Act Fast Against Bandits, Salis Tells Tinubu

Pioneer Nigerian astronaut, Owolabi Salis, has asked President Bola Tinubu to brace up with a sense of urgency for decisive and pragmatic measures to crush the hydra-headed monster of banditry ravaging the country.

The lawyer cum politician, in a statement, cautioned Tinubu not to wait till bandits attack the Aso Rock presidential villa before he acts on the menace ravaging the country.

He urged both the president and his vice, Kashim Shettima, to take a cue from the late Chadian president, Idriss Derby, whose obsession against the wave of banditry was so intense that he would often personally lead the battle against them during his lifetime.

“Although I am not saying that the President and the Vice President should go out to the battlefront, what I am rather trying to commend unto them is the need to imbibe the monomaniac fury with which the late Chadian president tried to grapple with the knotty question of terrorism during his lifetime,” Salis said.

The Ikorodu-born Lagosian acknowledged the speculations by security experts warning of possible escalation of terrorist insurgency with the approach of the dry season.

“We should not wait until these dare-devil bandits overrun the country or even attack the Presidential Villa and the strategic Legislative bloc before it dawns on us that they really mean business,” he said.

Salis advocated an urgent need for Nigeria to evolve into a military superpower, armed to the teeth with sophisticated modern armaments that essentially inspire awe and a formidable presence in the global military arena.

He said that this is necessary in view of Nigeria’s natural demographic attribute, as it accommodates the largest number of blacks both in Africa and the diaspora.

Salis advised on the need to embark on massive recruitment into all arms of the military for sufficient numerical superiority, capable of responding with impregnable resilience and adroit competence to multifaceted areas of threat and protracted crises, as might possibly arise from time to time.