The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun has called for the strengthening of the Town and Gown to boost security network, national rebirth as well as nation building.
He said that Town–Gown Partnership must no longer be viewed as a conversation between the Police and the universities alone. It must evolve into a national doctrine of collaboration; a model that binds every sector of the society together under a shared mission of peace, progress, and prosperity.
Speaking while delivering the keynote speech at the 3rd edition of Lagos State University of Education (LASUED), Oto/Ijanikin Security Summit with the theme: Strengthening the Partnership between Town and Gown in the age of Insecurity on Thursday on the topic: ‘Securing Nigeria through the Town–Gown Partnership’ said that when these two realms merge; the practical wisdom of the town and the intellectual capital of the gown, a nation moves from reaction to prediction, from survival to innovation and from suspicion to synergy.
“This partnership must therefore extend to every sphere of national life, because no nation develops in isolation. The mind of the university must engage with the realities of the street; the hands that build must learn from the heads that think. It is in this handshake between knowledge and experience that national strength is born.
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“Every sector has a stake; and a role. The teacher shapes conscience; the cleric nurtures morality; the entrepreneur drives productivity; the artist awakens national spirit; the journalist protects truth; the technologist creates solutions; the traditional institutions remain the custodians of our cultural heritage promoting peaceful coexistence and the Police, standing at the moral centre of it all and protect the peace that allows every other sector to thrive.
“If Nigeria must stand secure, then our strength must not lie in silos but in synergy, where every citizen, every scholar, every faith, every trade, and every tongue becomes part of one shared security network.
This is the true meaning of the Town–Gown Partnership: a whole-of-society covenant where knowledge serves humanity, and humanity protects knowledge. It is not just a collaboration; it is a national rebirth.
“We must therefore build a Nigeria where innovations in the universities positively shape the operation of government, where government funds the innovation of the gown, where business applies the findings of research, where media amplifies only the truth and sinks falsehood and where the Police safeguard the environment that makes all these possible.
“Because the defence of a nation is not its army, it is her unity of purpose. The most advanced weapon any country can possess is the partnership of its people. And the surest foundation of peace is not the wall that divides us, but the bridge that connects us,” he said.
On security, the IGP said it is pertinent to know that no security plan can succeed where the conscience of a nation is asleep, adding that the nation’s laws may punish crime, but only morality prevents it. The true battle for peace begins not in the streets, but in the soul of a people.
“That is why the classroom and the pulpit must never grow silent. They are our first police stations of the mind. They shape the way citizens think before the law ever restrains how they act. The teacher and the cleric are our earliest peacekeepers, forming conscience, building empathy, and nurturing the discipline that makes security sustainable.”
He added that institutions of learning must therefore teach more than skills; they must teach citizenship. They must graduate not only job seekers, but nation builders. “And our religious institutions must preach not only salvation, but civility; not only faith, but fairness.
“Security without morality is policing without purpose. That is why the Nigeria Police Force, under my leadership, has continued to emphasize professionalism, human rights, and ethical conduct. Because when a Police officer stands for integrity, he becomes a teacher in uniform, a moral example of the justice he enforces.
“Let us, therefore, rebuild the moral foundation of our nation, one classroom, one family, one pulpit, one police station at a time. For it is only when conscience returns to the centre of our national life that peace will find a permanent address in Nigeria,” he reiterated.
The IGP who commended the University for organizing the summit said the gathering is not just another academic conference; it is an awakening and calls to think differently, listen deeply and act wisely.
“The truth is that a nation’s first line of defence is not its army; it is its people; educated, disciplined, and united by the rule of law. A belief is formed long before a shot is fired. A notion comes before a bomb is made. Truth is surrendered before peace is broken.
“That is why gatherings like this matter. They speak not only to the noise of our times but to the conscience of our country. By hosting this summit, LASUED has shown rare vision. You have reminded us that universities are not just repositories of knowledge; they are refineries of national conscience.
“So, we are not only here to discuss the police; we are here to discuss peace itself. For safety is not merely the absence of crime; it is the presence of justice, knowledge, and trust. Insecurity is not just a policing problem; it is a societal one, rooted in the failure of values, education, and civic discipline.
“When ideals crumble, ignorance rises. When people stop trusting, fear spreads. That is why the dialogue between the town and the gown is not ceremonial; it is existential. The patrol van and the classroom are fighting the same war: one battles ignorance, the other its consequences. One opens the mind; the other protects what the mind has built.
“When the teacher and the officer walk together, crime loses shelter. When ideas and enforcement work together, peace begins to take shape. As we deliberate today, let us remember this truth: Nigeria’s future will not be secured by guns, but by brains and moral discipline,” he said.
Vice-Chancellor, LASUED, Prof. Bilkis Lafiaji-Okuneye in her remarks said that the annual summit is apt because the security landscape is no longer linear, adding that localized crimes connect to regional smuggling; cyber fraud intersects with identity theft and student vulnerability; narcotics travel with trauma and lost opportunity; traffic fatalities erases future in seconds; cultism and violent extremism find recruits where purpose is absent.
She added that the agencies present at the summit which include the Nigeria Police Force; Federal Road Safety Corps; The Customs Service, DSS, NDLEA as well as the Royal fathers each hold critical pieces of the puzzles and when these streams converge, security becomes developmental and a platform for learning, innovation and prosperity.
She reaffirmed that education is the most powerful security strategy and the conviction that animates the university. “It equips minds to resist manipulation, hands to build livelihoods, and hearts to choose peace.
“When town and gown join hands, insecurity loses both recruits and refuge. With humility and hope, I thank you for standing with us to secure our campuses, our communities, our state and our community,” she said.
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