Former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.), has revealed that certain politicians in Nigeria are taking advantage of, and in some cases even fueling, insecurity to secure political benefits.
He emphasized that the nation’s security challenges are too complex to be attributed to a single cause.
Irabor made these remarks in an interview with Channels Television on Monday, where he dissected the multiple layers of criminality driving violence in various parts of the country.
His statement comes just a day after presidential aide Daniel Bwala disclosed that the Federal Government is preparing to publicly identify individuals financing terrorism.
Speaking on the multifaceted nature of Nigeria’s security issues, Irabor cautioned against generalizing all violent incidents under one umbrella.
He highlighted the coexistence of multiple forms of security threats, ideological, criminal, political, and economic, that operate concurrently.
“You can’t hold people for their views, but the reality is that our issues in terms of security challenges are multifaceted. Just as we have terrorists who have an ideology, we equally have those who are bent on targeting Christians, and there are also those who are targeting communities, desiring to displace communities and wanting to stay in those communities to be able to have a voice,” he said.
Irabor further explained that the motives of various violent actors,including terrorists, bandits, community displacers, and economic criminals, differ, which complicates efforts to simplify the crisis.
“If you lump the entire thing into one, the analysis would be wrong,” he warned.
Responding to assertions that insecurity is purely politically motivated, the former defence chief acknowledged that political interests do play a role, but stressed that they do not explain all incidents.
“Those who say it is political, that would also be lumping all the issues to say all other issues do not matter, that’s also not correct,” he noted.
While admitting that some politicians have used insecurity to their advantage, Irabor clarified, “That does not mean some politicians have not taken advantage of the insecurity to perhaps gain some sort of leverage; to give the impression that they can do better. Others perhaps want to score a point that there’s poor governance; they could also instigate crisis in one way or the other.”
