From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin
A retired Brigadier-General and military security expert, Joe Komolafe (rtd) has called for a comprehensive review of security sector in the country, in order to combat the Boko Haram terrorism and related insurgencies.
Komolafe made the call on Wednesday, in a lecture delivered at the 2014 second quarter conference of Nigerian Army Education Corps (NAEC) at the Sobi Barracks, Ilorin.
Speaking on: ‘National Security and challenges of terrorism in Nigeria; implication for the military”, the retired General said terrorism has become a serious threat to the country.
He said that for the military to effectively tackle Boko Haram insurgency, it was necessary for total overhaul and review of the security sector.
General Komolafe, who was the Chief Executive Officer of Oakland Security, noted that the operational mode of terrorists and insurgents today has made change of military tactics imperative from that of military hardware to asymmetric warfare.
He, therefore, called for intensive training of the military in asymmetric warfare manner as well as intelligent gathering.
Gen Komolafe said government have been finding it challenging to put paid to menace due to lack of data base; having information about everything and everybody and unchecked proliferation of small and light arms.
He also lamented that the country was still operating the law of Firearms Regulation enacted in 1959 and said that domestic terrorism has shown that members of the Boko Haram insurgency were drawn largely from unemployed graduates and poverty stricken masses.
He noted that NAEC was yet to know that its mandate was more broad based than its present operation.
Gen Komolafe, therefore, challenged NAEC to take the lead in National Education reform.
He called on NAEC to partner with the Federal Government, ministries of education and tertiary institutions in order to carry out research into the content of the insurgency menace.
Earlier, in his remark, Major-General Garba Wahab, Chief of Administration, Army headquarters, who represented the Chief of Army Staff, said NAEC should be fountain of knowledge and watch keeper of Army activities for analysis and research.
