•Cites weak governance, corruption, poor coordination among security agencies
•Wants security architecture redesigned, tweaking of Buhari’s strategy
•Says US looking for opportunity to establish military base in Nigeria
Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja
Former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), has blamed the country’s worsening security crisis on lack of national cohesion, which found expression in weak governance, corruption, and poor coordination among security agencies.
Dambazau spoke in Abuja, yesterday, where he presented a keynote address on “Nigeria’s Security Challenges and the Quest for National Cohesion: A New Paradigm for Internal Security Architecture and Governance,” at the seventh annual public lecture of the “Just Friends Club of Nigeria” (JFCN).
Dambazau, a former Minister of Interior between 2015 and 2019, also lamented that the country had been buffeted by complex security challenges that demanded an adaptive and internal security architecture, saying the current architecture and strategy need to be recalibrated
According to him, foremost among the security challenges are threats to the safety of life and property, posed by the activities of groups like Boko Haram, bandits, IPOB, Yoruba Nation agitators, kidnappers, militants, urban criminal gangs, and other violent offenders engaged in armed robbery, murder, and ritual killings.
He said their activities had instilled a pervasive sense of fear across homes, markets, places of worship, and farmlands, adding that “freedom from fear” has been eroded by the violent, non-state actors.
The former army chief lamented that in addition to physical threats, Nigeria faced significant human security challenges that undermined its survival and livelihoods, citing issues such as poverty, unemployment, hunger, disease, and illiteracy as having denied many citizens their “freedom from want”.
He said Nigeria continued to rank low in the UN Human Development Index, stressing that apart from deprivation-induced insecurity, emerging security threats have evolved from technological advancements, particularly in the field of ICT.
Driven by porous borders, regional instability, and the proliferation of illicit arms production, Dambazau lamented that the widespread availability of unregistered and unmarked weapons had fuelled insurgency, banditry, armed robbery and general insecurity across the country.
Considering the multifaceted factors behind insecurity, he argued that the menace could not be surmounted by military action alone.
According to him, “We can’t shoot our way out of insecurity. Bullets and boots alone won’t solve problems rooted in poverty, unemployment, and exclusion. Real security is people-centred — it is about freedom from fear and freedom from want.
“The roots of banditry lie in unemployment, hunger, lack of education, and weak local administration. The military has been overstretched because the police, who should handle internal security, are underdeveloped and politicised.”
He faulted the increasing use of soldiers for routine policing, saying it has eroded their constitutional role of defending Nigeria’s territorial integrity.
Dambazau said, “The military is now everywhere doing roadblocks and checkpoints. That’s not their job. Meanwhile, governors keep building roads but neglect education and healthcare, which are the real foundations of human security.”
Generally, he blamed the worsening insecurity in the land, and the failure to tame it, on the absence of national cohesion.
Dambazau stated, “It is a known fact that terrorists, secessionists, militants, bandits, and insurgents attack individuals and communities regardless of their faith or ethnicity.
“The lack of national cohesion in finding solutions to security challenges in Nigeria is a major reason for the intractable herder-farmer conflicts. Rather than joining hands to confront the root causes of these conflicts, we have turned them into indigene-settler and ethno-religious conflicts.”
He stated that the lack of national cohesion had given room for the current threat of the United States to intervene in Nigeria militarily.
However, Dambazau wondered what the US was able to do in over 10 years of military presence in Niger Republic.
He stated, “America protects its own interests, not anyone else’s. Nigeria must define and defend her own interests. In the more than 10 years of US presence in Niger, where it maintained two military bases, what did the US do to prevent the growth of security challenges?
“It is also on record that at the initial second coming of the Trump administration, US congressmen accused USAID of terrorism financing in Africa.
“I think the US is looking for an opportunity to establish an alternative base in Nigeria, a country known to protect only its interests by any means possible, including the use of force.
“Unfortunately, they have willing partners in Nigeria. It is clear that there is a lack of national cohesion in facing a common enemy to address terrorism and criminal violence in the country.”
Dambazau also blamed the executive and legislative arms of government for unhealthy meddlesomeness in security budgeting, saying it remains part of the problems affecting the war against insecurity
He said, “Many items in the defence budget are contractor-driven and inserted by lawmakers without consulting the services. Sometimes, the items are irrelevant to operational needs.”
Dambazau called for a recalibration of the security architecture as well as the tweaking of the National Security Strategy, which was signed by late President Muhammadu Buhari.
He stated, “Investment in the military alone will never solve Nigeria’s problem if we do not invest in people.”
In his remarks, former Director-General of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Professor Tonnie Iredia, who chaired the event, expressed dismay at the level of insecurity in the country and the attitude of the political class.
A professor of Strategic Management at Nnamdi Azikiwe University and member of Editorial Board of THISDAY, Professor Okey Ikechukwu, raised many posers, lamenting that the disconnect between the government and the governed has weakened public intelligence collaboration.
Former Chief of Policy and Plans at the Nigerian Air Force, Air Vice Marshal Gbolahan Adekunle (rtd), regretted the demoralisation of security personnel and the waste of training resources due to premature retirements.
In his welcome remarks, President of JFCN, Fred Ohwahwa, expressed concern over recent threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to invade Nigeria, urging citizens to confront insecurity decisively to prevent foreign interference.
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