The Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin on Thursday, attributed the increasing rate of insecurity in the country to the proliferation of small and light weapons in circulation.
He contended that small and light weapons contributed immensely to the insurgency, militancy, banditry political thuggery, cultism and other nefarious criminal activities plaguing Nigeria.
Olonisakin who spoke at the 5th Distinguished Lecture and Award series of Ife Business School held at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) conference centre, Ile-Ife, Osun State, observed that proliferation of small arms and light weapons have bastardised security perception and punctured the impression of ease of doing business.
The Chief of Defence Staff, who was represented by the Chief of Defence, Civil-Military Cooperation, Rear Admiral Obed Ngalabak lamented that the development had suffocated the flow of foreign direct investment and must be tackled through a multi-dimensional approach.
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Olonisakin stated further that “shifting from core security actions of containing internal conflict and asymmetric warfare to evolving in-depth solutions to solving the root causes of these issues are necessary.”
“An all-inclusive security sector reforms involving the military, paramilitary and other stakeholders is expedient. More emphasis would be on improving strategic communications and information sharing to facilitate effective coordination of operations for a robust national situational awareness.”
“The military and other security agencies now operate in more dimensions which would require new skills set in line with international best practices. Security agencies would, therefore, need to ensure capacity building to cope with the ever-changing nature of national security requirements”, he stated.
While disclosing that the military was working towards gaining the trust of Nigerians to understand the enormity of its task, Olonisakin said it would further enhance multi-agency cooperation in ongoing operations.
In his welcome address, the Rector of Ife Business School, Dr Makinde Adereti disclosed that security cannot be separated from good governance, stressing that “we have carefully chosen the theme for this lecture, it is no doubt that the theme is apt at this critical period of our national existence where Nigeria has witnessed an unprecedented level of insecurity”.