November 16, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s National security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has identified four security issues capable of crippling the administration of Bola Tinubu and Nigeria in general.
Ribadu, who mentioned the security issues to include: Boko Haram and Islamic Insurgency, Niger Delta Militants, Banditry and Kidnapping, and the IPOB problem, noted that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Inherited these very challenging insecurities, each with great potential to cripple the country, from the previous administration in the country.
He, however, maintained that the incumbent administration has recorded great milestones in handling insecurities across the country but chose to talk less and put up more action.
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu stated this on Thursday at the ongoing 2023 Nigeria Guild of Editors conference, with the theme: “Stimulating Economic Growth, Technology: Role of the Media” held at Ibom Icon and Golf Resort, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
According to the security chief, “We have been in office for five months and a few days. I thought we were going to have a closed-door meeting with you people because the issue of National Security will not be too good to discuss in public, but this government also wants to be transparent and to account for its actions before Nigerians.
“We will open up and be honest and sincere. I will tell you a little bit of what we met and what we have done in the last five months.
By 1st June after we took over the country, we inherited four active security challenges and each one of them has the potential to undermine Nigeria and the continuous management of the country.
“We have had the Boko Haram and Islamic insurgency for about 15 years now, we have had the Niger Delta militants for over 30 years. We have Banditry and Kidnapping in the areas of Northern Nigeria, North West and North Central and the IPOB problem in the southeast, four massive problems, each one with the potential to get Nigeria to its knees, all of them very active.
“As at the time we took, records show that we record an average of 1600 violent deaths on the average daily through those who undermine the state to make life very difficult for our people.
“We went to work, as at the time we took over, in the Niger Delta, the production of crude oil was at 1.1 million or 1.2 million at most, we have less than 20 cargoes a month. We worked and took crude oil production to over 1.7 million barrels and export of crude with 26/27 cargoes”. He explained.
Ribadu further highlighted, “At a point we have had a complete three weeks of no violence in the Niger Delta, the first of its kind since 1993 but we don’t talk.
“In the southeast, by the time we took over, we discovered that last year alone, we had 46 police stations attacked and today we don’t have one single one. Then We have people who are not indigenes of that part of Nigeria attacked but in the last 2 months, there was no such incident, we don’t talk.”
He mentioned that the challenges of indiscriminate killings are coming down, even as there have been fewer incidences of Boko Haram activities in the last three months.
“The tragedy of handling security is that when this crime has happened for a long time it is difficult to reverse it. If you allow insecurity to stay too long it will compromise your ability and capability to handle it, it affects the security forces markets, hospitals, and people’s way of life. It is a big tragedy to allow some parts of his country to continuously be under the control of insecurity for these numbers of years”. He expressed.
Ribadu lamented that people’s lives have turned upside down as some communities in the northern parts of the country stay for more than 10 years without going to the farm or market to buy and sell and they are mostly peasant farmers and very poor people.
“Their children also never go to school again all these years. In the last one month, we have witnessed a complete two months without insecurity in many parts of the North. The same thing with the banditry when we came in, until like a few days we had about 600 people initially kidnapped and freed from bandits. We did not talk.
“This is just one halfway of restoring order and security in our country. Kidnapping today has replaced armed robbery and housebreaking in Nigeria because people don’t carry money about anymore.
“When armed robbers catch people without money on them, they take them hostage and your people now provide the money as ransom. That is what is going on across the country and we are working hard to control and stop it. I want to tell you that the organised kind of kidnapping is coming down considerably.
” As of today, we have about just 26 of such people now in their den, 13 from university in Gusau, 5 NYSC members and a few others, the era they move in and pack students in hundreds is no longer tenable under this administration”. The former EFCC boss continued.
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