The Federal Government on Thursday gave reasons for the failed mission of terrorists to perpetrate an attack in Abuja after an advisory was issued by the United States and United Kingdom (UK) Embassies.
The National Security Adviser, Mohammed Babagana Monguno, while briefing journalists at the State House said there have been ongoing meetings with the Embassies and the nation’s Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari following the red alert.
The US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany and Denmark had advised its citizens in Abuja on possible terror attacks, urging them to avoid non-essential travels and public places.
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“From that time till now, nothing has happened so far, that alone tells you that the security agencies are working round the clock and we have had meetings with the Embassies and the Chief of Staff.
“I doubt if there will be this type of alert released in a heated rush next time. The advisory was issued to their people anyway, not us,” the NSA said.
Monguno who was speaking on the security situations in the country noted that the Federal Government had strengthened its partnership with her international partners: the UK, US and France.
According to him, the nation’s security threats are mainly due to interactions of multiple internal issues driven by political, economic, and social grievances, and external development within the West African sub-region.
He highlighted other internal drivers of insecurity in the state including the menace of drug trafficking, illiteracy – particularly out of school children, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, porous borders hate speech, illegal mining and fake news.
“As long as these drivers of insecurity are prevalent in any given society, the threat to national security will manifest in one form or the other.
“This has contributed to the evolving nature of security we have been experiencing and is largely due to the nature and fluidity of asymmetric threats, as the dominance of their presence in a particular geo-political zone does not restrict them in manifesting in other regions, especially in a bid to invade security operations,” he said.
The NSA described the type of insecurity issue currently affecting Nigeria as an asymmetric conflict, noting that such conflict solutions are “completely outside what government alone can handle”.
He, however, urged that power be shifted from the Federal and State governments to the Local government to avoid breeding terrorists.
He said, “there is a need to strengthen the local government because it is the critical component of government. For as long as it is bereft of autonomy, emasculated, driven underground and it is not functional, a lot of things will follow.
“The harder we try to solve the issues of insecurity, the more aggressive it becomes at the local level because these elements keep popping out at the local government level before they reach areas they are not supposed to reach.
“I know there are some agencies of the government that are trying to see how the local government can be strengthened.
“Obviously, they have invested interest and I know there will be resistance but the only way in which we can secure this country outside the traditional method that has been used is to strengthen the local government.
“The quality of people who preside over the day-to-day affairs of the local government must be people of impeccable character and must have the interest of the local community at heart.
“And as long as the local government is strangulated and made incapable of carrying out their function, then these places become vulnerable to the polity. That will take care of a large junk of the security issues we have today.”
The country is currently faced with insecurity ranging from terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, herders-farmers conflict, and oil theft.
In the last 11 months, Beacon Consulting, a security website, recorded at least 4,935 incidents, 10,579 killings, 5,535 abductions and 2,405 injured persons.