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Security expert, NDA registrar differ over alleged military’s poor handling of insurgency

By Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna
16 August 2018   |   4:13 am
A security expert, Prof. Isaac Olawale Albert, has lamented that prolonged insurgency has created negative international image for Nigeria’s military.Albert, who is a Professor of Africa History and Strategic Studies, said it was time for the military to find a decisive solution to the activities of insurgents and herdsmen.

Prof. Isaac Olawale Albert

A security expert, Prof. Isaac Olawale Albert, has lamented that prolonged insurgency has created negative international image for Nigeria’s military.Albert, who is a Professor of Africa History and Strategic Studies, said it was time for the military to find a decisive solution to the activities of insurgents and herdsmen.He spoke yesterday at a workshop organised in Kaduna by the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), in collaboration with Victims Support Fund (VSF).

He said the inability of the military to end attacks by Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen was a dent on its image.According to him, the poor handling of the fight against insurgency has made the military to lose the respect of the international community.

But, the Academic Registrar of the NDA, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Jallo, swiftly countered this allegation. Jallo argued that despite the data and information against the Nigeria Army, it remains the best in Africa and still commands the respect of the international community.

Presenting his technical paper at the ‘Methodology Workshop’ titled: “Researching Violent Conflicts,” he urged the Federal Government to ensure that the military is sufficiently empowered to end insurgency in the country.

Albert, a former Director, Institute for Peace and Strategies Studies, University of Ibadan expressed concern about the way the military had managed information concerning the terrorists.He faulted the disclosure of military strategies on air to the insurgents’ advantage.He cited stating that it has technology to track down the insurgents with air fleet that would make them to sleep off and be captured alive.

Albert had said that military confrontation remains the last option in ending the fight against insurgency. He said proper working relationship between the military and academic researchers could have been the best method to end the bloodletting.

“Lack of communication information, and team work amongst the stakeholders are part of the problems of conflict in Nigeria,” he said. The professor further explained that government’s weakness and failure in terms of the inability to fulfill its statutory responsibility were other factors. He stressed that the causes of violent conflicts vary from one society to the other, which are context-specific and multi-dimensional involving political and institutional factors.

He listed other factors to include socio-economic, resources and environmental, as well as psychological factors.“We need to accept our problems before the international communities could come to our aid in helping to stop the activities of the Boko Haram and other killings in the country,” he said.The Commandant of the NDA Maj. Gen. Adeniyi Oyebade, represented by Deputy Commandant, Air Vice Marshal Idi Amin disclosed that the workshop was part of strategic efforts to use academic research in the fight against insurgency.

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