The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Tukur Buratai, on Monday said insecurity has been tamed by the Nigerian Army. The statement has been generating reactions from different quarters. Daily Trust Saturday asks some Nigerians of their views on the statement.
Joseph Edegbo, 69, Media Practitioner, Kaduna
Insecurity in the country is getting out of hand. This is a country where souls are lost every day due to banditry and kidnapping, and these crimes are alien to the country. For somebody like the COAS to say that insecurity has been tamed, I am sorry, he is only trying to give himself a pass mark. He should have allowed others to judge him and not judge himself.
Abdulmajeed Oladimeji Oyeniyi, 31, Student, Kaduna
In my opinion, General Buratai is not saying the truth because we are still battling with insecurity in Nigeria. Our political leaders know the truth but they have failed to address issues that affect of Nigerians. I believe there is a cabal in the country which shares the security money and keeps telling us that they have overcome in security challenges in the country. We have lost many civilians as well as security personnel to insecurity, so they should stop telling us stories every day.
Abishalom Nweze, 54, IT Consultant, Lagos
I find it very difficult to believe, except we have two countries; one where the Chief of Army Staff is in charge and the other where the rest of Nigerians live. As far as I am concerned, insecurity has not been tamed in Nigeria. On daily basis, in this country, people lose their lives. We are not feeling it totally because most of us are not affected; if every one of us is affected, then we will know that there is a lot of insecurity in our country.
We live in a country where somebody can walk into your house and threaten you, if you resist, he will go ahead and do what he wants, and nothing will happen. People live in darkness because of epileptic power supply and before you wake up, your cars are vandalized, gates broken, bandits lay ambush on the highway, operate for hours without intervention from security personnel, yet the COAS declared that insecurity has been tamed in this country, that is untrue!
If he said it because he is Abuja, what about other states? The truth is that we are not there yet. He can say that because he has security men who protect him when he travels by road. What about those luxury buses that are constantly attacked by bandits who come from the bush to waylay innocent citizens? What is he doing about that?
Major Muhammad Shuaibu Galma (rtd), 73, Former Assistant Director, Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), Kaduna
Yes, I agree with the COAS that insecurity has been tamed. For quite some time now, we have not heard any rumbling from the North East and it seems to me that they have, to some extent, been tamed. This is something practical and everybody can see that the security issue has improved irrespective of what others might think, at least in the last one month, the clenches have reduced.
Kelvin Ukhurebor, 29, film maker/screen play writer, Lagos
We are still grappling with herdsmen attack, kidnapping, armed robbery, banditry on highways and of course Boko Haram, among many others are issues, in our dear country Nigeria. So, if Buratai claims insecurity has been tamed nationwide, it then clearly shows that he is either not fully abreast with the current happenings in the country or he is only trying to impress the people who sign his pay cheque.
Abubakar Bala Umar, 52, Businessman, Kaduna
I do not share the view of the army chief because I feel the approach by the military cannot eradicate such problems. We do not need human presence, what we need is technology if this country wants to tame insecurity. We need to employ technology just like what Kenya has done by fixing surveillance cameras in every nook and cranny of the country. If Nigeria invests in technology, insecurity will be a thing of the past, but if we continue to depend on human force, we have a long way to go because they cannot solve the problem. I am still emphasizing that the federal government and the Nigerian military need to, as a matter of urgency, install surveillance cameras and a strong surveillance system.
Tuoyo Brikins, Mass Communication Consultant, Lagos
The Chief of Army Staff is promoting fake news. That statement of his is unrealistic; if he says insecurity has been tamed, perhaps in Abuja where he lives but even there, we have heard of cases of insecurity. It is not even worth commenting on because it is unrealistic. Most of these issues have to do with human lives and sometimes, we don’t care about what happens until it gets to us or our family members. Terrible things are happening, I’m not blaming them for it, but they need to own up and call for help. They should stop making political statements because peoples’ lives are involved.
Raafat Salami, Human Rights Activist, Abuja
I agree with him that, to a very large extent, the security issues we had at the time he became the Chief of Army Staff have been largely tamed, but new dimensions are cropping up that also require new strategies. We do not know if it is the remnants of Boko Haram fighters that are engaged in the escalating banditry, I see a nexus between them and I think that is where we need to go. We need to strengthen the Nigeria Police Force as well as ensure the communities understand that there is a security threat and that they are the best people to police their communities.
Also, we should have a reporting system because the security agencies cannot be in all the nooks and crannies of villages in the country, but when we have a very vigilant community and a very strong reporting system I think we will, to a large extent, minimize the level of insecurity. Nigeria is a country where it is easy to go into crime because even when you make a report, the response rate is low. Yes, security is still an issue, but it is a new challenge that we are facing.
