.Govs worried over rising security challenges—Ganduje
The Minister of Defence, retired Maj.-Gen. Bashir Magashi, on Monday called for increased public support for the armed forces in tackling security challenges facing the nation.
Magashi made the call at a one-day National Defence and Security Summit with the theme, “Promoting Kinetic Operations as a major Plank for Counter Terrorism and Counter Insurgency in Nigeria.”
He said the Federal Government is committed to ensuring safety of lives and property of the citizenry in line with the presidential directive to the service chiefs to nip the challenges in the bud.
Magashi described the summit as timely considering the current spate of threats to the nation’s territorial integrity including banditry, terrorism and kidnapping.
He called on stakeholders to ensure that all hands were on deck to support the current efforts to promote peace and stability, adding that several operations were on going in different parts to address the challenges.
According to him, the presidential directive to the Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies underscore the use of all the instruments of power to stabilise the security situation in the nation and provide good governance as well as promote peace, stability and development.
“The focused and objective use of kinetic operations therefore becomes very obvious.
“The armed forces and other security agencies in league with strategic Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAa) are critical to this security initiative.
“We are in a critical situation that requires the understanding, buy-in, support and collaboration of important stakeholders and key players in this strategic option and national task.
“This is important to minimise distractions and maximise civil support in order to facilitate operational success and mission outcomes.
“It is in this light that I consider this National Defence and Security Summit organised by the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) as both apt and timely,” he said.
The guest speaker, Amb. Abdullahi Omaki, who presented a paper titled, “Kinetic Operations as a major Plank for Counter Terrorism and Counter Insurgency in Nigeria”, said the current challenges could only be addressed through an all-government and all-society approaches.
Omaki said it was time for the military to engage in full kinetic approach in tackling insurgency and banditry, adding that public engagement and enlightenment was needed for the kinetic operations to be successful.
He said that the country had the capacity to end the multiple challenges of insecurity, saying it must start with the comment of all stakeholders.
Omaki, who is the Director General, Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, said there was the need to assess kinetic operation as a major plank for redressing the dislocation of the nation’s security.
According to him, kinetic operations are often associated with collateral damage especially on the side of the civilian population owing to the fact that war against terrorism is not a conventional warfare.
“In the case of Nigeria, experience shows that the military, with its air power and specialised weaponry, is best equipped to handle counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency roles to secure the country.
“The tactics used by terrorists and insurgents, which involve extreme brutality against unarmed civilians and hit-and-run attacks on soft targets, have made it imperative and indeed urgent for the Nigerian military to adopt kinetic action in their counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency efforts.
“One of the lessons from the Philippines and Indonesia is that kinetic action can be successfully employed to neutralise terrorists and insurgents.
“It should, however, be part of a strategy that is intelligence driven,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Ministers of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio and Petroleum Resources, Chief Diorite Silva, as well as Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta, among others attended the summit.
.Govs worried over rising insecurity—Ganduje
Governor of Kano State, Abdulahi Ganduje, on Monday said governors were worried over rising insecurity in the country, describing the situation as unfortunate.
He was responding to questions from State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in his office inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to him, it has became worrisome that criminals could lay siege on governors, wondering what becomes the fate of the ordinary citizens, who do not enjoy the sort of security protection of governors.
Ganduje, however, expressed hope that with the recent appointment of new service chiefs, situation would get better soon, acknowledging that President Buhari had shown seriousness in stamping out the menace.
“I think it’s unfortunate, but I believe with appointment of new service chiefs, new strategy will be developed and I think Mr. President has always been serious on this issue, but is rather unfortunate.
“Not only governors being attacked, anybody who is attacked in Nigeria, one should be worried because life is life. Certainly we’re worried because a governor is supposed to have some security with him, let alone of an ordinary man who has no security.
“So you can see how serious the situation is. It’s unfortunate, but we believe will come over it”, he said.
On the purpose of his visit to the State House, Ganduje said the Kano State government is constructing a world-class three-level road interchange, to be named after President Buhari, in appreciation of his commitment to Kano’s infrastructure development.
According to him, the interchange, consisting of flyover, bridge and underpass, which is sited within Metropolitan Kano, became necessary because of the fast growing population of the city, a situation brought about by the insecurity in the northern regions of the country.
He said Kano had become the safest place in the north as a result of various investments of his administration into security.
“All what I know as of today Kano is the most peaceful state in the federation and this is not by chance, there must be some security measures that we have taken, like full cooperation among the security agencies in Kano State. We introduced the command and control centre; the CCTV where we are viewing the whole Metropolitan Kano, we have the most powerful tracker vehicle, equipment in Kano.
“Falgore Forest where bandits usually inhabit, we said no, not in Kano State. We established a military training ground in Falgore Forest and therefore bandits cannot inhabit it. Our border with Kaduna, we have a forest and where we are establishing ruga programme, we discussed with nomadic Fulani, they agreed to be settled there. In fact, other Fulani are even coming.
“In conjunction with Islamic Bank, we’re building dam, artificial insemination centre, veterinary clinic, school for their children and all what it takes to form a settlement, we’re doing that.
“We also established a security training institute where we are training our young men and women for community policing, even yesterday, I graduated graduated 200, whilwy 500 are under training there, with the advice of the security agencies in Kano.
“So all these efforts are in order to keep Kano in the peace, apart from other policies in education, free and compulsory education, reforming the Almajiri system, what we have done to the health sector, and so many other things. But this one is left for the people to say”, he said.
Speaking about the world-class interchange, he said “I commissioned a group of engineers who visited all the world capitals, the most important one, and came up with a design. So this design is one of the world’s most interesting designs, interchange design in Kano State now when completed.
“So it’s not an issue of Nigeria or issue of Africa, I beat my chest to tell you that it’s a blend of interchanges from different parts of the world, in order to ease traffic.
“Kano is a mega city, because of securities situation many people are coming into Kano now, traffic is increasing, buildings are increasing because people from the Northeast, people from even Northwest are coming to settle in Kano, so the volume of traffic is increasing.
“We revised the master plan of Kano state and all those areas where we have hold-ups we either build underpass or we build a bridge, and now we have resorted to putting the three together in one place; that is flyover, bridge, and underpass, all at one point so that there’ll not be any traffic jam”, he said.
