A former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai has called for a lockdown of the country’s borders as part of the measures to tackle security challenges.
He advocated that the lockdown should be similar to the step taken during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Buratai spoke yesterday on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily where he said that Nigeria needed to invest heavily in checking insecurity as the current level of threat poses serious danger to the country.
He also called for increased collaboration among political, traditional, and religious leaders at the community level to find a lasting solution to insecurity.
Buratai, who had warned during his tenure as COAS that the insurgency could last for a long time, stressed the need for a long-term plan to counter terrorism.
He said the Nigerian military should be seen as a solution to the security challenge , rather than a hindrance because as he said, defeating insecurity requires a holistic approach.
His words:“It was started through some political actors, and it was essentially a political issue.
“This insecurity is essentially political, and now, it’s been left to the military, and the political actors are staying behind.
“So, this is something that is needed for a total review of the security aspect in terms of political associations or political involvement and so on.”
Buratai also named economic challenges as some of the contributing factors to the rising levels of insecurity in Nigeria.
“It’s very clear that apart from the military, we have the economic line, you know, we have the social line, we have the political line — very important,” he said