President Muhammadu Buhari has blamed the country’s security challenges on what he called “external and internal factors”.
Buhari, who stated this at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday, also sensed a weakness in the lack of collaboration between security agencies and the various communities in the country in tackling insecurity.
He spoke when he received the report of a security study conducted by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies.
The President didn’t give specific details on how the external and internal factors played out, but said as of 2015 when he assumed office, security challenges were already threatening the existence of the country.
He stated that his administration’s response to the situation was to commission NIPSS to look into it and come out with a position.
The study was conducted by NIPSS’s Senior Executive Course 40 participants.
The President said, “In November 2017, I tasked the management of NIPSS with the responsibility of strengthening the nation’s internal security framework through community policing by proposing borders, policy, offence and strategy.
“I think this is what the report is all about.
“The decision of government was borne out of a sincere desire to find sustainable solutions to the many security challenges inherited by this administration.
“These challenges not only threaten the security of lives and property of our people but also the sovereignty, territorial integrity of our country.”
Buhari noted that there was hardly any part of the country that doesn’t have its own security challenges.
He added, “We are confronted with Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East, worrisome conflict with respect to farmers and herdsmen, which have resulted in a wanton destruction of lives and property across the country.
“Furthermore, there is the crisis of separatist agitation in the South-East, and militancy in the South-South.
“Government is convinced that these security challenges are rooted in both internal and external factors.
“Most importantly, government is also convinced that finding sustainable solutions to these challenges will require the support and collaboration of security agencies and communities.”
It can be observed that a lack of cooperation among the country’s security agencies has been raised at several fora to be a major weakness in tackling insecurity in Nigeria.
The reports of some investigations conducted by the National Assembly into security matters also point to this factor.
For instance, the 2016 Country Report on Terrorism released by the US Department of State’s Bureau for Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism, noted that Nigerian security agencies related more like enemies than working for a common goal.
The report observed that the Army, the Police, the Department of State Services, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other agencies were culpable.
It added that the Ministry of Justice and the Office of the National Security Adviser didn’t do better in resolving the inter-agency rivalry.
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