President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) once again engaged in a war of words on Sunday with the All Progressives Congress, APC over the security situation in the country.
At a world press conference, the Lagos APC interim national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande had lambasted President Jonathan, saying the nation was on auto-pilot even before the emergence of Boko Haram and needed all to save it while also listing a 10-point approach towards ending the menace of Boko Haram in the country.
The 10-point approach include:
1. Develop and/or Publish a Counter-Terrorism Strategy
2. Build a new Intelligence Gathering Infrastructure which will coordinate, improve and integrate intelligence gathering and sharing across agencies.
3. Improved Intelligence and increasing force enablers.
4. Improve Contingency Planning by creating plans and conduct training exercises that reflect the challenges we will face.
5. Pursue and Align military with political (negotiated) solutions.
6. De-radicalization Strategy: The Northern region is in urgent need of a counter-radicalization program to prevent many more young people (illiterate and unemployed) from being radicalized.
7. Regionalize (ECOWAS and AU) Response: The government to solicit the operational involvement and assistance of ECOWAS and AU, including deploying multinational security operations across the Sahel to track and hunt down Boko Haram operational chain.
8. Effective information management and strategic communication
9. Economic Development Plan for Northern Nigeria
10. Involve civilian peace building organizations (military and police cannot build peace)
President Jonathan and the PDP however lashed back at Akande accusing him of being dishonest over his claim that Nigeria was on autopilot and the observation that Boko Haram has reached a stalemate while adding that members of APC had continued in their blame game, giving courage to the terrorists.
The presidency said, “Nigeria is not on auto pilot. There is a government in place, there is a President who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He is doing his very best to provide quality leadership and to reassure Nigerians that government stands ready always to defend their best interest.”
The presidency also said such claims were untrue and unpatriotic.
Source: Nigerian Tribune
