—Banditry now treat to national security–NSS
—Says $1bn Approved Excess Crude Account was for military only
—As IGP says security situation has stabilized
By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
ABUJA – THE National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno yesterday said that the Federal Government will proscribed the Almajiri system and other groups that have become a problem to the society.
Almajiri schools in the North
This is as the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu has said that the security situation in the country has stabilized. Briefing State House Correspondents after the National Economic Council, NEC, meeting presided over by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the NSA said that the $1 billion approved in 2017 by NEC from the Excess Crude Account for security was earmarked for the military. Though, Chairman of the Nigeria Governors, NGF and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi had while briefing journalists earlier this month said that the $1 billion, which even raised dust among the governors had been expended.
However, the NSA said the $1billion was earmarked for the military and that he was not aware whether the money had been released spent on security. Monguno said that he briefed the NEC on several issues relating to security in the country and that the Council was on the virge of releasing a blueprint over the myriads of security problems. He said, “I briefed NEC on several issues relating to security situation in the north east particularly the activities of Boko Haram which continues to remain very fragile. It is still a problem that needs to be readdressed with collective effort of both intelligence and operations.
“In the meantime, troubles of the multinational task force has been conducting offensive operations against these elements in the Lake Chad Area especially the Islamic State West Africa Province, whose activities have now stretched all the way down into the Lake Chad Area. “Also I briefed council on the activities of armed bandits and elements who have gradually entrenched themselves in the landscape. I also told council that the activities of this armed bandits was gradually replacing terrorism, which was the primary security threats. “Now, the bandits in the northwest have become major threats to national security. Of course in recent weeks the Nigerian Police Force has made a lot of gains in dealing with these criminals.
“I also briefed council on the activities of Herdsmen/farmers. Their activities are limited to 16 states so far, but council is working on the blueprint, it is on the verge of releasing these blueprint to solve these problems. It is a complex problem but it is about to be resolved within the council. “I briefed council also on the menace of pipeline vandalism, illegal oil refineries and piracy. In recent month, we are able to destroy 373 illegal refineries and curtailed the activities of pirates. ”
This situation in the Niger Delta is also affecting security in the Gulf of Guinea and we have been collaborating with the secretariat in Rwanda to work to reduce the activities of these people. “So basically we need just domestic but international effort to deal with this situation. The federal government has invested much in setting up maritime domain monitoring facilities and hopefully in the next couple of months we should be able to set up all these structures to reduce the activities of these people.
“I also briefed council on the drivers of insecurity which are unemployment, under-employment, poverty, drugs abuse, rising population. “I also made suggestions regarding the way forward which include, employment creation and reduction of poverty, and being the culture of impunity and looking at stabilizing certain areas of the country by giving rise to affordable education.
“This is very important because in most parts of the country we have a lot of children roaming around without any formal education. And as the president has mentioned earlier when he was inaugurating the national economic council, we need to make education compulsory and free for every child in the country because the problem we face today are rooted in the fact that a lot of people who have been denied the opportunity basically the opportunity to get formal education end up over the years.
“There is accumulation of large mass of human beings who end up becoming criminals, drug addicts and so on and so forth. And they end up becoming tools to be used by elements in the wider society who have very dangerous intentions. Minimum wage: FG to review revenue sharing formula(Opens in a new browser tab) “And therefore, it is very important to proscribed certain groups ultimately running around under the guise of maybe getting some kind of education that is not really formal and then begin to cause a lot of problems for society.
“Finally, I also emphasized to council the need to conduct police reforms. The police is the lead agency in dealing with any internal security problems. Any domestic issues should actually be vested with the Nigeria police force. Dangote Refinery: Raising bar in host community development(Opens in a new browser tab) “Fortunately the IG is doing a fantastic job especially looking at the issue of community policing. Basically the society in today’s contest the issue of insecurity are not the traditional issues we know in the last century, those issues that were cut and dried and we could easily deal with these issues.
“Today, it is too complex to allow one organ of government to deal with these issues. Today, we need a whole of government, a whole of society approach right down to the lowest level in which individuals at local level are able to interface with the police and give them intelligence because dealing with asymmetric situation requires first and foremost human intelligence used to support technical intelligence so that these issues can be combated.”
The IGP, Adamu said in terms of general security, situation in the country had stabilized. He also disclosed that NEC has approved the setting up of Security and Policing Committee with the governors of Ekiti, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Katsina, Ogun and Borno as members. Other members of the committee he said were the NSA, IGP and Chief of Defence Staff.
I don’t know where the $1bn for security is — NSA The NSA who coordinates the nation’s security architecture, said the money was meant for the military alone, but not aware if it had been so released.
“The $1billion I believe that you are talking about was actually earmarked for the military, not for security agencies, like the intelligence community and the paramilitary agencies.
“It was earmarked for the military. As much as I know, whether it was given to them, I really don’t know”,
The NSA speaking on Almajiri said, “The group I spoke about on illiteracy is the Almajeri. Ultimately, the government will have to proscribe this Almajeri phenomena, because we cannot continue to have street urchins, children roaming around, only for them in a couple of years, or decades to become a problem to society.
“We are not saying that they are going to be contained in a manner, that you might think we want to do something that is harmful to them, no. What we want to do is to work with the state government to enforce the policy of education for every child.
” It is every child’s right, his entitlement so long as he is a Nigerian. If you recall what happened in the Western region, I think in the fifties and the sixties, when the Premier made education free and compulsory at both primary and secondary levels.
“This is what we are looking at. Let me tell you something, one of the element of national power is the population of a country. You don’t just rely on your armed forces, the location and so on and so forth. Population is a very critical element of national power. It is from the population that you get a critical mass.
“Imagine the child that was ten years old on 27th July, 2009, in 37 days time, it will be exactly … year when Boko Haram erupted. We are not talking of one child, there are millions of them. “So, when we look at population, as an element of National security, don’t be surprised if out of every 100 almajeri, you have two neurologists, four architects, two lawyers, and so on and so forth.
” If you don’t start thinking short and long term, to overcome this problem, like I told you earlier on, to overcome this problem, you require collective efforts. You can’t carry this load and drop it on top of the government, even government should not work as a one legged tripod, it has to be three legged. “We have to deal with the issue of these children, almajeri, regardless of how people feel about it. We must work in sync with the rest of international communities, how many countries that operate this kind of system.
“Let be very, very sincere to ourselves, we have to look at this issue that we have been sweeping under the carpet. So, when I briefed the NEC, I alerted them on the dangers of this phenomenon and the President in inaugurating NEC also stressed that we must make education free and compulsory. We are not trying to denigrate any group of people.”
—Says $1bn Approved Excess Crude Account was for military only
—As IGP says security situation has stabilized
By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
ABUJA – THE National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno yesterday said that the Federal Government will proscribed the Almajiri system and other groups that have become a problem to the society.
This is as the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu has said that the security situation in the country has stabilized. Briefing State House Correspondents after the National Economic Council, NEC, meeting presided over by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the NSA said that the $1 billion approved in 2017 by NEC from the Excess Crude Account for security was earmarked for the military. Though, Chairman of the Nigeria Governors, NGF and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi had while briefing journalists earlier this month said that the $1 billion, which even raised dust among the governors had been expended.
However, the NSA said the $1billion was earmarked for the military and that he was not aware whether the money had been released spent on security. Monguno said that he briefed the NEC on several issues relating to security in the country and that the Council was on the virge of releasing a blueprint over the myriads of security problems. He said, “I briefed NEC on several issues relating to security situation in the north east particularly the activities of Boko Haram which continues to remain very fragile. It is still a problem that needs to be readdressed with collective effort of both intelligence and operations.
“In the meantime, troubles of the multinational task force has been conducting offensive operations against these elements in the Lake Chad Area especially the Islamic State West Africa Province, whose activities have now stretched all the way down into the Lake Chad Area. “Also I briefed council on the activities of armed bandits and elements who have gradually entrenched themselves in the landscape. I also told council that the activities of this armed bandits was gradually replacing terrorism, which was the primary security threats. “Now, the bandits in the northwest have become major threats to national security. Of course in recent weeks the Nigerian Police Force has made a lot of gains in dealing with these criminals.
“I also briefed council on the activities of Herdsmen/farmers. Their activities are limited to 16 states so far, but council is working on the blueprint, it is on the verge of releasing these blueprint to solve these problems. It is a complex problem but it is about to be resolved within the council. “I briefed council also on the menace of pipeline vandalism, illegal oil refineries and piracy. In recent month, we are able to destroy 373 illegal refineries and curtailed the activities of pirates. ”
This situation in the Niger Delta is also affecting security in the Gulf of Guinea and we have been collaborating with the secretariat in Rwanda to work to reduce the activities of these people. “So basically we need just domestic but international effort to deal with this situation. The federal government has invested much in setting up maritime domain monitoring facilities and hopefully in the next couple of months we should be able to set up all these structures to reduce the activities of these people.
“I also briefed council on the drivers of insecurity which are unemployment, under-employment, poverty, drugs abuse, rising population. “I also made suggestions regarding the way forward which include, employment creation and reduction of poverty, and being the culture of impunity and looking at stabilizing certain areas of the country by giving rise to affordable education.
“This is very important because in most parts of the country we have a lot of children roaming around without any formal education. And as the president has mentioned earlier when he was inaugurating the national economic council, we need to make education compulsory and free for every child in the country because the problem we face today are rooted in the fact that a lot of people who have been denied the opportunity basically the opportunity to get formal education end up over the years.
“There is accumulation of large mass of human beings who end up becoming criminals, drug addicts and so on and so forth. And they end up becoming tools to be used by elements in the wider society who have very dangerous intentions. Minimum wage: FG to review revenue sharing formula(Opens in a new browser tab) “And therefore, it is very important to proscribed certain groups ultimately running around under the guise of maybe getting some kind of education that is not really formal and then begin to cause a lot of problems for society.
“Finally, I also emphasized to council the need to conduct police reforms. The police is the lead agency in dealing with any internal security problems. Any domestic issues should actually be vested with the Nigeria police force. Dangote Refinery: Raising bar in host community development(Opens in a new browser tab) “Fortunately the IG is doing a fantastic job especially looking at the issue of community policing. Basically the society in today’s contest the issue of insecurity are not the traditional issues we know in the last century, those issues that were cut and dried and we could easily deal with these issues.
“Today, it is too complex to allow one organ of government to deal with these issues. Today, we need a whole of government, a whole of society approach right down to the lowest level in which individuals at local level are able to interface with the police and give them intelligence because dealing with asymmetric situation requires first and foremost human intelligence used to support technical intelligence so that these issues can be combated.”
The IGP, Adamu said in terms of general security, situation in the country had stabilized. He also disclosed that NEC has approved the setting up of Security and Policing Committee with the governors of Ekiti, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Katsina, Ogun and Borno as members. Other members of the committee he said were the NSA, IGP and Chief of Defence Staff.
I don’t know where the $1bn for security is — NSA The NSA who coordinates the nation’s security architecture, said the money was meant for the military alone, but not aware if it had been so released.
“The $1billion I believe that you are talking about was actually earmarked for the military, not for security agencies, like the intelligence community and the paramilitary agencies.
“It was earmarked for the military. As much as I know, whether it was given to them, I really don’t know”,
The NSA speaking on Almajiri said, “The group I spoke about on illiteracy is the Almajeri. Ultimately, the government will have to proscribe this Almajeri phenomena, because we cannot continue to have street urchins, children roaming around, only for them in a couple of years, or decades to become a problem to society.
“We are not saying that they are going to be contained in a manner, that you might think we want to do something that is harmful to them, no. What we want to do is to work with the state government to enforce the policy of education for every child.
” It is every child’s right, his entitlement so long as he is a Nigerian. If you recall what happened in the Western region, I think in the fifties and the sixties, when the Premier made education free and compulsory at both primary and secondary levels.
“This is what we are looking at. Let me tell you something, one of the element of national power is the population of a country. You don’t just rely on your armed forces, the location and so on and so forth. Population is a very critical element of national power. It is from the population that you get a critical mass.
“Imagine the child that was ten years old on 27th July, 2009, in 37 days time, it will be exactly … year when Boko Haram erupted. We are not talking of one child, there are millions of them. “So, when we look at population, as an element of National security, don’t be surprised if out of every 100 almajeri, you have two neurologists, four architects, two lawyers, and so on and so forth.
” If you don’t start thinking short and long term, to overcome this problem, like I told you earlier on, to overcome this problem, you require collective efforts. You can’t carry this load and drop it on top of the government, even government should not work as a one legged tripod, it has to be three legged. “We have to deal with the issue of these children, almajeri, regardless of how people feel about it. We must work in sync with the rest of international communities, how many countries that operate this kind of system.
“Let be very, very sincere to ourselves, we have to look at this issue that we have been sweeping under the carpet. So, when I briefed the NEC, I alerted them on the dangers of this phenomenon and the President in inaugurating NEC also stressed that we must make education free and compulsory. We are not trying to denigrate any group of people.”
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