Insecurity Worse Under Jonathan says Magashi; Nigerians Disagree |The Source

By Uche Mbah

In a claim that made many people shake their heads in disbelief, Minister for Defence, Basir Magashi, Thursday, said that insecurity was worse in the years before 2015 than it is now, wondering why the present government is being vilified over insecurity.

His claim came on the heels of increased incidents of killings across Nigeria, with the resultant renewed call for President Buhari to sack Service Chiefs.

Last month, about 60 farmers were killed by Boko Haram at Zabarmari in Borno state. This resulted in the Federal  House of Representatives  inviting President Buhari, who initially agreed to meet with the lawmakers but changed his mind at the last minute. Attorney General, and Minister for Justice, Abubarkar Malami, SAN, said the House had no powers to invite the President to appear before the House.

Speaking on a Channels TV program, Thursday, Magashi said the Buhari  administration has defeated Boko Haram, wondering why Nigerians are not appreciating the government’s effort.

“The problem with this country is that we always forget too soon. Look in 2015 backward, 2014, 2013; if you remember the situation in this country. In Kano, 200 people were massacred in the mosque. The Emir of Kano was also attacked. The road from Kano to Kaduna and Abuja were impassable. We had over 20 roadblocks from Kaduna to Abuja. It takes you almost 15 hours to reach where you are coming from. Even in Abuja, there were bombings. Everywhere in Nigeria in those years, you find that there were commotions, no security, people can’t even move,” he said.

“When this government came, you know what we did. In Borno state, about 20 local governments were under capture by Boko Haram. But as soon as Buhari came, they were all subdued and we took over all these things and we even said we technically defeated this Boko Haram.

“No piece of land is occupied by Boko Haram in Borno state. The only thing normally with the kind of insurgent operation is that they want to surprise, you, embarrass you, and do whatever they think would attract international news or the national news or cause commotion within the the environment they operate.

“And that is what they have been doing, and that is why we are trying very hard to adopt tactics and other forms of operations in order to stop this kind of people embarrassing this country.

“We are putting in place everything you can think of, tactically and operationally, in order to return this country to the very the peaceful country we know it.”

Friends of Nigeria, he said, are coming to the aid of the overstretched military aid.

“At the moment, most people think because of the sporadic attacks here and there, we lost control or we are not doing our best. Most of you know the problem with this country. The armed forces are overstretched,” he said.

“The other thing that we may have gotten, we are not supported by some of these countries we call our friends. They are not ready to give us what we need — with the money we have and everything. But certainly, what I am trying to say is that Nigeria is better than what we were seven years ago.”

“In Africa, the Nigerian army should be adjudged one of the best. We have conducted so many operations outside Nigeria. We went to ECOMOG (Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group); we did the very best we can. We went to Sierra Leone; we did the very best we can and some other places. We are a force that is reckoned with in Africa, but because of the nature of the prolongation of this war, people are getting tired.”

“People don’t even know the principles governing this kind of operation. These operations are not concentrated in one particular place. It is an operation that they hit and run. We don’t even know their bases. Now, we understand the tactics that the best way to fight these people is to get enough intelligence and go out there to fight them and this is what we are doing. Every day, we are getting information, and the Nigerian army and air force are always in to see that they are run down.

“Since the beginning of this war, anybody who is watching it will know that Nigerian armed forces are capable of undertaking any the operation, given the requisite equipment and the motivation they require to fight this war.”

But many Nigerians insist it is either the Minister was deliberately misinforming Nigerians, or very ignorant of the  terrible security situation in the country, especially, in the North, which has kept everybody on edge, and earned Nigeria an unenviable position in the terrorism index in the world.