Retired Generals across the three arms of the military who have been involved in the war against insurgency in Nigeria, especially Boko Haram, have x-rayed the situation and came up with the conclusion that some non-governmental organisations, NGOs, international agencies and vested interests have helped to sustain terrorism and other violent crimes in the country.
Recall that the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa recently asked the Federal Government to invite the United Nations to help investigate how arms inflows get to terrorists and bandits in Nigeria, despite the heroic efforts of the armed forces who have killed and continue to kill many of them while recovering thousands of their weapons
The CDS’ call came against the backdrop of claims by a segment of the society that the military has not justified the huge budgetary allocations to the fight against terrorism and other forms of crime in the country, while terrorists, bandits and kidnappers, among others, continue to receive a supply of sophisticated arms.
However, baring their minds on the issue yesterday, retired generals, who cut across the Army, Navy and Air Force, particularly former theatre commanders, general officers commanding, GOCs, formation/field commanders and NAF operational commanders have pointed to the crux of the problem and those behind the deadly assaults/unending war and chart a way forward.
However, efforts to get the NGOs yesterday to react to the retired generals’ allegation proved abortive but the Media and Communications Adviser of the International Non- Governmental Organization, INGO, Forum in Nigeria, Ademilola Adesanya, said: “I am not the spokesperson of the INGO Forum, I am just an adviser.
‘’But I will try and get in touch with the spokesperson to call you, as she is the only one authorized to talk to the press.”
However, at press time they offered to speak on grounds of anonymity.
Former GOC 1 Division:
A former GOC, I Division said: ”Having been involved in the fight against terrorism and banditry that spilt into the North-West, Niger and Kogi states which were my Divisional Area of Responsibility as at then, I would say what the CDS said is quite true.
“It’s a known fact that external and internal non-state players are deeply entrenched in the spate of violence and banditry in Northern Nigeria.
“In the recent past, several arrests of financiers of insurgency and terrorism were made. Their funding source was traced to the Middle East.
“The UAE government was pivotal in assisting Nigeria in apprehending quite a number of them. Unfortunately, these arrests were enmeshed in political controversy, as they were not prosecuted and punished.
“That aside, Boko Haram has festered for almost 15 years, largely due to religious indoctrination of young, uneducated men and women. The end game is to destabilize the country, especially the North West and North-East to control vast space full of valuable human and mineral resources to fund and expand terrorism across the country.
“We must also recognize that these criminal organizations with networks across the globe are bent on having a foothold in the Sahel region, especially Nigeria.
“There is also gross social inadequacies or failures of some sort by the sub-nationals in the region. Lack of jobs, under-development, poor healthcare and education for the millions of young people provides oxygen for these terrorists to keep recruiting the youths.
“It is estimated that the Northern region harbours millions of out-of-school children and the highest levels of illiteracy in Nigeria.
“While the military continues to effectively contain and degrade these organizations, the state governments must marshal resources to rapidly improve the people’s economy so they could have good alternatives to earning a living, rather than be recruited by criminal organizations.
“The military, CBN and security agencies must continually apply technology to keep blocking funding which is not easy to do without international support and assistance.
“The CBN’s decision to revoke thousands of licenses of several bureaux de change was a good step. The National Financial Intelligence Unit must aggressively step up tracking of terrorists’ funding into the country. Interpol and the contiguous countries must continually be engaged to destroy terrorist cells.
“I have often argued that there must be regulation of religious teachings across the country. We have a lax system which enables any group to set up mosques or churches without regulatory approval. It is a dangerous trend that must be legislated on by NASS or a Presidential Executive Order to check it.
“The Ministry of Justice and the Office of the National Security Adviser must prosecute all criminals and make it public. Additionally, Nigeria must speedily introduce state police to expand security coverage across the country. Our current central policing cannot address the insecurity of over 250 million people.
Ex-Theatre Commander, Joint Task Force North-East
On his part, a former theatre commander, Joint Task Force, North East, said: “Nigeria should sustain efforts to curtail the spread of terrorists ideology and funding. Over the last 15 years, our national policy has focused on defeating the terrorists but the ideology is still festering.
“When I was theatre commander, we made efforts to get to the root of this matter, the thousands of youths at the grassroots in Borno, for instance, do not hide their plans to travel to the Tumbuns in the Chad Basin area and join the terrorist groups because they really had nothing doing. So recruitment, based on ideology, was very simple.
“The question is what is it that is sustaining the engagements between the terrorists and the ideology. We also discovered that after harvesting their crops, if for instance, a group of farmers harvest 150 bags, they will leave behind 15 bags on the farm.
“By the next day, in the middle of the night, the 15 bags would be gone. What is it that has made the people to accept the use of this farm produce as payment or support for the terrorists?
“This is just one farm. So if 50 farms do the same, you are talking of thousands of bags. They are then sold in French CFA. The CFA is changed to dollars and changed to naira and used to sponsor the terrorists to buy arms.
“Every crisis in Africa is targeting the Sahel region, stretching from Algeria to Nigeria, from Senegal to Mali. Is this not an international conspiracy? Was it deliberate for Libya to fall so that it’s arms stockpile will be used to destabilize Africa, create insecurity and enable the looting of Africa ‘s resources?
“Look at the triangle of Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger and Katsina states in Nigeria. Because of the rich uranium and gold deposits, you can see the daily activities of terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, etc. It is not a lack of capacity of the Nigerian Armed Forces to take out the criminals but a deliberate attempt through clandestine activities of certain interests to ensure insecurity festers there.
“Nigeria is being undermined, and the undermining is coming from outside Nigeria, with the connivance of some inside Nigeria.
“For instance, we cannot have a formidable military, with our capacity and one nonentity, so-called terrorist leader is elusive to deal with in Zamfara State. How come he is able to escape all the time. What is the nexus between funding terrorism and funding arms procurement? Where are the arms coming from?
“Why is it that these foreign countries are refusing to sell arms to Nigeria under the guise of human rights but they make it available to non-state actors? Even the latest inventions are finding their way in large quantities to these terrorists. Where is the money coming from? Where are the weapons coming from? Who is training them?
“The issue of bad governance is also there. Our security challenges are on the increase because of bad governance and this is because government cannot reach the people. The government is being disallowed to reach the people This is also deliberate so that crisis/insecurity will fester and the interest groups cash in.
“The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Christopher Musa, deserves to be commended for his boldness in calling for the UN to investigate the source of these arms inflow to the terrorists. This is because the military is doing everything humanly possible to end this terrorism, banditry yet, the arms keep getting to them.
“Fighting terrorism is supposed to be a national approach but it is only the military and security agencies that are fighting this war, with support sometimes from the media. If the people show determination and say enough is enough and join hands with the military, this menace will stop.
“In Zamfara State, for instance, what is the population of the people? How many are these bandits terrorizing them? If the people in their millions come out against them by supporting the military and security agencies, they will run away.”
Ex-Army Director of Information
Also, a former Army Director of Information said: “Undoubtedly, the persistence of Boko Haram’s access to arms and funding, despite concerted military efforts and successes, remains a critical concern for all well-meaning Nigerians.
”However, it is important to note that Boko Haram sustains itself through a mix of international sponsorship, ransom payments, illicit trade, and local extortion from farmers and fishermen, as well as imposition of taxes.
“To disrupt these streams, Nigeria must bolster its financial intelligence, enhance regional cooperation, and adopt advanced technology such as satellite surveillance and AI-based analytics through the NFIU and the National Counter-terrorism Centre.
“The call for the involvement of the United Nations could aid in tracking arms flows and imposing sanctions on sponsors, but this should only complement robust domestic and regional strategies.
“Addressing socio-economic vulnerabilities in affected areas, through education, job creation, enlightenment and governance reforms remains critical.
“For instance, the shifting control of Damboa, a strategically vital location connecting key routes and the Sambisa Forest, highlights the need for intensified, targeted operations to secure such areas permanently.
“Damboa’s significance clearly shows the importance of not just military action but also holistic and sustained counter-terrorism efforts to deny terrorists access.”
Ex-AOC of one of the operations commands of the Air Force
He said: “If Nigeria is serious about ending terrorism, banditry and kidnapping, the first thing to do is to send all the NGO’s in the North-East, North-West and North-Central zones of the country packing. “They should be given 72 hours ultimatum to leave. From several intelligence findings and on field experience, it has been established that many of these NGOs and agencies are the ones providing sponsorship and funding covertly to these terrorists.
“I can also inform you that any time you hear calls for the country to go outside and bring in foreign mercenaries to come and help us fight terrorism, banditry and insecurity, the NGOs are behind those calls. They instigate this call when the military is actually getting the upper hand and closing in on these criminal elements.
“At this juncture, it will interest you to know that in the past when some villagers claim that they saw aircraft flying in the middle of the night, landing in the bush and after some taking off, people would say these were uneducated people or bush people who do not know the difference between a big truck and an aircraft.
“But experience later showed that some mercenaries could have flown aircraft and dropped arms and ammunition for terrorists and bandits in those thick bushes and forests. Of course, by the time security agencies get to those forests to investigate, nothing is found.
“That is why despite the heroic efforts of the military, killing the terrorists, capturing large numbers of arms and ammunition, they are getting re-supply.
“Such incidents of helicopters landing in the darkness at night and dropping consignments were reported in forests in Adamawa State, Niger State and Birnin Gwari Forest sometime in the past and people were saying when did Fulani learn how to fly aircraft (because then, they were attributing everything to Fulani).
“NGOs are deeply involved in this arms inflow. They have ulterior motives here. They deceive us with mosquito nets, donate insecticides and give us some dollars to support infrastructure but make millions of dollars from arms sales, mineral resources export etc. And most of the weapons are sold very cheap to terrorists and bandits, as cheap as $5, $8, $10.
“At a point in the fight against banditry, particularly in Kaduna, security agencies uncovered that 450 Boko Haram terrorists migrated from the North-East to Birnin Gwari forests. But the political will from the government to do the needful and take them out, either by air strikes or other means, was lacking.
“So the military and security forces are doing everything humanly possible to end this banditry/terrorism, but they get re-supplies through these agencies and NGOs who act as fronts.
Efforts of the military and security agencies to retrieve arms and ammunition.
On efforts to mop up arms and ammunition, the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), Office of the National Security Adviser, said it recently destroyed more than 2,400 illicit small arms and light weapons in Abuja which is the second of such destruction in about six months
Director-General of the centre, DIG Johnson Kokumo, retd, said the destroyed weapons were those retrieved from terrorists and criminal elements by the various security agencies in the country.
They comprised a mix of unserviceable, decommissioned and recovered arms that had been mopped up by security agencies across the country thereby permanently be removing them from circulation and reducing the risk the weapons posed to communities.
The centre also has in its custody some recovered/captured illicit SALW still undergoing tracing as well as investigations and legal processes including the illicit weapons handed over to the Centre by the Nigeria Customs Service.
“These categories of weapons would be destroyed on completion of the proceedings during subsequent routine destruction exercises
“This occasion serves as a clear testament to the federal government’s determination to safeguard national security and foster peace across the nation and the West African sub-region” he added.
In the war against terror and other threats of insecurity, the Defence headquarters through Major General Edward Buba disclosed that between January and December 2024, troops recovered 8,815 weapons as well as 228,004 ammunition. This comprised 4,332 AK-47 rifles, 1,244 locally fabricated guns, 838 Dane guns, 259 pump action guns, 128,496 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 45,445 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 5,103 cartridges, 2,131 assorted arms and 29,176 assorted ammunition.
Zones
Troops of Operation Hadin Kai in the North East recovered 120 AK-47 rifles, 48 fabricated rifles, 35 Dane guns, 15 assorted arms, 2,827 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 1,083 rounds of 7.62mm NATO and 498 assorted ammunition.
Troops of Operation Hadarin Daji in North West recovered 1,450 AK-47 rifles, 477 fabricated guns, 576 assorted arms, 31,999 rounds of 7.62mm special, 14,960 rounds of 7.62mm NATO and 6,564 assorted ammunition.
Troops of Operation Whirl Punch recovered 364 AK-47 rifles, 302 assorted arms, 12,422 rounds of 7.62mm special, 5,991 rounds of 7.62mm NATO and 2,818 assorted ammunition.
@Vanguard
