Williams Anuku, Abuja
Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai has admitted that ensuring all round security for the country was not as easy as it seems.
He said rather than go about complaining about the spate of insecurity in the country, Nigerians should also explore how they can be of assistance, especially by way of providing vital information to the security agencies.
Buratai made these comments, on Monday, shortly after he met with President Muhammadu Buhari to brief him on security situations in the country, especially in the North East and other troubled regions.
His remarks came barely few weeks after President Buhari took a swipe on the security chiefs, scolding them that their best wasn’t good enough, hence no excuses would be tolerated by his administration.
Buratai’s admittance on the complexity of securing the nation also came barely hours after bandits unleashed terror in Katsina and Borno states, leaving deaths and destruction in its wake.
According to the Chief of Army Staff, the support of all Nigerians would be of immense value in helping the military and other security agencies end insurgency and other security challenges troubling some parts of the country.
While speaking to State House Correspondents, he said, “Securing the country is not an easy task, the army will continue to do its best in carrying out its task.
“We are still carrying out our task and we will deal with them. You know securing a country is a task that everybody knows and we will prevent the country from any form of insecurity and in this case, you know the military task is very clear; to defend our country from external aggression, to defend our territorial integrity and to come to the aid of civil authority, which we are doing”.
Commenting on how Nigerians could be of help, he noted that providing vital information about the whereabouts and movements of insurgents and bandits will help a lot in containing the situation.
According to him, if you want insurgency and other acts of criminality to end today, the totality of the people’s effort must be put into the matter so as to see that insecurity in the country is reduced to the barest minimum.
“If we don’t do anything and continue to complain, and continue to accuse the agencies involved in fighting it, then we are not helping matters. You are supposed to find solutions as something is being done on daily basis.
” I assure you that we will soon reach the end of the tunnel and we will see the light that will improve the security situation in all parts of the country.
“So, the same task that we should end curtail or bring to the barest minimum, the issue of banditry, kidnapping, terrorism and insurgency and we will do it. We are essentially supporting the Nigerian Police and we will do it to make sure that our country is safe,” he assured the nation.
He noted that the worrisome situation in the North-West was already improving, due to steps taken by officers and men of the Nigerian Army in collaboration with other security agencies.
He lauded his men in the frontline of the battle against insurgency and peacekeeping operation in the zone and other parts of the country for doing a good job, adding that normalcy will soon be restored to the affected areas.
