Former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd), says there is need for the country’s security agencies to concentrate more efforts on intelligence gathering to be able to tackle the multiple security challenges plaguing the nation.
Babangida in an interview says the war against the Boko Haram sect is not a conventional one, hence, the security agencies need more intelligence for their operations, leadership and character to be able to check them.
He says the government is doing its part to tackle the security challenges and urges the citizens to be involved in providing timely information about activities of criminal elements to security agencies.
The former military president also speaks on the establishment of regional security outfits such as Amotekun and Shege Ka Fasa, calls for the removal of the service chiefs and other interesting personal issues.
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According to Him ‘A lot of information need to be gathered before you confront them. Don’t forget, they are not conventional army, they are just people, small in number when compared to the regular conventional army. Their job is to inflict maximum casualty or instill fear in the populace.
They instill fear in the ordinary people so that they would feel that government is not able to protect them, and that is the whole purpose of hit-and-run approach of the sect. The government is trying to put down this. We also need to be involved (the citizens) in providing timely warning and information about their activities.
During my reign, the National Guards trained in Sambisa, which is now the hotbed of Boko Haram. We were sensitive to the plight of Nigerians, but I think that fortunately, it is coming out as Amotakun, Shege Ka Fasa and others. We thought about it and felt we should provide another very strong force, though not as strong as the army.
If the police failed, then there would be a second force; if that force failed, then the army would get involved. We tried to isolate the army from involvement in internal operations. That was why we came up with the concept of National Guards. As usual, Nigerians said no, ‘this man wants to perpetuate himself in office, so he is going to have another force to stop him from being toppled, or something like that.’
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