Daniel Bwala, special adviser to Bola Ahmed Tinubu on policy communication, says Nigerians have a constitutional right to defend themselves and can organise community-based security structures to tackle insecurity.
Bwala spoke on ARISE News on Wednesday following the abduction of pupils, students and teachers in Oyo State.
Last Friday, gunmen invaded the Esiele community in Oriire local government area of Oyo state, killing two persons and abducting pupils, students and teachers from Community Grammar School, Baptist Nursery and Primary School, and L.A. Primary School.
Tinubu had, in a statement, condemned the attack as barbaric, promising that security agencies will rescue the kidnapped victims
Reacting to the incident, Bwala said the federal government regrets the attack and remains committed to ending insecurity.
“This is the evil that is attacking us as a people,” he said.
According to him, insecurity cannot be tackled by the government alone without cooperation from citizens.
“Our approach to dealing with this is to work with the Nigerian people in partnership,” he said.
Bwala said criminal activities occur globally and require intelligence gathering and collective participation from communities.
“No matter how tight you are as a government, you do your best, and then you expect that, with the help of God and the collective participation of the people themselves in providing intelligence or forming a vanguard, so to speak, we will be able to put an end to it,” he said.
ELECTION SEASON DRIVES INSECURITY
The presidential aide also claimed that insecurity often intensifies around election periods because of what he described as a “crisis economy”.
“Every eve of election in Nigeria — from 2014, 2018, 2022, and now in 2026 — you will see that crisis increases because of this idea of a crisis economy,” he said.
Bwala further argued that Nigerians have constitutional rights to self-defence, although such rights do not amount to unrestricted gun ownership.
“You have a right to defend yourself,” he said.
“When your right, my right, the right of my neighbour come together, it is called collective right to defend ourselves.”
He cited local security structures in Borno State as examples of community-based support for security agencies.
“In Borno state, we have paramilitary organisations that work as vanguards,” he said.
“Some of them go as front lines to provide intelligence to law enforcement.”
According to him, communities facing security threats can organise themselves and apply for legal approval to bear permitted arms.
“The Nigerian people do not have the right to bear certain arms unless those arms are permitted,” he said.
“But a collective people can come together and apply to the government for the right to coordinate themselves — a self-regulated militia.”
Bwala said communities in areas with limited security presence should consider forming organised vigilante structures for protection.
“They can come together and create a vanguard and then apply to government to give them licence to bear arms permitted by law for the defence of their communities,” he added.
