A presidential aspirant on the platform of the African Democratic Congress for the 2027 election, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, has unveiled a series of security and economic measures aimed at tackling insecurity across the country if elected president.
Hayatu-Deen, a former chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, disclosed the plans in a statement shared on his X handle on Tuesday.
According to him, Nigeria’s security crisis is closely linked to the country’s economic challenges, warning that insecurity and poverty continue to reinforce each other.
“Nigeria’s security crisis is not separate from the economy. It is the same problem,” he stated.
He said rising insecurity has affected farming, trade, and employment opportunities, creating conditions that enable criminal groups to thrive.
Therefore, the ADC aspirant said one of his first actions in office would be the formal designation of specific criminal groups as terrorist organisations under the Terrorism Prevention Act.
He also pledged to prosecute bandits, kidnappers, and their collaborators under terrorism laws through designated terrorism courts.
He said, “ON DAY ONE, I will take the following actions: 1.Designate specific groups as terrorist organisations. Section 54 of the Terrorism Prevention Act gives the President that power and I will use it. Yan Bindiga, ISWAP-affiliated kidnapping syndicates, and other identifiable criminal networks operating across Nigeria will be formally proscribed. The Nigerian state must stop treating organised mass violence as ordinary crime.
“2.Prosecute every bandit, kidnapper, and collaborator under terrorism laws, with accelerated procedures through designated terrorism courts. Terrorism charges carry life imprisonment. The days of light sentences, quiet releases, and cases disappearing into endless judicial backlog are over.
“3.Dismantle the financial networks that keep terrorism alive. The EFCC and CBN will be directed from Day One to identify, freeze, and seize the assets of financiers, ransom collectors, arms suppliers, and money launderers. A joint financial intelligence and telecom surveillance task force will track ransom flows, criminal communications, and interstate kidnapping networks using modern technology and real-time intelligence sharing. You cannot aim to kill the foot soldiers while leaving the treasury intact.”
The presidential aspirant also promised to rebuild the Multi-National Joint Task Force and strengthen regional security cooperation with neighbouring countries, including Chad, Niger, Cameroon, and Benin.
“4.End federal complicity in ransom payments and negotiated amnesties. Not one naira of federal funds will go to proscribed groups. Where state governments seek federal security cooperation, that cooperation will be conditioned on compliance with this policy. The Federal Government will not legitimise criminal violence by rewarding it with public funds or political concessions.
“5.Rebuild the Multi-National Joint Task Force and restore regional security cooperation. The MNJTF was working. It has been allowed to collapse. We will restore coordinated intelligence sharing and joint operations with Chad, Niger, Cameroon, and Benin immediately. Terrorist networks operate across borders. Our response must do the same.
“6.Reform intelligence coordination across every relevant agency. Military, police, DSS, immigration, customs, and financial intelligence must stop operating in silos. Nigeria does not only need more force. Nigeria needs better intelligence, better shared, faster acted upon,” Hayatu-Deen added.
He further proposed improving policing strength and targeted economic recovery programmes in high-risk regions, particularly for young people vulnerable to recruitment by criminal and extremist groups.
“7.Strengthen policing capacity nationwide. Better training, modern technology, rapid response systems, and tighter coordination between federal and local security structures. The military cannot permanently police every community in Nigeria. That is not a sustainable security architecture and we will end it.
“8.Launch targeted economic recovery programmes in high-risk regions, with deliberate focus on young people vulnerable to recruitment by criminal and extremist networks,” he said.
He added, “These are not long-term aspirations or second-term promises. They are immediate actions.”