ABUJA — The Nigerian Army and the police have identified porous borders, scale of terrorist attacks and the capacity of personnel as some of the challenges security agencies contend with in prosecuting the war on terror in the northern part of the country. The Army on its part declared that the Boko Haram insurgency which has ravaged some states in the north, leaving on its trail destruction of lives and property would have spread to other parts of the country if it had not been caged in the north.
Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier-General Ibrahim Attahiru, Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar and Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade spoke to Vanguard in separate exclusive interviews on the challenges of fighting insurgency in parts of the country.
Army spokesman, Brigadier General Attahiru said: “The entire process of fighting terrorism cannot be over simplified because essentially, it is asymmetric warfare where you talk of asymmetric tactics and disposition and so on. But one thing with warfare is that you cannot just run away from challenges. However, what you fall back on is the kind of equipment you use in executing the warfare. In executing this warfare, it is not just about the weaponry, the emphasis is on the man behind the weapon. Those are the issues.
“Nobody is going to say the entire campaign being executed is a very simple operation. It is quite complicated, but what I can assure you is that in no distant time, it will be all over, because each time there is a breach, we are learning a lesson, carrying out analyses and coming out with better strategies on how to counter challenges of the entire operation.
“Otherwise, may be by now, if you say we are experiencing setback and not achieving the mandate, the terrorists would have gone beyond the North East, they would have spread to other parts of Nigeria but it has been localized to the North East. That should tell you that the Nigerian Army, working in conjunction with other security agencies, is doing well in the fight.”
The Army spokesman also explained how the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army was created in the North-East with headquarters in Maiduguri. According to him, “the Division came on stream as a result of the strategic analysis carried out recently regarding the Force structure and the contemporary challenges. The implementation of the Nigerian Army Order of Battle (ORBAT) for 2013 was also considered before the Division came into being. So by and large, the mission of the Nigerian Army is to win all land battles”.
Also speaking on the war against terror from the perspective of the Police, Inspector-General of Police, Mr MD Abubakar said terrorism is difficult to fight and “it is not a question of whether the nation is under-policed or over-policed”.
The police boss in an exclusive interview with Vanguard argued that, “ even if you have the correct number of policemen, there are several factors that come into play when dealing with the challenge. The scale of terrorist attacks and the organization are there, the issue of capacity to tackle the challenge is there, the equipment needed to counter the challenge as well as the fact that manning of this equipment requires training is also there. Moreover, this cankerworm called terrorism is a global phenomenon. There is an on-going war in Mali and don’t forget what is going on in Iraq. The Arab Spring is just subsiding, so there is proliferation of arms, ammunition and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and these are the factors that are key to tackling on-going insurgency. Another thing you must know is that Nigeria has the most porous borders in the world because you cannot say specifically, these are the number of borders, it is either you take Badagry or Banki or so many others.
“Terrorism is not something you can exterminate, and you know that nobody can exterminate crime anywhere in the world. If you are talking of a no crime situation, you are talking of total paralysis and total paralysis means nobody is moving, everything is at a standstill. In the war against terror, show me any country that has fought crime and said it is finished, no more terrorism anywhere. There isn’t any country in the world, including the US where they have the best facilities, the best-trained officers and equipment”.
He said that in spite of the fact that officers and personnel of security agencies, the police, DSS, the military and paramilitary agencies are dying daily because of their belief that Nigeria must remain united, they will continue to do everything to protect this country.
Adding his voice to the debate on how to finally dislodge terrorists from the north, Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade argued that we will witness massive improvement in the way we secure this nation if members of the public readily volunteer information that will assist the security agencies.
According to him, “nobody can secure any community without intelligence. Without information, security agencies cannot succeed because they will just be making wrong deployments and will be acting in different directions which will not help. Giving information is all that is needed and the security agencies will overcome”.
He said, “Once you see strange movements around you, relate it, take the pains to pass the information. With information, security agencies will deploy appropriately and they will do more than you expect”.
Olubolade disclosed that the necessary equipment needed to prosecute the campaign are being procured while training of officers to be up-to-date with modern methods was going on and “what is needed is for Nigerians themselves to partake in giving information”.
The Police Affairs Minister then tasked Nigerians not to politicize security issues, saying it is not going to help us. “With a lot of activities from the government, political will and determination, and the security agencies putting up their best, certainly we will overcome these challenges”, he said.
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