Deby’s death may complicate security matters in N’East, N’West, Olawepo-Hashim warns

Global energy executive and former presidential candidate in 2019, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has warned that the death of Chadian leader, Idris Deby, may complicate security issues in Nigeria’s North East and North West regions.

He said in an interview that Nigeria’s policy experts must, of necessity, be worried of the development.

According to him, Deby’s death is a setback for Nigeria’s national security.

“Idris has been the buffer for Nigeria’s fight against multiple forces of insurgencies in the Lake Chad region.

“Since the strategic mistake of the overthrow of the late Muammar Gaddafi by some western forces that cobbled together a motley crowd of Islamists in 2010 and waged war against Libya, the security situation in the Sahel region has rapidly deteriorated.

“What was clear was that a balance of forces as a result of imported high-grade equipment of war and communication and training have tilted things in support of non-state actors as opposed to the various states and governments of the Sahel region,” he said.

Hashim said ironically, former president Goodluck Jonathan who demonstrated zero knowledge of international relations and national security, allegedly instigated a minority group of African states that broke rank with majority of African countries in the African Union that opposed the invasion of Libya.

“Jonathan supported the invasion led by United States and France who backed Islamists to overthrow Gadaffi. The rest is history.

“The worst that knowledgeable African heads of state feared have come to the Sahel as the forces of destruction unleashed on Libya continued to sweep through all the states of the Sahel and West Africa as a whole and even to Central Africa.”

Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Burkina Faso, he said, were paying for the tragedy of 2010 in severe insecurity caused by non-state actors  who were better trained and better armed.

“Whatever the internal politics in Chad is, Nigeria’s concern must be our national interest.

“This is standard international relations since the treaty of Westphalia in 1641, national security is the primary interest of states.

“Deby’s death has the potential to complicate things for Nigeria in the North East and North West,” he said.