Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), says he would deploy technology and artificial intelligence to tackle insecurity if elected president in 2027, noting that a drone would effectively serve as his minister of defence.
Sowore spoke during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday.
The former presidential candidate emerged as the consensus candidate of the AAC at the party’s presidential primary held on Tuesday after stepping down as national chairman.
Speaking on how he would address insecurity, Sowore said Nigeria must embrace technology, equip security agencies properly and deploy competent officers to lead security operations.
“To get these guys out of wherever they’re hiding, make sure that we pursue and liquidate them, we have to have equipment, we have to use technology,” he said.
“We have to have honest leaders and supervisors and officers who are not staying in Abuja fighting over land but actually fighting wars, generals who can strategise and do what is right.”
MISUSE OF POLICE
He also criticised the use of police personnel for non-security duties.
“We have to have a police force that can carry out internal security of the country and not escorting people or arresting people for insulting people on Facebook,” he said.
Sowore said technology would play a central role in his security architecture.
“I have said it and I’ll repeat it here again, to the utter surprise of everybody, that if I become Nigeria’s president tomorrow, my minister of defence will be a drone. That’s how much I believe in technology,” he said.
Asked whether artificial intelligence could also play a role, the AAC candidate said it would form part of his strategy.
“That drone will fly everywhere,” he said.
“I’m just going to have a control centre where people sit down and identify terrorists and liquidate them.”
Sowore, however, argued that military action alone would not solve insecurity.
“Ultimately, you must create a society where people can find jobs, go to school and not be willing to engage in criminality,” he said.
He added that addressing poverty, unemployment and lack of education would be critical to achieving lasting peace and security in the country.
