Nigeria needs more soldiers to combat terrorism, security threats – Aliero

Senator Muhammad Adamu Aliero, representing Kebbi Central Senatorial District of Kebbi State, says Nigeria is in dire need of more soldiers to tackle the threats posed by terrorists in the country.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, he called for the declaration of an emergency on insecurity in the country.

The lawmaker argued that Nigeria is technically in a war emergency, hence it requires an immediate military upgrade to enable security forces to carry out more massive onslaughts against terrorists and non-state actors causing mayhem in the country.

He said Nigeria needs to take a cue from countries like Egypt, noting the importance of engaging its teeming population of unemployed youths in securing the country.

“While the Nigerien government maintains their troops, we can’t do the same because we don’t have enough workforce. Our entire workforce is not more than 200,000 in a country of over 200 million, whereas Egypt, with a population of about 80 million, has more than a one-million-man army. The situation calls for urgent mass recruitment,” he said.

“When the civil war started, we had about 60,000 soldiers. We had a massive recruitment that raised it to over 500,000 to win the three-year war, after which we demobilized them. The problem remains that we don’t have enough personnel. Even if the military keeps troops stationary in crisis-prone areas, they will find it difficult because of personnel accommodation.

“That is the dilemma. How do you expect a recruited soldier to go to the war front without housing his family? It’s difficult to keep them anywhere permanently.”

The Senator stressed the need to prioritise an immediate increase in the military workforce and a rapidly revised approach to existential threats to national peace, unity, and stability.

According to the four-term senator and member of the Senate Committee on Army, maximum military force by Nigeria’s armed forces would permanently wipe out the new Jihadist Lakurawa group in Kebbi and Sokoto states, along with other threats to national security.

He said Nigeria is technically at war, with terrorists, bandits, insurgents, and non-state actors operating in the North East, North Central, North West, and South East parts of the country.

Stressing the need to flush out the Lakurawa terrorist group, he maintained that the Northwest part of the country, with its larger population, rich agricultural land, animal husbandry, rivers for irrigation, and fishing, cannot afford to be at the mercy of another insurgency group.

Shedding light on the modus operandi of the terrorist group, he noted: “The new Jihadist terrorists are not bandits who have no ideology or doctrine but to kill and steal. This new one has religion in their minds, trying to preach purity in Islam but also going after cattle owners for zakat (tithes). If you resist, they forcefully take your cows away, and they kill anyone they see in uniform—army, immigration, customs, police, etc. But people don’t seem to realize.

“Their strategy is simple: they lure the people to believe that they just want to teach religion while also extending themselves, doing massive recruitment. This is how Boko Haram started. They are doing massive recruitment of people; they have money like Al-Qaeda. When they buy anything, they pay in hard currency. We suspect Al-Qaeda is involved.

“Don’t forget Al-Qaeda caused all the trouble in Iraq, Syria; they masterminded the Arab Spring. Look at what’s happening in Somalia; they are killing people every day, even in Kenya, but the government came down heavily on them. Ours cannot be different.”