PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari is not ready to leave office as a failure and will change the nation’s security narratives before the end of his tenure in 2023, according to the National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno
Monguno, who briefed State House’s correspondents shortly after the president met with the service chiefs, said although the military had recorded successes in the ongoing war against insurgency in the North-East, the president was determined to achieve a turnaround in the fortunes of the country.
He said the nation had not recorded the level of success being reported at the moment where insurgents were giving up arms to embrace peace, attributing the situation to “the relentless efforts of the armed forces, intelligence and security agencies.”
“This is very, very evident. We’ve never had such large numbers of people defecting from the other side, back to the Nigerian side, mainly, as a result of many issues within the theatre, issues of infighting among the various factions of the terrorist groups.”
He noted that there had been seamless intelligence gathering and sharing among the nation’s security operatives and Nigeria’s neighbours within the Lake Chad region.
“So the president was briefed, the president is quite happy that there’s been a tremendous success, especially with the advent of the new service chiefs and inspector-general of police.
“And he’s also made it very, very clear that he’s not ready to exit government as a failure. He is not going to tolerate that he’s made changes and is ready to make further changes if he is not satisfied. He is completely determined to ensure that there’s a turnaround in the fortunes in the theatre of operations.”
While claiming that the security atmosphere was improving despite recent killings and kidnappings in the North-West and North-East, Monguno admitted that a lot still needed to be done.
Monguno added that Buhari was not oblivious to the sufferings of Nigerians as he was working with the vice-president to address the issues of hunger in the country.
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