Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) has implored all Nigerians to support the government and security agencies in the fight against the Boko Haram scourge, stating that the government cannot win the war on terror without the active support of the populace.
He made this call in the opening speech of a security stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Abdulsalami Abubakar Institute for Peace and Sustainable Development Studies (AAIPSDS) and Pan-African Strategic and Policy Group (PANAFSTRAG) in Wednesday in Minna, Niger State on Wednesday.
This appeal by the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria echoes the ones by the current President Muhammadu Buhari, all the service chiefs and other eminent Nigerians, who have urged an all-hands-on-deck approach to ending insurgency in the country.
Abubakar said: “We can’t leave solution to insecurity to the government alone or for our leaders alone to fight this menace.”
“Our country today is bedevilled by all types of insecurity, from kidnapping to Boko Haram and all sorts of terrorism,” he noted. “This is an issue that should involve every Nigerian. We all must assist the government and security agencies to find solution and the way forward on how to curb this menace.”
Explaining the rationale and personalities behind the security meeting, Abubakar declared: “That is why we have come together to brainstorm and come up with lasting solution.
“We have invited retired and serving military personnel, the traditional rulers, who are the one in grass root and people from Northeast, who are at the receiving end of terrorism to share their experiences to help us look at the issue in totality and come up with lasting solution.”