The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa has said that good governance and not a military solution would end terrorism in the country.
Musa spoke while addressing newsmen in its maiden parley with defence correspondents at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja.
According to the Defence chief, military solution to terrorism is 30percent while good governance, equity, fairness and justice make up 70percent.
“We urge our political leaders to do the right thing. Anywhere you find good governance, it reduces insecurity. Our present challenges in Nigeria are man-made. We in the military are not magicians.”
He noted that any officer found wanting after investigation of the Kaduna bombing of civilians would be severely punished.
According to him, “I always mention that wherever we operated we have standing court martials. The court martial is not to scare anybody, but to tell you that if you eer, you would be held accountable, if you committed no offence, you don’t have anything to fear. We want to always complement our troops when they do well so that we can also encourage them to do more.”
He added: “We have been punishing our officers. It’s just that probably because most times, you don’t get to know. I’m sure you know in Maiduguri we have jailed a lot of personnel. I have a lot of my personnel in Jail. Court Martials have sent them to jail and you can go and verify.
“We do not shield offenders. You commit an offence, you go for it and that’s why you see we have this high level of discipline. Anyone who commits an offence, we take it serious. Actually you are going to be investigated thoroughly. If you are found guilty, you are going to be punished.”
He urged Nigerians and the media to thread softly in order to avert escalating insecurity in the country.
His words: “The security challenges we’re facing is not only a military challenge, it’s for everybody and you there you are always most times on the forefront, you’re also exposed to such things. So that’s why it’s important for us to have a good understanding of what’s going on so that we can clearly sensitize the public, let them understand what’s going on.
“And then the efforts that have been made on daily basis. Members of the security forces are dying and yet sometimes people don’t tend to always remember that people are sacrificing so much for the peace they enjoy.
“One thing I want people to do is to avoid demoralizing the troops. Because if somebody is there day, night standing, morning, evening, nights away from his family getting injured, and yet he’s being insulted, he’s being unappreciated. I mean, we’re all humans. You know what the tendencies are? This person will say, since I’m not being appreciated, then it’s not my business anymore and that will be dangerous for all of us.
“So please, whatever we’re doing, we should always remember that there are people that are there standing in so that we can sleep, so that we can go about doing our lawful work, so that we can go to church, go to mosque, go to market without them standing up.
“We have seen what other war zones look like, what has been done, how troops have been suffering and how civilians are also suffering. The incident in Kaduna is highly regrettable. Our mandate is to protect civilians, not to kill, maim or destroy anything. And that particular time we’re on the heat of pursuing some bandits within that general area and unfortunately this happened.
“I’m happy the President, commander-in-chief has instituted a committee that will look into it critically so that they can also advise how to move forward and how to prevent it in future. We are also working for them to be compensated.
“I assure all Nigerians that the armed forces of Nigeria is here for Nigerians and we want Nigerians to take ownership of the armed forces of Nigeria. We are not aliens from other countries. We are Nigerians just like every other person here. We have uncle, friends, aunties, fathers, mothers, uncles, grandfathers here. So we will not want any harm to befall anybody.
“I want to also appeal that when you see something not going right, police report, even if it is our troops that are not doing the right thing, don’t just keep quiet and pass by because whatever you see and you pass by, which means you have approved it. If you want changes, report so that we can take action and we want to take action.”
He dismissed rumour of conflict among the military due to army action on Kaduna where the Airforce was not contacted to provide air support.
According to him, “There’s no conflict. We’re one armed forces, armed forces of Nigeria and we operate jointly. We have seen that we are going to also be able to harmonize more on our own operations because, you know, we run over thousands of operations every day.”
Credit: Guardian
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