Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, NSA, Major Gen. Babagana Monguno has insisted that the country would not resort to mercenaries to fight insecurity, but would deploy all necessary force to eliminate insurgents and bandits.
The NSA who took this stand on Thursday at the Presidential Villa during the weekly presidential ministerial briefing, said negotiating with insurgents and bandits were not a top priority for the government, despite being open to it.
He said negotiating with the criminals would suggest weakness and incapacity on the part of government, adding that it would not succumb to blackmail and the use of criminals by proxies to harass innocent citizens.
“The President’s view and directive is that we will not engage mercenaries when we have our own people to deal with these problems. We have the personnel and resources, and the President has given a new lease of life to the Armed Forces.
“The new direction of government is to come out with full force. Government will not allow itself to be blackmailed by any group or any individual who thinks he can hide under the surface and use proxies to deal a fatal blow on innocent people.
“That I want to assure you categorically and unequivocally, government is going to apply full weight to deal with these criminals until such a time that they vacate the shores of this country.
“In dealing with this issue, government realizes the tangential, auxiliary organizations to key in both the issue of drugs coming in and smuggling of arms and light weapons.
“As a result of what I said about delivering maximum force, the weight of our security organizations, does that obviate the need for us to use soft approach?
“We are ready to dialogue with these people but for us, it’s not a priority. We can’t be singing the same song everyday and these people are unreliable. They are ignoble, they are ready to undermine whatever agreement we have had. So, because of that, if the opportunity avails itself, of course, we will talk with responsible people from the side of those people.
“I don’t even know how to categorize them because it’s not as if they are looking for something you can point a finger at, it’s not some kind of nationalistic situation, something you can actually identify and relate to.
“These are just a murderous group of individuals who are keyed up on drugs and I don’t know what any body wants to negotiate with these people.
“And the people who have been negotiating with them in the first place, don’t you think they should actually, if there is that sincerity of purpose, talk with the right people in government? So, for negotiations, it is there, we would see what happens if it happens,” the NSA added
