ABUJA: Former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), has called on the Federal Government to formally declare war on terrorists and bandits operating across Nigeria, saying such a move would allow the country to mobilize all elements of state power to defeat insecurity.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Irabor said there is no legal instrument currently indicating that Nigeria is at war, despite the scale of violence across several states. There are no legal instruments indicating that Nigeria is at war. There’s none; we’re only assuming that we are at war,” he said.
“Of course, there is a need to declare war in order to aggregate the elements of state power directly to the war effort.
According to the retired general, an official declaration of war would make a “huge difference” in how national resources are channelled and how accountability frameworks are established to track defence spending.
Resourcing will now be properly channelled, and accountability frameworks can be outlined to ensure we see results for the expenditures we make,” Irabor explained.
Irabor stressed that maintaining security is expensive and requires adequate and transparent funding.
He, however, rejected the perception that the Nigerian military is profiting from insecurity, adding that some political actors’ actions and inactions have worsened the crisis.
He urged national leaders to avoid politicising security issues, warning that doing so undermines collective efforts to restore peace.
The former CDS also said his recently launched book, “Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum, explores Nigeria’s long battle with terrorism and offers policy-based strategies for addressing insecurity.
We need to pivot from relying mainly on military power to utilising other elements of state power, especially effective government policies, he said.
“Reducing out-of-school children, creating jobs, and addressing poverty will reduce the pool of people vulnerable to criminal recruitment.
Many parts of northern Nigeria have continued to suffer frequent attacks by terrorists and bandits, leading to heavy casualties and destruction of property.
President Bola Tinubu, in his Independence Day broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 65th anniversary, claimed that peace has returned to hundreds of liberated communities in the North-East and North-West, adding that the armed forces are winning the war against terrorism.
However, opposition voices have dismissed the claim, insisting that insecurity persists despite ongoing military operations.
They are winning the war against terrorism, banditry, and other violent crimes,” Tinubu said. “We see their victories in their blood and sweat to stamp out Boko Haram terror in the North-East, IPOB/ESN terror in the South-East, and banditry and kidnapping.”
