The Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has expressed deep concern about the widespread insecurity in the country.
In a statement released by his spokesman, Lanre Lasisi, the speaker, while officiating a two-day capacity-building workshop/retreat of the House Committee on Defence in collaboration with the Centre for Strategic Research and Studies of the National Defence College and the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, emphasized the lawmakers’ apprehensions regarding the country’s security situation.
Femi Gbajabiamila highlighted that Nigeria is facing diverse and more demanding security challenges than ever before.
“We’re besieged on all sides: in the north, by insurgents and bandits; in the south, by militants and highwaymen. And all of us together, our economy and industry, even our democracy, are threatened by the ambitions of those who will wage war on our interests through the skilful abuse of information technology and cyberspace.
“It is perhaps this last threat that promises to alter forever the nature of our existence. As legislators, we’re called upon to make national security policy through the passage of legislation, through oversight of national security infrastructure and through the approval of appropriation to fund national security activities.”
Gbajabiamila also disclosed plans for a new model to fund the military outside the national budget to enable it to carry out its responsibilities.
“Here in Nigeria, we’re straight-jacketed with the military. The traditional role of the military as we understand it is, once there’s foreign and external aggression, that is when we deploy the military. But then, we get foreign aggression and external aggression can be simultaneous. So, when we begin to talk about the military and expand the frontiers. Rather than be straightjacket, we must consider and remember that in this day and age, this century, foreign attack can come from anywhere. We talk about cyberspace here.”