By Linus Aleke
The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, said, kinetic approach against security threats resolves only 30 percent internal security issues.
The CAS said that a whole-government approach in dealing with good governance, providing quality education, health cares, economic opportunities, jobs and the likes, remains at the heart of winning insurgency war.
Air Marshal Abubakar, said this while playing host to the Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago, at the NAF Headquarters, in Abuja.
He said: “I will like to mention this, as much as we are intensifying efforts through a kinetic approach against these security threats, empirically, it has been proven that kinetic action only resolves 20-30 percent of our internal security issues. The remaining 70 to 75 percent can only be resolved through a whole of government approach. So, while we’re intensifying our kinetic efforts, it is extremely important that the government embraces a whole-government approaches so that at the end of the day, they are completely eradicated. Whole-government approaches deal with good governance, providing quality education, health cares, economic opportunities, jobs and the likes. It is important that is also addressed in a very formidable manner in addition to the kinetic efforts at resolving the problems.
“I also want to solicit the support of all Nigerians especially in the area of information sharing as we join hands to rid our nation of the threats imposed by these enemies of the people. Security remains the responsibility of all Nigerians and that the earlier we realise that and jointly work against the scores of terrorists, the better for our nation”.
He said that Niger state and indeed other states of the North West region are plagued by the menace of banditry, insurgency and other security challenges.
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These challenges, he said, have continued to threaten the peace and security and well-being of the people.
The CAS said: “I want to assure you that the Nigerian Air Force and the Armed Forces of Nigeria will remain committed, dedicated and undaunted in our efforts at eradicating these security challenges being perpetrated by these non-state actors.
In this light, the Nigerian Air Force has continued to increase its air power commitment in both Operation Hadrin Daji and Operation Whirl Punch which directly impact the activities of these criminal elements in Niger State and the North West region as a whole. Our approach now, is to intensify our activities in tandem with the land forces to completely eradicate all these criminal elements, to at least significantly degrade their combat capabilities”.
This, he concluded is also in tandem with his philosophy which is to transform the NAF into agile and resilient force which is capable of meeting all the air power demands of our national security in all operational environments.
