The issue of insecurity in Nigeria demands an all encompassing approach to truly untie the Gordian Knot it has turned into to enhance the nations’ security.
Security Expert and former Spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Sani Usman (rtd) made this assertion while speaking exclusively to TVC News’s Precious Amayo.
Sani Usman said the release of the Abuja-Kaduna Train hostages through the activities of the Chief of Defence Staff Action Committee is a welcome development.
He added that the committee having been in operation for over 6 months have gone through most of the North West and the North Central have an inkling as to what is going on and their recommendations should be looked into to ensure that insecurity is reduced to the barest minimum.
He also called for the strengthening of governance structures at all levels of government with a particular emphasis on the Local Government which according to him are only in nominal existence.
He urged the Government not to discard any recommendation so as to have a broad view of what the issues are and how they can be addressed.
On the reported killing of one of the recently released Abuja-Kaduna Train Hostages, he said the situation is unfortunate but called for more investigation into the incident before any definitive statement can be made.
Read Excerpt of his interaction below…
“Well, it is very difficult to say because in the sense that it could be one or the other at the same time, given his or her Ransom value, at the same time there are random situations in the country.
You never can tell whether you could be a victim of circumstances or not. Unless a thorough investigation or ownership of the commission of the crime is taken. You hardly ever know. You cannot categorically say because I know for sure the wonderful effort of the federal government through the Chief of Defense Action Committee has yielded the right dividends.
And I know for sure it was based on trust and the skill of those people that were able to have the 23 people released, the last batch of them. Possibly if there are outstanding issues, I don’t think that could be it, because I’m not so sure if there is any outstanding issue.
The only outstanding issue is that which is part of the way forward is the fact that this Action Committee, over time, for six months, they have traversed various nooks and crannies of this country, particularly the Northwest and North Central.
So they had a fair understanding of the problem and the best way forward. So there is a need to listen to them, there is a need to implement some of the recommendations, but the best way forward is to go.
Well, the starting point, just like I told you, we have had group of people that did a wonderful effort and beyond what we all know and even some of the security forces know, this group of individuals they have first hand and credible information about ongoing in the terrorists and the bandit camps.
They have a fair idea and they have an idea on how best to tackle the issue. And the best thing to tackle the issue is to build on the gains so far made.
But beyond that, again, it is the responsibility of the government to mobilize the Nigerian society so that we have a whole society approach to the program, I mean to the issue. And when I talk about whole society, everybody has a role to play.
You know, think of issues of good governance because bulk of the security challenges they have, their root causes on some of the socioeconomic problems in the Nigerian society. What extent are we addressing those issues? It goes a long way in solving some of these issues. And I made reference to the fact that we have three types of government the federal, state and the local government. In most instances the local government, they are just there nominally, there are no working.
So we have to strengthen them and we have to strengthen other institutions, particularly the judiciary, so that the criminal justice system in the country should be up and doing. But beyond that, again, there should be Social Security for an average citizen so that he or she will not be so entitled to go into criminality. But most importantly, there are allegations of arbitrary arrest and all the rest of the thing.
So we need to look at the issue of obeying the rules of engagement, being professional on the part of the security forces, not randomly arresting people who that are not actually involved in criminality.
So it calls for diligent work on the part of the security agencies. But most importantly, again, other components of the Nigerian society had to be taken on board so that they can contribute their best.
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