President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, says that international politics is the major hindrance to the inability of the Nigerian military and other security outfits to contain the disturbing nation’s insecurity including Boko Haram/Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP). banditry and other violence in the country.
The head of Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber said that this has stalled Nigeria’s efforts aimed at acquiring sophisticated machinery needed by the security agencies to do their jobs.
Dr Lawan told journalists on Sunday in an interview ahead of the first anniversary of the Ninth Senate, which comes up on Thursday, that efforts to buy equipment for the Nigerian armed forces were usually frustrated by international politics with the requests taking longer than expected.
He said the country’s security system was currently overstretched, adding that more resources are needed to tackle insecurity.
According to him, “to some extent, we are suffering from international politics. I know that in our efforts to try to buy spare parts for jets, they may write to a certain foreign government and it will take six to nine months while another country will write to the same government and maybe get it in one or two months.
“So, something is not right, but that’s to say that it’s now one of our challenges that we will continue to engage with countries that we feel don’t understand what we are doing here. Also, we need more resources for security. By resources, I don’t mean just money, we need more personnel for the armed forces.
“We need more personnel for the police, Nigerian immigration Service, and almost all the agencies and paramilitary as well. We also need resources in terms of equipment, machinery, and then training.
“What we experience today is we don’t have sufficient personnel, the resources available to security office are inadequate. Government is doing a lot to get more resources in terms of equipment and machinery.”
