BEING COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF THE SECURITY STAKEHOLDERS SUMMIT, THEMED: ‘TOWARDS A UNITED FRONT AGAINST INSECURITY IN YORUBALAND,’ HELD ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2025, AT 10 DEGREES EVENT CENTRE, OREGUN, IKEJA, LAGOS.

Preamble

Security Stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and ideological leanings in Yorubaland, having convened at the Conference on Security in Yorubaland, hosted by the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams and notable Yoruba leaders, in partnership with over 33 socio-political groups, under the unifying theme, “Towards A United Front Against Insecurity in Yorubaland,” hereby affirm our collective commitment to addressing the multifaceted security challenges confronting our communities.

Recognising the imperative for collaboration, synergy, and proactive engagement among all security agencies, traditional authorities, community leaders, and civil society, participants pledged to foster a coordinated and inclusive approach to crime prevention, conflict resolution, and the restoration of peace and order across Yorubaland.

The Summit served as a platform to harness shared resources, knowledge, and resolve to build safer communities and ensure sustainable security for all residents of Yorubaland.

Speakers at the conference included Prof. Anthony Kila, a Professor of Strategy and Development, Economics and Security, Mr Abiodun Ramon Oseni, a former US Police Officer, a US Army veteran, who specializes in International Security at the American Military University; Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Barr. Joki Lasisi (Retd.),

Participants at the summit included notable traditional rulers from different states across Yorubaland such as Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Lagos, Kwara and Kogi States, religious leaders, security experts and analysts, politicians, academics, and numerous members of socio-political and Yoruba self-determination groups.

Among the dignitaries were President of Yoruba Unity Forum, Arch Bishop Ayo Ladigbolu (Emeritus), Senator Anthony Adefuye, the Chief Imam of Yorubaland, Sheik Abdulrahmon Aduramigba, representative of the Itsekiri Omoluabi Forum, Dr. Patrick Doyle; the Ayedero of Yorubaland, Hon. Shina Peller; Chief (Mrs.) Bola Doherty, MFR; and Dr Oluwayomi Atte.

Observation

1. There is unrelenting attempt by the Jihadists to complete the conquest of sub-Saharan West Africa which they started 1800s by violent conquest.
2. Kidnapping and banditry in Nigeria is a hydra-headed monster that feeds various interpretations but ultimately serves the purpose of instilling fear in the people, accumulating funds and resources for levying war, ethnic cleansing and takeover of our arable and mineral rich ancestral lands by Fulani jihadists.
3. Nigeria is a country of many nations and nationalities with distinct languages, cultures, pre-colonial socioeconomic and political experiences. But there have not been a successful attempt to build a nation out of these diverse entities. In short Nigeria has failed at nation building, and the situation can only be salvaged by a renewed commitment to restructuring and true federalism.
4. Lack of education is one of the major drivers of underdevelopment, religious extremism and violent crimes, especially in the core North, a situation which has now crept into the south where governments have also in recent time largely abdicated their roles in providing truly free and qualitative education.
5. The Nigeria security architecture is warped and incompatible with the federal political structure of the country. The over-centralization of police structure and policing impairs effective functioning, reduce governors to figure head chief security officers of the state and makes policing at local government and community levels cumbersome and ineffective.
6. Time-tested traditional value systems and socio-cultural peculiarities in various regions and localities in Nigeria have been largely demonized and derogated rather than being appropriated and integrated into security architecture and arsenal.
7. Corruption in the public service, particularly in the civil service and the armed forces, as well as among the political class is a major driver of incorrect and insincere articulation of the Nigerian situation and ineffective responses to the challenges of nation building and more recently insecurity.
8. The Nigerian military is overstretched and highly infiltrated by terrorists and there sympathizers, hence is not fully fitted to confront insurgency, banditry and transnational crimes without international assistance. This situation is compounded by unmitigated porosity of the Nigerian borders and smuggling of arms into Nigeria from the Sahel by terrorists.

Resolutions

1. Federal and state governments should embark on implementation of compulsory and free qualitative education at pre-tertiary levels across Nigeria, with improved funding and upgrade of facilities to acceptable global benchmarks.
2. There should be immediate, fast tracked establishment of state police in all states in southwest and all other states based on public recruitment of indigenous people, especially from organisations with track records in security and public safety.
3. The state police in Yorubaland should be organized and empowered on the basis of a balanced architecture that blends culturally grounded methods (particularly at the rank and file level and rural areas) with emerging technologies including drones, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), remote surveillance tools, and other lawful modern security assets.
4. South-West governments should establishment of a talent-based global volunteer program by creation of specialized units within state police that allow Yoruba professionals across the world to volunteer and contribute in structured (with reasonable guardrails), merit-based roles. This will enable the design of a rigorous, vetted pathway that admits only qualified and trustworthy individuals to contribute in areas of strategic regional interests and pain points while expanding our technical capacity.
5. Governments in Yorubaland should embark on a deliberate and structured strengthening of welfare and institutional support for local operatives. Beyond issuing formal letters and ensuring pension, life insurance, and rank progression, it may be beneficial to create an independent “Security Welfare Fund” supported by citizens and the diaspora. There is need to create a non-partisan, non-profit project under the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) that strictly caters for the complimentary welfare of the operatives.
6. There should be immediate and total ban on open grazing in all Yorubaland. Transportation of cattle interstate and between communities should be by vehicles like pickup trucks, articulated vehicles and rail.
7. All state governments in Yorubaland should put in place legislation enabling the establishment of cattle ranches as the main model for meat and dairy production in the South-West, with proviso for Bank of Agriculture to support private investors in this regard.
8. The federal government should commence the building of protective fence and walls along the borders with Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin Republic.
9. We support fully any foreign assistance that would help Nigeria to crush the kidnappers, bandits and Islamic jihadists ravaging our land, provided the terms are clear and Nigeria’s sovereignty and international laws and rules of engagement are respected.
10. We call on all Yoruba people, particularly youth in various communities under the leadership of their traditional rulers, to fully support and cooperate with the security agencies and other forces involved in the ongoing counter-offensive against the bandits, kidnappers, jihadists and other criminal elements.
11. South-West governors should liaise with traditional rulers and leaders of Yoruba speaking people Kwara and Kogi State for necessary assistance on security issues.
12. We express ours solidarity with the people of Middle Belt states of Plateau, Benue, Nassarawa and Taraba, as well as Taraba and Bauchi in the North East where insecurity has assumed a clear dimension of Fulani attacks on mainly Christian indigenous people, and wish to note that in the circumstance it is the height of insincerity and criminal complicity to continue to assert that there is no genocide.
13. The National Assembly should prioritize devolution of power and restructuring to drive economic growth development and encourage healthy competition among the regions.
14. For traditional rulers to effectively perform their customary roles in intelligence gathering and control within their domains, it is important to invest them with constitutional responsibilities.
15. Conference unanimously support the proposed amendment of the 2022 Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act by the National Assembly, prescribing the death sentence for perpetrators, financiers, informants and other enablers of kidnapping.
16. It was agreed that this Conference should be the unifying rallying point for our response to the challenge of insecurity in Yorubaland.
17. It was also resolved that going forward, all organisations in the conference and others should meet twice monthly to share intelligence and review security situation in various communities and the region at large.