FG Needs Mercenaries To Win Insurgency War, NEGF Insists

The Chairman of the North-East Governors Forum (NEGF), Governor Babagana Umara Zulum has declared that for Nigeria to win the war against insurgency, banditry, kidnappings, particularly abduction of school children across the country, the Federal Government must as a matter of necessity seek the support of mercenaries.

This is as Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, said that public opinion at the moment is that government has failed, stressing that the over centralization of the security arrangement in the country is an obsolete school.

Zulum said that his recommendation is to enable the government win the terror war considering the fact that the country’s military might is not enough to fight the terrorists to submission.

This was just as he advised that as a matter of urgency, government should convert all boarding schools in the North to day schools in the face of incessant abductions of the students due to lack of adequate security in the schools as demonstrated in the Katsina, Niger and Zamfara mass abduction of students.

Zulum, who stated these at the opening ceremony of 4th meeting of the North-East Governors Forum in Bauchi, noted that it is clear that the country is fighting a war it cannot win alone and lamented the devastating effects of insurgency in Borno State which he noted is the theatre of the war.

He said, “It is regrettable that for seven weeks now, the entire Borno State has been cut off from the national grid of electricity power supply due to the damage done to the main line of supply to the area”.

He therefore called for action by the government at all levels, particularly the North-East sub-region which is mostly affected by terrorism, adding that the current escalation of deadly attacks by terrorists and the various causes of actions being pursued to fight insurgents has some limitations in terms of the expected impact, hence the need for a new set of pragmatic and result oriented initiative.

Zulum further said, “The government should also seek for support from neighbouring countries such as the Republic of Chad, Cameron and Niger with a view to providing a joint action that will look into the possibility of ending this crisis.

“Federal government has to look into the possibility of involving machineries with a view to ending this insurgency because it seems that the commitment is not there. Therefore, for us to end this insurgency we must be committed enough, we must bring in external support to ensure that machineries are hired to end this insurgency.

“On our part, in addition to the logistic and financial support we are rendering to the armed forces in their fight against general insecurity in the sub-region, we should also look into the possibility of forming a security outfit within the ambit of constitutional precedent and operational feasibility as has been done in other parts of the country,” he advised.

Zulum also advised the new service chiefs to device new strategies to counter the attacks of insurgency and forestall any future acts of terrorism in the North-East.

Earlier in his address of welcome, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State as the host, stressed the need to stand up and fight the insurgency war with all vigour.

Mohammed said that insurgents when defeated will not be able to regroup again which will ensure the return of peace to the sub-region”.

In his words, “Our fight against insurgency must be total because by the time Maiduguri is subdued, then we are not safe here too. Security infrastructure must be put in place to be able to fight this war considering the sophistication of the terrorists.

“We will not just sit down and watch terrorists overrun us. We must stand up to fight them, chase them away and ensure that our areas are well secured. We must do everything possible to protect our people from the terrorists.

“If we must be honest, the public opinion at the moment is that we have failed. Many of our people have resorted to self-help in order to get away from this despondency. We must accept the fact that the over centralization of the security arrangement is an obsolete school,” he stressed.