Fred Itua, Abuja
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has attributed the challenges facing the country’s fight against terrorists and bandits to international politics.
Lawan, who stated this at the weekend in Abuja, said international politics was slowing down efforts aimed at acquiring sophisticated weapons needed by security agencies to fight the war.
He said the armed forces was frustrated by international politics as requests for arms supply usually took longer than expected to arrive Nigeria, unlike when other countries make similar requests from foreign governments.
He said the country’s security system was currently overstretched with more resources needed to tackle insecurity.
“To some extent, we are suffering from international politics. I know that in our efforts to try to buy spare parts for their jets, may be we write to a certain foreign government and it will take six to nine months, while another country will write to the same government and get it in one or two months. So, something is not right, but that’s to say that it’s now one of our challenges that we will continue to engage with countries that we feel don’t understand what we are doing here.’’
Lawan said the country needed more resources for its security institutions. “By resources I don’t mean just money, we need more personnel for the armed forces, we need more personnel for the police, immigration service, all agencies and paramilitary as well. And then of course the resources in terms of equipments, machinery and then training. But what we experience today is we don’t have sufficient personnel, the resources available to security office are inadequate. Government is doing a lot to get more resources in terms of equipments and machinery,’’ he said.