Godwin Tsa Abuja
Worried by the protracted insecurity in the country, a group of northern elders have urged the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (retd) to work with other Service Chiefs in the fight against insurgency.
In an open letter to the NSA, the elders under the auspices of Northern Patriots Group,
decries lack of strategic thinking and actions by the NSA’s office to address the non-kinetic component of the war against insurgency in Nigeria thereby leaving the military and other security agencies alone in what ordinarily should be an all encompassing warfare.
In the letter dated 26th June, 2020 and signed by, Alhaji Abubakar Suleiman, the elders said Nigeria cannot make much progress, ”if we continue only to arrest or kill only the terrorists foot soldiers and ordinary members, as that would be akin to treating only the symptoms and not the disease”.
The Northern Patriot said, ”The Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, has in all ramifications done so much and is doing everything to bring the insurgents on their knees. We do appreciate him and what the military have done so far. But we understand that there are limitations on the part of the military including those that we may not know as non-security personnel.
”The military has done much by killing many of these criminals and arresting their informants, but this is like hitting the body of the snake without cutting the head.
”We want you to be going to yiur home state of Borno more often and consulting with other stakeholders who know so much about these groups and would be willing to guide you on the path to success.
”We want you to reopen the dialogue channel with the insurgents using some of our elders.
”Another curious thing we noticed is that while our neighbours are known to arm these terrorists, Nigeria continues to do business with them pretending not to know what is happening.