Details Of National Security Council Meeting Emerge

The details of the meeting of the National Security Council meeting presided by President Muhammadu Buhari have emerged.

Naija News earlier reported that the meeting took place on Thursday inside the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (retd), said the Federal Government would implement new strategies to address the worsening insecurity in the nation.

He stated that the recent terrorist attacks across the country have turned the citizens to seek self-help and are fuelling fears among Nigerians.

Monguno disclosed that the President is aware of the security challenges facing the country and he is doing his best to remedy the problems.

The NSA said that fighting the sort of insecurity facing the country can only be successful when it is confronted with the ‘whole of society’ approach.

He, however, cautioned the media against giving wide publicity to the terrorists and urged the citizens to provide the security, intelligence and armed agencies with useful information.

He said: “This meeting was convened by the President as a continuation of the meeting that took place last week, to discuss the technical issues and the taskings that were given to the various security agencies. The meeting deliberated on all those issues, after the brief by the National Security Adviser, which is usually the procedure.

“Again, the Council has seen it necessary to inform the general public that fight in this type of asymmetric conflict is a collective effort, it’s not something that should be confined to only the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies. When we keep saying the whole of society approach, the whole of government approach, to get a whole of nation approach, what it means is that everybody has to partake in this enterprise.

“We are in a very difficult situation and Council understands. Mr. President understands people’s concerns about the growing insecurity, but I can assure you that there’s no straight, cut and dried method of dealing with this thing unless all of us embrace each other. I know people are wary, people are tired, and people are beginning to gravitate to other places for self-help. The truth is that help is rooted in everyone working for the other person.

“The truth is that no country can ever overcome the difficulties of an asymmetric conflict by virtue of the fact that the enemy of the state is embedded within the population, within the wider society. It is true that the local people are averse, they’re scared, they’re worried and there’s no confidence. That is understandable. But without their support, without their cooperation in terms of giving information, it makes it very hard for the operational elements.”

Reacting to the attack on the Guards’ Brigade, Monguno said such an attack could have been averted if the citizens had provided the security agencies with the required information.

“A few days ago, troops of the Guards Brigade were ambushed and decimated. Had there been a collective effort by way of just snippets of information, we might have averted that incident. That is not to say that the responsibility is for those outside the security domain, it’s a collective responsibility,” he said.