The Senate on Wednesday outlined far-reaching strategies Nigeria should adopt to deal with the growing menace of Boko Haram insurgency and banditry in the country.
The recommendations are contained in the report of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the “Nigeria Security Challenges: Urgent need to restructure, review, and reorganize the current security architecture.”
The Committee was chaired by the Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North)
Abdullahi in the report which was debated on the floor of the upper chamber identified the factors militating against the effectiveness of the nation’s security agencies in the ongoing war against Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnappings and other forms of criminal activities across the country.
Although the report was extensively debated, the lawmakers deferred the adoption of the recommendations to another legislative day.
The Committee noted that Nigeria is “technically at war” and stressed the urgent need for the total mobilization of all national security assets to confront the insurgency.
The panel, under its blueprint for tackling the security challenges, lamented the shift in date for the delivery of Tucano jets already paid for by the Federal Government.
It urged the Federal Government to approach countries in the Eastern bloc to purchase aircrafts equally as good as the Tucano jets it ordered from the United States of America.
The committee’s recommendations included: “Identification of all the sites and location of terrorists, kidnappers, bandits and the mobilization of all the services for massive operation to root them out.
“Surveillance with drones and night vision gadgets, facilities and other.
“Identification and apprehension of local informants who feed the terrorists and bandits with information about target communities and Individuals.
“Relevant information should be extracted from them to help pre-empt and stop bandits and kidnappers attacks in their tracks.
“Identify traditional rulers and the leaders at the locations where the terrorists and criminals are operating from and through them help the security agencies target and destroy the locations and staging areas.
“The committee concluded that the country is technically at war and so total mobilization of all forces is required, and simultaneous operation are required to give the bandits, terrorists and criminals no hiding place.
“There is therefore a need for national mobilization, to immediately overcome the resurgent Boko Haram insurgency and the murderous atrocities of bandits, kidnappers in Nigerian’s rural and urban space.
“The following are suggested in order to root out these twin evils, which are beyond politics because they pose an existential threat to the nation:
“There should be a general mobilization of the entire national security apparatus – with all the force multipliers available including the full involvement of local communities against the Boko Haram insurgents.
“Every state and Local Government should identify all the preachers and ‘Mallamai’ harboring ‘Almajiri’ children and non-conventional ‘learning’ and ‘detention’ centres.
“In concert with concerned and enlightened ‘Ulama’ and traditional rulers, these places of instructions should be closed.
“The children ‘liberated’ there from should be accommodated, fed and provided with integrated Islamic and western education in boarding schools that should be constructed in all states under an emergency programme to be funded by the Universal Basic Education Commission and Local Government.
“In this way the insurgents can be denied recruitment grounds.”
The committee noted that the original farmers-herders conflict over grazing rights has assumed a new dimension.
“The herdsman and his opposite number, the local volunteer (yan sa kai) have transmogrified into rural bandits and kidnappers terrorizing the north-western and north-central zones of the country.
“They operate as roving and marauding gangs, using scorched earth tactics, pillaging ungoverned rural spaces from sanctuaries hills and forests in the country side.
“They raid and burn settlements stealing good and livestock, killing and kidnapping hopeless defenseless rural dwellers for ransom, raping and enslaving the women folk in the process,” the Committee said.
It said that banditry must be confronted immediately with all the force available to the State, in well-planned and coordinated land and air operations.
The Committee said: “They (bandits) must be denied sanctuary through the effective occupation of all forest and hilly terrains which should be converted into training grounds and fortifications for the military, police and other paramilitary forces.
“Above all, there is need for the Federal Government to assist States and Local Governments to re-establish State Authority in many of the affected rural communities, through;
“Appointing and supporting Local/Traditional Authorities in Local Communities by re-building residences, school, clinics, roads, Police stations and barracks, etc, that where destroyed by bandits.
“Funding of Local Authorities to mobilize and fund youths who shall eventually be enrolled into the Local Community Police structure.
The Committee noted that insurgency and countering it both rely on the element of intelligence gathering to shape dynamic strategy band the element of surprise.
It however lamented that, “On both counts, the armed forces with all the resources at their disposal appear to have conceded the upper hand.
“Amassing more weapons of mass destruction may not be the solution especially given the assertion that over 60% of the weaponry and mobility resource of the enemy was seized from our forces.
“What is required is the technological edge which sadly again the insurgents seem to have seized using improvisation of off the shelf technology.
“The army as a matter of urgency must acquire sophisticated UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) comprising conventional drones and fixed wing long endurance which the insurgents are yet to get.
“This will provide instant intelligence and surveillance for attack and ambush strategy while the fixed wing high altitude can provide sustained pervasive and dedicated surveillance lasting 24 hours or more, so they can report location and enemy strength and provide intelligence and guidance throughout the planning and execution stage from an undetectable altitude.
“With the insurgents using cheap commercial drones to survey our troop positions for attack planning it’s only a matter of time before they use their ISIS connections to weaponise them with explosive payloads similar to what ISIS is using with devastating efficiency in Syria, Iraq and Kurdistan.
“It is therefore imperative that the Army be equipped with drone detection and incapacitating technology in the form of anti-drone systems which can jam radio frequencies used to control drones, causing them to fall out of the sky uncontrollably or even utilise laser beams to burn aerial drones causing internal systemic failure.
“Fixed systems covering large areas can be used to protect barracks, super camps, stadia, VIP venues etc, while vehicle mounted mobile systems can accompany troops provided adhoc protection.
“There are also portable units in the form of ajammer rifle that can incapacitate drones from long distance for on the move protection.
“As a matter of necessity the Air-force must assert itself superiority in the skies by embarking on constant and debilitating air raids on insurgent and bandit camps and supply channels to ensure near complete annihilation of men and resources and wipe out their capacity to regroup or coordinate their cells for combined aggression.
“The same aircraft can be used to provide close air support for ground troops and deployed for Intelligence gathering, search and reconnaissance.
“We must find a vacuum filling alternative for the super Tucano order for immediate deployment as it is apparent that the unending delays and the new delivery date of 2022 for the US order may simply be another ploy.
“There are alternative high endurance turboprops within the eastern bloc that can fill in the gap.”
The Committee noted that the general recommendations it gave were far-reaching and long term and will obviously follow an implementation timeline if accepted.
It however insisted that to achieve an incisive, immediate turnaround in the security situation and to provide much needed succor and relief to anxious Nigerians, some drastic and visibly effective military programs and exercises need to be executed to deal with the twin evils of kidnapping and banditry.
The Committee added: “The Insurgency in the North East is a national threat, and globally counter insurgency is a slow and tedious assignment spanning decades.
“However the rampant and expanding spectre of kidnapping and banditry is now overshadowing the BH threat in scale and brazenness as it is now endemic in at least three regions and 19 States.
“Worse still, it has been allowed to fester to a level where the Police who should have ordinarily handled the situation are once again being supplanted by the military, allow an internal security situation to further deplete our forces at the frontline.
“We are therefore calling for a massive and sustained combined operation to identify, destroy and annihilate the camps and hideouts of the bandits and kidnappers wherever they may be situated with no letup whatsoever.
“This combined operation will involve all our security and intelligence resources because it will have to be holistically planned and simultaneously executed so we don’t repeat the-mistake of dislodging them in one forest so they can relocate and re-establish in another.
“The operation should make use of land and aerial attack utilizing intelligence gathering and reconnaissance technology, and all rehabilitated forests should be occupied and subjected to sustain monitoring using the National Park Service and other relevant agencies to make re-occupation impossible.
“We should make effective use of community intelligence and cooperation to fish out embedded culprits operating in their midst and bring them to book.
“The Operation should be visible and conspicuous to ensure that a strong message be sent out to the effect that whoever engages in banditry and kidnapping will pay a very heavy price, since it is obvious that what is fueling the problem is the apparent impression of a lack of clear and present retribution.
“Stories of millions being paid in ransom have emboldened copycat instant criminals who believe the gains far outweigh the risks, and this mindset must be erased.”

By Sanni Onogu