By Linus Aleke, Abuja
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Gwabin Musa, terrorism will end in Nigeria anytime citizens want it to end, appealing to Nigerians not to support terrorists and other criminals, but volunteer information to the military and other security agencies to hasten the crumbling of terrorists empire in the country.
He noted that the military have seen situation where people are carrying food to terrorists, supplying fuel to them and going to repair vehicles for them.
General Musa, said this while, fielding questions from reporters during his maiden media parley with Defence Correspondents, in Abuja over the weekend.
He noted that Nigerians are doing so many things to aid and encourage terrorists, bandits and other criminals to continue with their evil and nefarious activities.
According to him, “If all of us say no, we no longer support them, tomorrow, this menace will end. I can assure you that if all Nigerians today say that they will not support terrorists, this terrorism will stop. We have seen situations where because of funds, people are transacting business with terrorists. Whatever is sold one naira outside, the terrorists are willing to pay 10 times the amount and people are looking at that as profit. Not knowing that it is blood money and many are sharing from it and God will never forgive those doing that. In general terms, we all believe in God in Nigeria, Nigeria is a prayerful nation, and if we believe in God, we should know that what is wrong is wrong and we should never support it. And if we don’t support it like I told you, this thing will end. Our challenges in Nigeria are man made, they are not natural disasters, they are man made disasters. If all of us put hands together and say look, we want a new Nigeria, we want to change the narrative, it will happen. So, I want to appeal to all of us to continue to support the Armed Forces of Nigeria. The military men are not magicians, we need the support of the populace in order to succeed”.
General Musa however, noted that terrorism and banditry are going down, we are succeeding, adding the military and other security agencies are winning the war.
He recalled that before he left northeast as theatre commander, no fewer than 5000 terrorists surrendered, and the record has improved to over 140,000 surrendered terrorists.
He said that even in the north central some of them have realized that they are going nowhere and they are willing to surrender.
“If we want it to end like I said, Nigerians must take ownership of the fight. All of us must say that we are not supporting it, we would never give any support to any terrorist, and this will end. But the military is doing its best, I recall that after my presentation and discussion in the National Assembly, I went back to defend the budget and the parliamentarians were very appreciative of my frankness. They said that they now have a better understanding of what we are doing and they promised to provide what we require, especially the troops welfare, those who were injure in action, accomodations, uniforms, and the issue of equipments,” he concluded.
Responding to those those who say that the defence sector is taking the largest chunk of the nation’s budget, General Musa again explained: “You know we don’t produce anything, we have to buy everything and we buy them in hard currency. Even the bullet we buy, we buy them in hard currency. We know how many round of ammunition we can finish in a day. If we bring one million bullets during an operation, within minutes all of them are gone and we buy these things in dollars. We want Nigerians to understand the reality. When they say that they are giving us big budget and people think that it is such a large amount, yes, for our standard here it is large but I can assure you that we are judiciously using every fund we are getting. But Nigerians must know that we don’t manufacture this equipments”.
He said that America alone that produces good number of the equipments that they are using, budgets over $100 billion dollars for 2024 fiscal year.
The CDS noted that “if we look at that and what we have here and we are not producing anything, we have to buy from them. These are issues we appeal to citizens to have good understanding of. We are putting in our best, I can assure you of that”.
This is as the CDS said that policing is everybody’s responsibility, stressing that as a country we must have good policing system where everybody is everybody’s brother.
Stressing that we must be our brother’s keeper for us to be able to assist each other, General Musa, noted that the correctional system should be correctional, and not where deviants would be made to be more criminal minded.
He noted that all these things basically comes to good governance, adding that with good governance, citizens will feel that they are well protected and taken care of.
“They have good health, good schools and all of that, it would bring down the level of insecurity in the society. You know that it is not only Nigeria that is facing this issue of insecurity. Asymmetrical warfare and terrorism is everywhere now. They are spreading fast, you can see Mali, Burkina Faso and the rest. Everybody is struggling and that is why it is important that we must meet as a nation and take this challenge as a common challenge not the challenge of the military. Most Nigerians think it is a military war, but no, it is a Nigerian project, all Nigerians must put their hands on deck to ensure that we address this issue,” he concluded.
