Experts speak on Tinubu’s plan to secure north

Security experts and public affairs analysts in the north have expressed different views on the security plan presented by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Tinubu ball.

In a separate interview with PREMIUM TIMES, analysts unanimously agreed that the security situation in the North must be urgently addressed.

The north, which consists of 19 countries, has been fighting the problem of insecurity and poverty.

In the North-East zone, the 13-year-old Boko Haram insurgency has devastated the region resulting in the deaths and displacement of millions of people.

In the north-west, terrorists, called bandits, have been wreaking havoc on residents, farmers and motorists for almost ten years. The humanitarian crisis is escalating as residents continue to flee their communities due to ongoing attacks on communities in the region.

The North-central part has also witnessed clashes between herdsmen and farmers as well as an ethno-religious crisis.

Tinubu’s plans

In a policy document titled, “Renewed Hope,” Mr. Tinubu pledged to prioritize security, if elected in the February 25 presidential election.

“We will expand our total national security, military and law enforcement assets to protect all Nigerians from danger and the fear of danger. We will expand and increase the use of technology, increase the recruitment of personnel, and enhance existing agencies and systems to achieve our national security objectives that’s the bottom line,” he said in the policy document.

Mr. Tinubu promised to provide trained and disciplined anti-terrorist battalions, upgrade tactical communications and transport for security agents, upgrade weapons systems to ensure security agents can deal with security threats and recruitment of people with technical skills needed for today’s military.

He also promised to reduce dependence on imported foreign military equipment, exploit the superiority of air technology, increase the salaries of security agents, rehabilitate the economic system affected by violent groups, secure national infrastructure, seek international collaboration and reposition the police.

The view of the experts

Yusuf Anka, a security expert with knowledge of bandits, said the problem in the northwest needed a political solution.

He said that the measures proposed by most of the presidential candidates have been used by the incumbent president Muhammadu Buhari without sufficient results.

“These military plans have all been implemented by President Buhari. From my own perspective, the problem requires a political approach and not to militarize the situation any more. The military approach will only be a continuation of what is happening now; terrorists will continue to kill people while security agents continue to hunt them down for terrorists. So there is no end. There is a political way to deal with the situation,” said Mr. Anka, an indigene of Zamfara State.

He said the military aspect is mainly to ensure the borders are well guarded to prevent weapons from being brought into the country, which is a good plan but may not solve the situation.

“The army is now overstretched; we are just using it in the wrong direction. This has been the eleventh year of banditry and there is no weapon that is not used by the government, it is useless,” he said.

Baba-Bala Katsina, a historian, said the security provisions were not political rhetoric to win elections.

“The problem of fighting crime, especially the bandit type, cannot be done successfully with military strategies or equipment, because it is a syndicated crime in which active criminals, communities, politicians, businessmen, judicial staff, some security agents and others are involved,” he said. .

He said the plan did not address the issue of corruption in security circles which he believed would hinder the fight against bandits.

“Immigration, Customs, and NDLEA should also be caught in the scheme because it is a transborder crime and hard drugs are supplied and consumed along the line.

“A community-based approach must also be involved, because it started as a communal conflict, and we can see how the community is very involved as vigilantes, informants, negotiators, suppliers of weapons, food and medicine,” he said.

On his part, a senior lecturer in Political Science and International Relations, Jamilu Abdussalam, said the APC standard bearer’s security plan has been well articulated and can address the issue.

He said that if Mr. Tinubu can stick to his plans if elected, there will be positive results in the fight against bandits even if there are other plans that should be included.

“If we talk about national security, it goes beyond the military and the police. There is something else like poverty. You cannot have a secure country without addressing poverty. Poverty and insecurity are friends,” he said.

A lecturer at Umaru Musa Yar’adu’a University said that Mr. Tinubu should include the issue of addressing the problem of inequality among citizens.

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“Even the bandits, in general, feel that they are not tested equally. Politicians do not share government resources equally. So, I think they should pay more attention to the problem of inequality not only on the bandit side but nationally,” he said.

Mr. Abdussalam said that what the presidential candidate should do is look at the root cause of the problem and address it because the military plan will only be implemented for a few months and may not bring the desired solution.