Abdulsalami Seeks New Approach On Counter-Terrorism

Former military Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar on Monday called for a new approach that would be result oriented in the on-going war against terrorism in the country as the current method has become security obsolete and ineffective.

He gave this advice on Monday at the National Defence College Course 22 inaugural lecture titled, “Comprehensive Approach to national Security Management in Nigeria.”

“The nature and pattern of outbreak of new and emerging threats in Nigeria suggest that security can no longer be achieved through reliance on the nation’s current approach to security, nor can it be achieved through a sole reliance on the country’s security agencies alone,” he said.

He argued that current national security threats have shown that the attainment and preservation of security must be everybody’s business, and added that the public is expected to play vital role in assisting the conventional bodies especially in the area of intelligence gathering on the activities of criminal elements in their neighbourhoods.

Gen. Abubakar, who handed over the baton of leadership to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999, said the comprehensive approach was restoring security, governance and development through inter-agency, inter-ministerial or even an inter-organisational framework approach.

“It is a structure that involves the use of political, diplomatic, security, economic and developmental interventions, governed by the rule of law in pursuit of a sustainable security in society,” he stated.

According to him, “the need for this approach in the management of national security challenges in Nigeria is made even more urgent by the fact that threats to security in Nigeria have evolved over time