The meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari, members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Security Council and others on Tuesday ended with a call for a joint strategy to bring various conflicts to an end within time limits.
The meeting also agreed that field commanders should take measures to protect civilian communities, as a way of building confidence between the military and those communities.
The meeting presided over by Buhari was necessitated by the security challenges in the country.
A statement by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said it is hoped that when the trust that has been lost between the military and communities is re-established, there will be improved cooperation in intelligence-gathering and sharing.
He said the meeting also identified poverty and youth unemployment as the root cause of the security challenges in the country, adding that those needed to be addressed with greater vigour by all tiers of government.
The meeting also focused on Nigeria’s security policies and approaches in handling the internal security challenges.
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It directed that intelligence-gathering and sharing must be optimised if the nation is to achieve internal security.
The statement quoted the President as dismissing the assumptions that the terrorists in the North East had more weapons and money than the government.
He said that what was left of the terrorists were “mere scavengers desperate for food, raiding shops and markets, and killing innocent persons in the process.”
President Buhari was also said to have expressed worry that in spite of the fact that borders with neighbouring countries had been shut, bandits and terrorists continued to have access to small weapons.
Present at the over the three-hour meeting wete the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, as well as the heads of defence, security, and intelligence agencies.
Members of the Security Committee of the NGF, represented by a governor from each of the six geo-political zones, joined the meeting virtually.
