Security ‘ll Improve In 1 Year, Says New Defence Minister Badaru

The Minister of Defence, Alh. Muhammed Abubakar Badaru, has tasked the Service Chiefs to present timeline and requirements for ending insecurity across the country.

He said security across the country will improve in one year of his tenure as Minister.

Badaru, who stated this at the Ship House Ministry of Defence headquarters while assuming duty as the new Minister of Defence, said his job and that of his Minister of State and that of Service Chiefs were at stake if they don’t end insecurity in one year.

“We have no reason to fail him, so I want to thank all that are here and assure them that we’ll do our best. We’ll do our best to make sure we rid the country of security challenges. We owe it a duty to the President and the nation. As politicians, we cannot afford not to succeed. We hardly fail, and we are not ready to fail this time, and we’ll not fail,” he stated.

He promised to convene a monthly meeting of all security agencies to promote synergy to end insecurity.

“I adopt all the measures mentioned by the Minister of State but mine is to rechoe our resolve and have the promise today with all of you that within a year or so we’ll have remarkable change in the security architecture of this country and I believe it is doable, I believe it is possible and I’ll add that we’ll cooperate with all the security agencies in the country, we’ll soon start a monthly meeting with the security agencies and their Ministers to have complete coverage among ourselves on how to solve the security challenges in the country,” he added.

He thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for their appointments, adding that, “we are lucky all the service chiefs are being appointed by him, we the ministers are appointed by him.

“The President is a goal setter, he is an achiever and a thinker, so if you think we are going to joke with this, then we’ll all be deceiving ourselves. The President is a macro manager and he will be on our necks to deliver. I do the same.

“I believe as time goes on, you will see that I engage you as a group, and as individuals. I think this is where the Service Chiefs will forgive me, for if I cross the command channel, I have to get things done. The trust that is resposed in the two of us by Mr President and indeed the Service Chiefs cannot be betrayed, we have to deliver and for the sake of our country, we know without security, there will be no investment and without investment there will be no economic growth, even our food security is threatened if farmers can’t go to their farms.

“The President is ready to give us all the support to do this, so from now on, I want the Service Chiefs to give me a timeline and their requirements on how we’ll begin to solve these problems one by one.

“This timeline and target will be passed on to the President and trust me, he will be monitoring us and he doesn’t have the patience to work with lazy people, so all our jobs are at stake if we don’t deliver and indeed we have to deliver for our people, we have to deliver for the country,” Badaru stated.

He pledged to review all reports on the nation’s security challenges and come up with the best strategy to address them.

“I want to assure all that we are going to review all the reports that have been there and been lying down so that we’ll take really the best approach in solving insecurity in this country,” he added.

Responding, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, promised to restore peace across the country.

“These two individuals are vastly experienced in the country, which is critical. They are again from the North-West, the region we all grew up to know was very peaceful. You have come here and you know what peace is and we have seen what insecurity is. We pray that our children will grow in a very peaceful environment.

“I want to assure you of our loyalty to the institution itself. This is our country and we have no other one. It is our responsibility that we ensure that there would be restored peace, tranquility, and security in Nigeria. We are happy you are going to make a lot of things happen. We assure you of our support and we would be transparent. That is how we have been working together since we took over.

“All in the past that they have issues of conflict of interest are gone. We are all professionals, we love Nigeria and we want Nigeria to be peaceful. We would do everything it takes to achieve success,” Gen. Musa stated.