Buratai recalled his previous warnings about the prolonged nature of the conflict.
Nigeria’s former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (Retd.), has called for a nationwide lockdown as a strategy to tackle the country’s worsening security crisis.
Buratai suggested that the government adopt a lockdown similar to the one enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that such drastic measures could help flush out terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers who have continued to terrorize communities across the country.
“We can lock down this country to make sure everybody concentrates and deals with this cankerworm called terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, and so on,” Buratai stated while featuring on Channels TV Sunrise Daily programme on Friday.
Buratai recalled his previous warnings about the prolonged nature of the conflict.
He also cited the example of the Maiduguri flood, where the country came together to support the affected people, as a model for mobilising resources to tackle insecurity.
Buratai’s proposal comes amid growing concerns about the country’s security situation, with many citizens calling for more decisive action to tackle the menace of banditry and terrorism.
He said: “If you can remember, just before I left office, and of course immediately when I left office, I was appointed ambassador of Republic of Benin, I sent a lot of warning that this insurgency may last longer. I don’t want to quote the number of years that I mentioned, but I said it will last longer. It is a sort of warning that we really need to have a long-term plan, it is not something that you will just wish away.
“For example, I am not trying to give any excuse but the point is when there is a national crisis, we need to mobilise everybody, not just the military alone. Look at COVID-19, how much was spent? How much was invested into information, into communication, into advertisement and so on, into palliative, into a lot of preventative measures so much that the whole nation was locked down because of COVID-19.
“But we can do the same thing, we can lock down this country to make sure everybody concentrates and deals with this cankerworm called terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and so on. It is very fundamental, very important.
“I want to take also another example, Maiduguri flood last year, the whole country mobilised and supported the Borno State government and people of Borno to bring relief to make sure that the people were rehabilitated in the whole of the state, and it helped a lot.
“The same thing can be done to mobilise everybody to the North East, to the North West, psychologically through social media, through the press, and so on. Individuals can support the community.”
Leave a Reply