A group of Civil Society Organisations operation under the auspices of Conference of Civil Society of Nigeria on said the sack of all Security Chiefs is not the solution to security challenges in the country, noting that all hands must be on deck to solve the problem.
There have been calls from several quarters, including the National Assembly, to President Muhammadu to relieve the Service Chiefs of their jobs because of upsurge in insecurity across the country.
Addressing a joint press conference at the secretariat of the Abuja Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalist, Friday Chairperson of Conference of Civil Society of Nigeria (Civil Society Centre for Leadership and Followership), Comrade Adams Otakwu, said that “even if you change and replace a hundred Service Chiefs without strengthening the security infrastructure and addressing the challenges in a holistic manner the insecurity will subsist.”
They declared that the federal government must redouble efforts to fix the economy and strengthen the security infrastructure in terms of military equipment, personnel, funding and strategic actions.
According to them, “maintaining this Internal Security is basically the role of the Police Force, but the Police seemed overstretched and that resulted in the intervention by the Military in what is otherwise known as Military Aid to Civil Populace.
“Members of these terrorist groups are faceless and sometimes dwell within this civil populace, therefore making the war very unconventional and irregular for the Military
“This theatre of operation is very vast, and has very poor roads and communication infrastructure, which greatly encumber the success of security operations, hence the need for equipment to put the military in top shape.”
While stressing that all hands must be on deck to secure the country, Dr Otaku noted that terrorism and insurgency have become global industries from which many groups and non-state actors finance and extend their activities to countries that are vulnerable to their operations.
“In Nigeria, owing to many years of poor leadership and followership, corruption and poor governance, our economy deteriorated and created huge unemployment. Despite efforts by the current government to ameliorate the situation, some jobless citizens still find a trade in terrorism, insurgency, banditry and kidnapping that place a serious burden on internal security.”
They lampooned those that are making political capital out of security challenges in the country.
“In the midst of all these innocent lives are being lost while some persons are busy politicizing the situation, others are inciting the public and recently some began to call for removal of Service Chiefs forgetting that the service Chiefs are individuals and even if you change and replace a hundred Service Chiefs without strengthening the security infrastructure and addressing the challenges in a holistic manner the insecurity will subsist.”
On the way forward, they declared that “Nigerians must acknowledge that security is our collective responsibility; the government, the military and all citizens must demonstrate more sincerity of purpose and commitment to ending this insecurity.”
He added that “there must be increased civil-military cooperation in the areas of intelligence gathering, identity information networking, lockdown surveillance and reward system for CSO Actors who achieve success in this cooperation like the whistle blowing actions.”
