By Joy Salami
A security expert, Chief Yusuf Abiona, has called on Kogi State, to stop viewing young people primarily as a security threat and to recognise them as vital partners in intelligence gathering and community protection.
Chief Abiona, a Certified Protection Officer and the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Hay Bravo Security Limited, made the call in his keynote address at the 2026 Kogi Youth Security Summit, held in Lokoja.
The Nigerian youth must not be viewed principally as a security risk. The youth must be recognised as a security asset, he said.
He presented a five-point agenda for strengthening security in the state. It proposes youth-security liaison networks across the 21 Local Government Areas, stronger community-based early-warning and early-response mechanisms, and continuous security-awareness and leadership programmes for young people.
Related News
It also called for expanded youth empowerment opportunities and improved collaboration among government, security agencies, traditional institutions, religious leaders, communities and youth organisations.
According to him, if the principles are implemented consistently, Kogi will not merely be responding to insecurity but will be building “a resilient security architecture from the community upward.”
The summit was held under the theme “Building a Secure Kogi Together: Empowering Youth as the First Line of Peace and Community Security.”
Chief Abiona said kidnapping, banditry, cultism, drug abuse, communal tensions, cybercrime, violent extremism and other forms of criminality cannot be defeated by security agencies alone.
The police cannot be everywhere.
“The military cannot be everywhere. Intelligence agencies cannot be everywhere. But our communities are everywhere”, he said.
He added that within those communities are the young people, describing them as “critical partners” in producing security. A young person who knows his community, understands its people, observes unusual movements and respects the rule of law, he said, can become an invaluable source of community intelligence.
He, however, warned that intelligence must not be confused with rumour. Intelligence, he said, is not social-media gossip, not ethnic suspicion and “certainly not vigilantism.”
Security information, he explained, must be verified, properly channelled and communicated to the appropriate authorities. To make this possible, he advocated structured Youth-Security Community Liaison Platforms across the Local Government Areas, which would give young people a safe and responsible channel for passing security concerns to legitimate institutions.
The security expert also called for a shift from a culture of reacting to crime after it happens to a system that identifies risks before they become crises. He said this requires strengthening community intelligence, early-warning mechanisms, youth engagement, digital and cyber awareness, drug-abuse prevention, conflict-resolution initiatives, inter-community dialogue, and cooperation between traditional institutions, communities, youths and security agencies.
Chief Abiona added that technology must become part of the effort. Young people, he noted, understand social media, smartphones and emerging technologies better than many generations before them, and that capacity can be harnessed for early warning, responsible information sharing, emergency communication and community safety. He said they must also be educated about cybercrime, misinformation and the dangers of using technology to inflame conflict.
He further stressed that youth security policy “must go beyond policing,” stating that an unemployed and hopeless young population creates vulnerabilities that criminals can exploit.
He identified skills acquisition, entrepreneurship, education, agriculture, technology, sports and legitimate employment as security interventions.
“When we give a young person a future, we reduce the space available for criminal recruitment’, he said.
The keynote speaker also urged security institutions to build trust with young people through regular dialogue, community outreach, youth-security forums and accountability, rather than engaging them only when crises arise.
“Security works best where there is trust, intelligence, partnership and accountability,” he said.
Addressing the young people directly, Chief Abiona urged them not to surrender their future to crime or allow politicians, criminals or extremists to weaponise them. He told them not to become “instruments of violence against your own communities.”
Concluding, he said the Kogi the people desire “cannot be built in an atmosphere of fear.” He described a state where children can go to school safely, farmers can go to their farms, businesses can operate peacefully and communities can coexist.
The security of Kogi is not the responsibility of the government alone. It is our collective responsibility, he said.
He told the young people they were not too young to protect their community, provide leadership or build peace.
He disclosed that security is a shared responsibility and peace a shared commitment.
Also speaking at the summit, the Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Hon. Monday Ayebe, whose ministry collaborates with the state chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), disclosed that plans were in the pipeline to establish Youth Peace Ambassadors across the 21 Local Government Areas of the state.
According to him, the initiative would go a long way towards strengthening collaboration between young people and security agencies, while promoting peaceful coexistence and community participation in security management.
