All the immediate past Service Chiefs who appeared on
Thursday for screening as non-career ambassadorial nominees were united in
their lamentations for insecurity in the country which got worsened under their
watch from November 2015 to January 2021.
This is even as the former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt –
General Yusuf Tukur Buratai (rtd), declared that it may take Nigeria 20 years
for total elimination of Boko Haram insurgency.
They were all screened by the Senate Committee on Foreign
Affairs.
First to lament the worsening security situation in the
country was the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Gabriel
Olonisakin (rtd), who attributed the problem to the over 1,000 forest reserves
in the country not well managed and secured by respective state governments.
He added that the problem at hand requires a well galvanized
national approach for it to be surmounted since it is more of an asymmetric cum
hybrid warfare as against the conventional ones that can easily be confronted and
defeated.
He said: “I want to say that the solution to insecurity is
multi-pronged. We talk about conventional warfare and asymmetric warfare. We
are talking about hybrid warfare where everyone is involved.
“It is not about kinetics. Kinetics gives only 35 per cent
success rate in any war we are fighting. It is a national approach that must be
properly galvanized for us to actually surmount the insecurity.
“I will say three years ago, I conducted a research on the
forests in the country. I realized we have over 1,000 forest reserves. I sent
the team to Kenya. They went to Kenya and brought out a paper and I said then,
three years ago that our next crisis will be in the forest.
“Some governors were invited and we told them because most
of the forests are the prerogative of states. The states took over all the
forest reserves. I told them that we have to protect the forests. We have to
send troops to protect the forests.
“We did the research in 2018 for six months. I said that the
next problem we are going to have is in the forests. But again, it is with us
right now. It requires a multifaceted approach.
“Everyone has to come on board for us to be able to address
the insecurity situation. You can never have enough weapons, personnel and so
on but there are issues we must address and then it has to be all about the
nation”.
Also giving reasons for the unabated problem of insecurity
in the country, particularly, the Boko Haram Insurgency in the North East,
Buratai while facing the committee reiterated that it may take the country 20
years to eliminate Boko Haram Insurgency.
He disclosed that through indoctrination, the Boko Haram
insurgents are winning more and more communities to their side, aside the
problem of ungovernable spaces in the area and in fact, across the country.
He said: “My state (Borno), is an epicentre, where this
indoctrination has penetrated so deep. They (insurgents) have won the
communities to their side. That is why they (communities) keep Boko Haram. So
it is complex, it requires a whole of government approach to solve this,
military action or activity is just one aspect.
“One mistake that we have been making is that only the
military can solve this. It is not. There are political, social, economic
aspects that need to be addressed.
“Development should be progressive, there should be roads
everywhere, there should be employment, schools and hospitals all over.
“Yesterday, I counted five local government areas in Borno
State that do not have good access roads.
“In northwest, north central, there are so many ungovernable
spaces, which the insurgents are penetrating. The places don’t have schools,
hospitals and so on and education is very fundamental.
“Unless these things are done, this insecurity will continue
because the truth must be told. It may take another 20 years for the country to
surmount the problem of Insurgency and that is the truth.”
The story was not different when the former Chief of Air
Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar Sadique, former Chief of Naval Staff , Vice Admiral
Ibok – Ete Ibas and former Chief of Defence Intelligence , Air Vice Marshal
Mohammed Sani Usman , appeared before the Committee.
Specifically, the former Intelligence Chief lamented over
lack of synergy among the various security agencies, as one of the reasons for
the lingering security challenges the country is facing.
However, after the separate screening carried out on the
five nominees, the chairman of the Committee , Senator Adamu Muhammad
Bulkachuwa (APC Bauchi North), said the committee will submit on the exercise
to the Senate next week.
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