President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday voiced his deep concern over the worsening security situation in Nigeria, telling the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, and other security chiefs that “enough is enough.”
The President’s words came during a closed-door security meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, where he urged the security heads to take immediate and decisive action to address the escalating violence across the country.
In response to the President’s directive, Ribadu, while addressing the State House correspondents, assured the press that the heads of Nigeria’s security agencies have received the President’s instructions and are already implementing measures to address the crisis.
Ribadu emphasised that the security situation has been improving, pointing to recent efforts to curb violence and restore order.
He attributed many of the casualties and deaths recorded to the explosion of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) planted by terrorists, indicating that terrorism-related activities primarily cause the situation.
Ribadu further stated that President Tinubu had given explicit instructions to all security chiefs to put an end to the killings by criminal groups and restore peace and stability to the nation.
He said, “Mr. President gave us a chance to come and brief him, and it lasted very long. We gave him an update on what has been the case and what is going on. And even when he was out there, before coming back, he was constantly in touch.
“He was giving directives, he was following developments, and we in charge of the security, got the opportunity today (yesterday), to come and brief him properly for hours.
“And it was very detailed. And it was exhaustive. It was complete. And a to z, what has been the case and what’s been happening today.
“We listened and we took instructions from him. We got new directives. The fact is, Mr. President is insisting and working so hard to ensure that we have peace, security and stability in our country.
“We gave him what is going on, and we also assured him that work is ongoing and continues.
“We also carried out his instructions. We went round, the chiefs were all out where we had these incidents of insecurity in Plateau State, Benue State, even Borno, these particular three states, and we gave him a feedback, because he directed us to go meet with the political authorities there.
“The issue of insecurity often is not just for the government. It involves the subunits. They are the ones who are directly with the people, especially if some of the challenges are more or less bordering on community problems.
“Not entirely everything is that, but of course it also plays a significant role.
“You need to work with the communities. You need to work with the local governments. We need to work with the governors, especially the governors.”
Speaking further on the directives of the President to the security chiefs, Ribadu said, “The President continues to direct that. We should be doing that, and that’s what we are able to do and we are very happy, very satisfied with the instructions and the directives given by Mr. President this evening.
“He’s so worried and concerned, he insisted that enough is enough, and we are working to ensure that we restore peace and security and all of us are there.
“The armed forces are there, the Civil Police, intelligence communities, they are there. They are working there 24 hours, and we feel that we have done enough to believe that we are on the right course, and we’ll be able to be on top of things.
“We are getting the cooperation of the leadership at the state level, and everybody. So we are good. It’s not really 100 per cent that everything is safe and secure, but we are going there.”
Ribadu who claimed that things had improved said, “We will work. It is his own instructions.
“Things have changed in this country. We’ve continued to, talk about it. Security is about relativity. What was it and what is it today? You compare how things were in the past.
“We do not underestimate even one life lost. We don’t take it lightly at all. But certainly, lots of things have changed and improve, and it will continue to.
“We are on right track. We are on the right direction, and we will not relent. We will not sit down, we will not stop until when we are able to achieve results.
“The same thing with Borno. Borno State, we know things escalated in the last few months or so, but these people you are fighting, evil people, will not just sit down and accept defeat. They will show their own.
“Most of the death and casualties we recorded are a result of IEDs, improvised explosive devices that they planted for innocent people to come, and just anything on top of it, it explodes and then often you have large number of casualties.
“We have also seen opportunistic attacks. After a period of relative peace, they will come cowardly, go around and do a bad thing. And for your information, when you are having peace and you are beginning to get used to it, if one bad incident happened, you forget, the periods that you enjoyed peacefully. That is what is going on.
“There are people who don’t sleep, who walk throughout, who do not go for any break or holiday, who are making sacrifices just for us to achieve this semblance of peace that we are enjoying, and they will continue to be there. I think it is also appropriate that people should take note of that there are many who are doing this work.”
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