Senator Ayo Arise who represented Ekiti North district between 2007 to 2011 believes that only a rotational presidency arrangement would stabilize the nation. In this interview, he spoke on various issues including the deteriorating security situation in the country.
What are your reflections on the deteriorating security situation in the country especially with regards to the promise by your party, the APC to make the country secure?
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The security challenges the nation is facing now is not about the party; I feel that it should be of great concern to all Nigerians; whether you are in party A or B or no party at all, it does not matter. The security situation is not a creation of the APC. It is generally an outcome of several years of mismanagement of our resources, lack of adequate planning, population explosion that we are witnessing and of course still lack of planning, not knowing how to absorb the people who graduate every year. What plans have been made to absorb the graduates into the economy? Of course, I think there are some attempts, now under this dispensation, for a lot of creativity towards moving people into the agricultural sector, providing funds for people with innovative minds and those who want to go into the Small and Medium Enterprises. We have such facilities being provided by the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture and so on that people can now leverage upon; the government is trying to ensure that the nation achieves industrial revolution. The more we grow in number, the more the market but the question mark is what is the buying power of the population? That is why it is important to diversify the economy and that is what the government is working on. But generally, the situation in terms of security is worrisome. It is of concern to everyone. So, yes, it is true that my party is at the helm of affairs now and you can see that a lot of the policies are geared toward correcting many of the developmental initiatives that could have been put in place many years ago. I believe the government is on course as some of their policies are already yielding results in terms of increment in employment and other positive areas.