Omoyele Sowore, an activist and presidential candidate for the African Action Congress party, has stated that if elected president of Nigeria, he would appoint a drone as minister of defence.

He made the statement during a live interview with Arise TV on Thursday.

“If I become Nigeria’s president tomorrow, my minister of defence will be a drone. That’s how much I believe in technology,” Sowore said.

The AAC flagbearer argued that Nigeria’s security crisis required an urgent technological overhaul, saying the country needed equipment, technology, and “honest leaders and supervisors and officers” to tackle the challenge.

He said the military had been let down by commanders unwilling to leave the capital.

“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 actually strategise and do what is right,” he said.

Sowore also called for a police force refocused on its core mandate.

“A police force that can carry out internal security of the country, not escorting people or arresting people for insulting others on Facebook,” he said.

He described his vision of a command-and-control security architecture built around drones and artificial intelligence.

“I’m just going to have a control centre where people sit down and track terrorists and liquidate them,” he said.

When the interviewer suggested he could go further by making artificial intelligence his minister of defence, Sowore agreed.

“That’s part of it. And that drone will fly everywhere,” he said.

The activist emphasised, however, that technology alone would not eliminate insecurity. He stated that any long-term solution must address the conditions that drive young people to join militant groups.

“Ultimately, you must create a society where people can find jobs and go to school, and not be willing to take up arms,” he said. (The Sun)