The federal government has said it will tackle the myriad of security challenges across the country through collaboration between governmental agencies and the general public.
This was the outcome of the quarterly National Security Council meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja on Thursday.
The meeting, which came barely 24 hours after the House Representatives adopted a resolution, calling on President Buhari to sack his service chiefs for alleged inability to possess the capacity to halt the worsening security crisis across the country, however did not address the call for sack and other similar outcries.
Those in attendance are the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha; Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari; Minister of Defense Maj. Gen. Bashir Salihi Mahashi (Rtd.); Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; the National Security Adviser (NSA) Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (Rtd.) and the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi
Service chiefs in attendance include the Chief of Defense Staff General Gabriel Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar; Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu; Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rafa’i Abubakar; and the Director-General of the Directorate of State Services (DSS) Yusuf Magaji Bichi.
However, briefing State House Correspondents after the meeting, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, said the council had resolved to tackle the security crisis across the country by bringing all Nigerians along in the journey to finding solution.
Monguno was accompanied to the briefing by the Ministers of Defense, Police Affairs, Interior, Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the DSS.
He said the kind of solution being sought would not only serve the federal government, but also states and council areas.
“We just concluded a meeting of the National Security Council. The National Security Council is the highest security body in the country, chaired by His Excellency, the President.
“We normally hold these meetings on a quarterly basis and this is the first in the year.
“We scheduled this meeting for this morning and the meeting basically made an appraisal of the current security situation in the country and took a look at the possibilities there are opportunities available to government in addressing most of the recent challenges.
“There were discussions and at the end of the day the most important thing that we came up with is the need for collaboration between governmental agencies and the larger Nigerian society because of the type of the insurgencies we are faced with, the complexities, the multiplicity of all kind of issues.
“There is a need for both parties- governmental agencies on one hand and the larger society, to collaborate more vigorously.
“There is a need for us to deal with these problems in a comprehensive manner.
“Therefore, council has decided to take a closer look at issues that will help us not just at the federal level or at the state level, but right down to the local government level.
“But this is going to be done after due consultations with the relevant stakeholders,” he said.
When asked if the council gave attention to the House of Representatives’ call for the sack of service chiefs, Monguno said “the issue of the National Assembly resolution did not come up at the meeting”.
Asked to give a perspective to the nature of the security crisis the country currently faces, the security chief said: “The major challenges are multidimensional in terms of security, challenges are both internal, external and Defence related as well as diplomatic as well as economic. So you will begin to appreciate the extent to which we need to work.
“These major challenges every ministry, department and agency is aware of the aspect it has to deal with and I am sure yesterday, after the Federal Executive Council meeting, you are aware the minister of works talked about his own area, likewise other ministries, departments and agencies are working.
“The issue of security in the context of the 21st Century is not an issue of just arms and ammunition or robbers and gangsters, it’s a multiple situation, the canvass is very, very expensive and we are looking at it in a comprehensive manner.
“The challenges all of us are aware of and that is why in a nutshell, I said, there is a need for this government and the larger society to work together to find a solution to this problem.
“No one is oblivious of the enormity of the problem at hand. Government is aware and that is why we had this meeting at the highest level.”
