Boko Haram, threat to Nigeria’s survival – Ajimobi

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Oludare Ogunlana, Gov. Ajimobi, and Oyo State Commissioner of Police

Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has said that the activities of Boko Haram in some parts of Nigeria is putting pressure on the sustainability of the unity of the nation.

Ajimobi speaking at an interactive session on Civil Society Organisations-Military Relations in Nigeria with the theme: “Consolidating Civil-Military Relations for Improved National Security” held at the 2 Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, Ibadan on Monday.

He said many years of military rule had made the civil society to be suspicious of the military class, and vice versa, stating that strengthened relationship between the two groups would help security situation in Nigeria.

“The Nigerian nation is facing dire security challenges at the moment. The onslaught of Boko Haram insurgents in some parts of the North, for example, has posed a serious threat to the survival and continuous existence of the nation. The Nigerian military has so far successfully contained and repelled the advancement of this needless insurgency but at very great cost to its officers and men.

“In the past, especially during our long years of military rule, the relationship between the civil and military was mutually hostile and full of suspicion against each other. The refrain in discourses of long military rule was that if the military had allowed the civilians to tumble and fumble on the way of democratic governance, Nigeria would have been closer to the democratic Eldorado sought by the nation,” he said.

Calling on the public and the military to embrace cordial relationship, Ajimobi highlighted the importance of such union in the fight against insecurity and threat to the nation’s unity.

“The Nigerian civil public cannot afford to stand aloof from the military. We cannot but support the Nigerian military in its quest to protect the nation and it territorial borders,” he said.

Earlier in his remark, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Onyeabor Ihejirika, had said the Nigerian Army had recruited more soldiers to aid the fight against insurgents in the northern part of the country and other areas that were experiencing security challenges.

Source: punch.ng.com