By Frank Ikpefan, Abuja

NIGERIANS are yet to feel the impact of measures put in place by the Federal Government to curtail rising insecurity, President of the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), Akinloye Oyegbola, has said.

According to him, the rising wave of insecurity has overshadowed every gain that may be recorded in other areas, stating that “life thrives better with all its positive attributes in a secured environment”.

He spoke at the 10th summit of the association in Abuja on the theme: “The critical role of professionals in governance and national development”.

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Oyegbola said: “It is common knowledge that our dear country is passing through trying times. These challenges being hydra-headed in manifestation make it imperative that all hands should be on deck to work on them simultaneously.

“The rising level of insecurity seems to be casting a big shadow on whatever positive impact or gains that may be recorded from the development efforts in all areas.

“While it may not be fair to assume that any well-meaning government will not be working towards stemming it down, the effect is taking too long to be felt by the citizenry. There is no gainsaying the fact that life thrives better with all its positive attributes in a secure environment.”

He said the slow rate of diversification of the economy from oil has made the tumbling prices of crude at global market crippling.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has lingered in the last one and a half years, has confirmed the defect in the nations’ healthcare delivery system.

Oyegbola said: “We, in the APBN still believe that it is the professionals of a country that will develop it. It is in furtherance of this belief that we use the Summit of Professionals as one of the avenues for advocacy on the inherent responsibilities of professionals to the nation and our readiness to collaborate with governments at the three tiers in a well-coordinated manner for the much needed sustainable development.”.

President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Prof Innocent Ujah said 2020 will be remembered for a long time as a year that brought the world to its knees by Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: “The year 2020 will be remembered for a very long time, it was the year that the world was brought to its knees by the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic as health, economic and social facets were thoroughly affected with unprecedented number of lives were prematurely lost to the disease.”