As President of Nigeria from 2023, I will secure Nigeria and the lives and properties of Nigerians in the North, South, East and West of our country. How?
1. I will have the political will to secure our country. This means putting our security above all else: no security, no country. Political will is the willingness and ability to take tough decisions to secure Nigeria, including NOT succumbing to or being deceived by vested interests that might be profiting from the killing field Nigeria has become. It also means putting Nigeria’s security above ethnic or religious interests. It means loyalty to the lives of Nigerians and the territory of Nigeria first, no matter where within our country.
2. Expanding the strength of our Armed Forces by vastly increasing their numbers in order to take control of land territory occupied by terrorists. Tucano jets alone won’t win the war against terrorism.
3. Massive reform of the Nigeria Police Force – training, equipment, specialization, intelligence capabilities, force expansion to one million men and women (will also create jobs for the unemployed who of course must first be properly trained.) The weakness of the Nigerian police is the first institutional incentive for insecurity in Nigeria. This includes the police brutality and extrajudicial killings that claimed the life of Boko Haram’s original leader Mohammed Yusuf and further radicalized them, and also triggered #EndSARS.
4. Reform border security in Nigeria to protect the Nigerian territorial space more effectively. Terrorists can’t be allowed access into Nigeria on a wrong interpretation of the ECOWAS Protocols on Movement of Persons in the West African sub-region or on the basis of ethnic affinities separated by the artificial boundaries created by colonial powers.
5. Improve with strategic communication and official government policy our sense of nationhood to become our brother’s keepers across the length and breadth of Nigeria. Create a unified psychological and nationalistic response to terrorism.
6. Improve the collection, coordination, and use of intelligence.
7. Re-professionalize Nigeria’s security architecture. Right now, it’s based on ethnic-religious affiliation, and regime security versus real national security.
8. A proactive versus reactive national security stance. We will take the battle to the evil people and not wait for them to strike first while we write the Book of Lamentations.
