“When we talk about the socio-economic situation, it is impossible not to address the war in Ukraine and its impact on Africa.” This were the words of United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Gutteres, during a recent visit to West Africa.
While meeting with Senegalese President Macky Sall, Guterres said the Ukrainian war “aggravates a triple crisis: food, energy, and financial, for the region and beyond”.
The global security situation today which is a fallout of a concatenation of factors is so deep that even the deaf can hear, the blind can see and the moron can understand. Nevertheless, those whose hearts and minds are fixated on throwing tantrums and causing mischief will still prefer to stand facts on its head.
The foregoing explains the recent calls by some quasi groups for the National Security Adviser, Retired Major General Mohammed Babagana Monguno to resign his appointment. That is by the way; what is apparently baffling is that despite the obvious threat to Security, which is a global phenomenon, self-seeking and mundane writers still find it convenient to heep the blame on President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
It is surprising is that some folks have lost the sense of what is good. How can anyone possibly criticise the NSA despite his monumental achievements in that capacity? From my understanding, Dr Mohammed seems to be acting scripts of some paymasters who are out to discredit the Buhari governmemt for political gains.
Every other sane person know that the problems on our hands go beyond Buhari and Nigeria. As we speak, the United States President, Joe Biden, has proposed a new Bill to tackle inflation. In a statement, Biden said, “… I spoke with senators Schumer and Manchin and offered my support for the agreement they have reached to fight inflation and lower costs of American families. ”
Still speaking, Biden noted that he intends to achieve this by lowering the price of Medicare, improving energy security and climate crisis, amongst others. This is how nations overcome national challenges: closing ranks and supporting government, instead of concocting mischief and throwing tantrums everywhere!
In a recent article, Dr Abubakar Mohammed claimed that “the majority of those who suffer from the hands of these terrorists and insurgents are of the Kanuri ethnic stock of which the NSA belongs to.
“Yet the NSA has never cared to establish and nurture a close working relationship with community and youth leaders in Borno especially in places like Munguno, Dikwa, Baga, Damasak Gubio etc. They simply do not know him,” Mohammed added.
What could be more outlandish than this type of lousy claims? Arm-chair critics should know that men are not idiots to swallow his tissues of lies hook, line and sinker. The facts are there to speak for itself. Currently, running into weeks now, there has never been any reported case of terror attacks in Borno State.
Fighting terrorism is not a walk in the park. It takes time. It takes clandestine operations and Intelligence gathering. That is the approach the NSA has worked with and it is paying off. No more attacks in the Northeast; even the North West, which became a source of concern after Boko Haram and ISWAP were decimated from the North East, is now calm.
Let this truth get home to cynics that President Buhari and the NSA, in active collaboration with the service chiefs, will defeat terriorists fair and square before leaving office on May 29, 2023. Even the recent onslaught in the Federal Capital Territory and adjourning states will soon be crushed. Operations are ongoing in around the FCT. In the security circle, it is not everything that is discussed or revealed to the media. That is why people like quack academic doctors likr Abubakar Mohammed and quasi groups cannot use their tongue to count their teeth.
Just like I said about the quasi group, articles by critics are full of red herrings, which are intended to mislead the public and distract the government in the fight against terror. For sure, the target is to bring President Muhammadu Buhari into disrepute and discrediting the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj Gen Babagana Monguno (rtd).
What’s expected of every patriotic citizen of Nigeria is to rally round the government and security agencies to put an end to terrorists’ activities, instead of “instigating tension by creating the impression that the country security architecture is helpless in the terror war. Will it be out of place to insinuate that some people have deviced other forms of terror in the media to compound a situation security forces are working to contain?
It is the Intelligence drive by the NSA and strategies to curb further attacks that has prompted the security measures being put in place to protect Nigerians from terror attacks. Therefore, the NSA cannot be said to have ran out of ideas. With what we have seen in the past few days indicate that there is deliberate move by the security forces to weed out these criminals who have been displaced from their hideouts in the forest and are trying to infiltrate the society.
In days, weeks and months to come, Nigerians will begin to see the results of the intelligence strategies by the NSA. Asking a general to resign in the middle of war is tantamount to wish that terror prevails. As for those aiding and abating the activities of terror groups under the guise of activism, their date with justice is closer than we think.
– Ibrahim is director, Communications and Strategic Planning, of the Presidential Support Committee (PSC)
