From Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse
A Non State Actors Consultative Forum (NASCOF) endorsed and supported the National Security Adviser Babagana Mungono on his decision that the best strategy to end banditry in Nigeria is by use of force not through negotiations.
This was contained in a statement signed and issued to news men by the lead convener of the forum Ibrahim A Waiya.
The statement said, some forms of insecurity such banditry have become more prominent in recent times mainly due to act of deliberate sabotage from political actors, who aimed at weakening the National Security for selfish political interest.
“Some of the actions taken by these political actors include use of media to rubbish every success made by the Nigeria’s Security Institutions as well as publishing propaganda and blackmail articles against the Heads of the various Security Institutions with the aim of demoralizing them or painting a bad picture of them to the general public” it said.
According to the statement, Currently, one subject area of contention between certain stakeholders and political actors is on the best strategy needed to fight banditry and Kidnapping in Nigeria, with some political leaders and stakeholders calling for adopting a strategy of “Negotiating” with the Bandits.
However, the NSA seems to oppose this and is of the view that the most effective and international adopted method of fighting terrorist is by the use of force as negotiating with terrorist never works.
“ We are also of the opinion that negotiating with terrorists never yield the desired peace”, statement said.
It maintained that, the argument against negotiating with terrorists is simple: Democracies must never give in to violence, and terrorists must never be rewarded for using it. Negotiations give legitimacy to terrorists and their methods and undermine actors who have pursued political change through peaceful means.
It added that, talks can destabilize the negotiating governments’ political systems, undercut international efforts to outlaw terrorism, and set a dangerous precedent.
“We call on the federal government to adopt more effective military practices and built on the existing citizen economic empowerment programs in order to bring an end to the insecurity bedeviling the country” the statement said.
