Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has identified economic security as the best foundation to guarantee total human security.

Emmanuel, who further identified hopelessness as the highest causative factor for crime, posited that, “The best way to stop crime is to beef up the economy, where people can make a decent living from honest means.”

The governor stated this while delivering a keynote lecture at the 17th Africa Security Watch Conference at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center, Banjul, The Gambia recently.

For the effective development of their countries, therefore, Governor Emmanuel, in his lecture titled: ‘Sustaining Security in Africa through Good Governance: A Panacea for Insecurity’, charged African leaders to explore the possibility of using other forms of money, other than cash.

To buttress his proposition to the leaders, the governor, who emphasised that “cash is limited but money is limitless and it can be created,” explained that “In starting Ibom Air, my state government did not use cash, we used money. We couldn’t have started the airline with cash, because we didn’t have such, but we created money and today, many years running, we are the only sub-national in the continent with a commercial airline, which is doing very well.”

Noting that Africa cannot achieve desired growth through investment, until the problem of insecurity was fixed, the Akwa Ibom State Chief Executive, echoed his alignment with the postulation that “a country cannot be free without her people being free.”

He consequently called on the followership to take ownership of governance and offer the requisite support for the leadership to move on, even as he called on African countries to stop adapting exogenous constitutions.

He underscored the need for home grown democratic styles that reflect African environment and culture. According to him, “Until that is done, democracy cannot sustainably thrive here.”

In his welcome remarks, the President, Chief Executive Officer of Security Watch Africa Initiatives, Mr. Patrick Agbambu, said “the conference invited Governor Emmanuel to share his development strategy, which has not only made his state peaceful, but has attracted huge Foreign Direct Investments there at a time when investors are divesting from Nigeria,” and explained that “the organization has been monitoring the steady improvement of the state in all areas of development.”

Mr. Agbambu also commended the Nigerian Navy and their counterparts in all the nations along the Gulf of Guinea, for frontally combating piracy and making the waterways safer for economic activities.

The event, which was attended by the military top brass across Africa, diplomats, Senior Security operatives, ECOWAS representatives, Senior Civil Servants among others, is one of the continent’s most prized security conferences, where key decision makers converge to X-ray the state of security of the continent.

The conference was declared open by President Adama Barrow of the Republic of The Gambia.

Governor Emmanuel was accompanied to the event by his Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Ememobong; his Chief Press Secretary, Ekerete Udoh; Honourary Special Adviser to the Governor on Security matters, Mr. Duke Fubara, and the Director of Special Services Department, Mr. Aniefiok Thomas.