A former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Yusuf Tukur Buratai (retd), has declared that it may take Nigeria 20 years to completely eliminate Boko Haram insurgency.
Buratai stated this on Thursday when he faced the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs for screening as a non-career Ambassador.
Giving reasons for the unabated problem of insecurity in the country, particularly the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, he explained that through indoctrination, the insurgents are winning more and more communities to their side, aside the problem of ungovernable spaces in the area and in fact across the country.
He said: “My state (Borno) is an epicentre, where this indoctrination has penetrated so deep.
“They (insurgents) have won the communities to their side.
“That is why they (communities) keep Boko Haram.
“So it is complex.
“It requires a whole of government approach to solve this.
“Military action or activity is just one aspect.
“One mistake that we have been making is that only the military can solve this.
“It is not.
“There are political, social, economic aspects that need to be addressed.
“Development should be progressive.
“There should be road everywhere, there should be employment, schools, hospitals all over.
“Yesterday (Wednesday), I counted five Local Government Areas in Borno State that do not have good access road to those places.
“In North West, North Central, there are so many ungovernable spaces, which the insurgents are penetrating.
“The places don’t have schools, hospital and so on and education is very fundamental.
“Unless these things are done, this insecurity will continue because the truth must be told.
“It may take another 20 years for the country to surmount the problem of insurgency and that is the truth.”
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
