Security and Development organised by the Lagos State University of Education (LASUED), Oto-Ijanikin, the IGP urged Nigerians to see security as a shared moral and intellectual duty.
He said the first line of a nation’s defence is not its army, but its people, educated, disciplined, and united under the rule of law.
According ro the IGP, a belief is formed long before a shot is fired. Truth is surrendered before peace is broken,” he noted.
Dr Egbetokun emphasised that universities must go beyond theory to become “refineries of national conscience,” working with security agencies to address the root causes of crime through research, civic education, and moral reorientation.
“The patrol van and the classroom are fighting the same war, one battles ignorance, the other its consequences,” he said, stressing that when teachers and officers work together, “crime loses shelter.”
The police chief proposed a five-pillar model for sustainable collaboration: data-driven policing, youth behavioural studies, cybersecurity education, community conflict management, and public trust evaluation.
He also warned against the growing threat of misinformation, describing it as “a silent bomb that destroys trust faster than a bullet can travel.”
He called for civic education and digital literacy to counter fake news that undermines public confidence in the police.
Egbetokun concluded with a charge for collective action: “Nations are not secured by walls or weapons; they are secured by wisdom. When knowledge stands guard, ignorance retreats. When communities unite, criminals scatter.”
He urged scholars, officers, and citizens alike to forge a new path for Nigeria, where “the pen and the uniform no longer stand apart, but side by side, defending one flag, one faith, one future.”
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