According to the report from the Sun, Former Chief of Defence Staff, General Martin Luther Agwai (Rtd), has proposed comprehensive strategies to address the prevailing insecurity in Nigeria, specifically targeting issues like kidnapping, banditry, and the Boko Haram insurgency.
Reflecting on past security challenges, General Agwai noted the extensive control Boko Haram once had over many local governments in the Northeast. “Do you remember at one point, how many local governments in the Northeast were under Boko Haram? Is there any local government today that Boko Haram has absolute control over? Beautiful! What happened? What did we do? Was it only a military solution? No,” he stated, emphasizing the multifaceted approach required to achieve security.
Addressing the complexities of insecurity in various regions, he argued that a purely military solution is insufficient. “Whether you want to address the issue of IPOB or you want to address the issue in the Northwest of kidnapping, banditry, and everything, all of them; if you want to address them, first and foremost, I will make bold to say that the military can only give you an enabling environment, but the military cannot solve that problem.”
General Agwai highlighted the importance of understanding and addressing the root causes of agitation and unrest. “If people are agitating for a thing for a particular reason and you cannot either convince them on why that agitation is wrong, and you cannot sit with them to make them part of the solution of the problem; if you cannot, then you can never find a solution. And if you cannot find a solution, how do you then say that the military will give you a solution to the problem? No! The military can give an enabling environment, they can create an environment of peace, of security and it is not going to be a permanent one.”
He further pointed out that the nature of the threat has evolved, describing it as a “full-scale insurrection or insurgency.” To combat this, he stressed the need for a societal approach: “If you are going to fight that full-scale insurgency, then it is not just going to be a military solution, it is the whole society. The whole society has to be part of the solution and that is why today, people say security is everybody’s business. And security solutions can only be found by everyone putting hands together and not only one part of the country or organization that the government has.”
General Agwai advocates for a holistic, inclusive approach to national security, where military efforts create a foundation for peace, but lasting solutions are built through collective societal engagement…. Seē _ Morē