Fighting Terrorism: Engaging Military Contractors Not An Option – CDS
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, has said that in the fight against terrorism, engaging private military contractors won’t be an option for them.
The CDS spoke on Arise TV on Thursday in reaction to the suggestion made by Senator Ali Ndume that engaging military contractors will assist in decimation of terrorists in the country.
Musa said, “You know that recently we had military contractors in Mali, how far have they gone? Americans have used military contractors in Afghanistan. They fought for over 20 years, packed and left, and didn’t finish the war.
“So, what I’m saying is that asymmetric war is a very difficult operation because you’re dealing with non-state actors, people you don’t know. These are your own people and the only way you can identify them is if you see them armed and these people, immediately you move in they drop arms and clear. They carry the arms and try to blend with the civilian populace, and tracing them would be difficult. One of the reasons this campaign has prolonged is because we’re obeying human rights, we try to as much as possible if there are civilian populace within a particular area we avoid colossal damage. That has made it a bit difficult. But we remain focused, we remain very professional.
“Senator Ndume has spoken, I know that there’s freedom of speech in democracy. I understand he’s trying to look at options but for us it’s not an option. We’re doing a lot of joint training with the American and European Union team. So we’re doing a lot together to build capacity and win this war.
“The war we’re facing is not conventional warfare where the enemy is there, you know where he is, can always go and get him there. These guys are highly mobile. Like I said, once you’re running after them, their informants are giving them information about your movement, your strength and they blend in as quickly as possible.
“The North-West has a land mass of 200,000 square kilometres and it’s massive. It’s highly forested, a very difficult terrain. We share a common border with Benin Republic and Niger, 1,500km to Niger, that is also very big. So, these are the things that we’re facing”, he said.
Speaking further, he said, “The 300 that have been mentioned, we’re still counting. I think we’ve done more than that. We have a high rate of poverty, illiteracy, so they’re susceptible to being recruited as quickly as possible. I can guarantee you that we’re doing well. Military contractors are not a solution.
“The money that we’re going to give them, because we’re going to pay heavily, why not use the money to equip your military. That will be a better option. I’m very happy that Mr. President has approved Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) to partner with other manufacturers to produce ammunition. I think that will be our solution. What we’ve realised over these years, is even with our money we can’t get the equipment that we need. Anywhere you go, they place priority other than you. Except we produce what we need that will give us the leverage and I think that we’re working towards that. We’ve started now, we’re producing our own ammunition.
“We have local contractors that are producing local APCs. We have Equipment Protective Applications International Limited (EPAIL) that is producing locally. We have Armour-shield Solutions Limited and Proforce Defence Limited, they’re producing local APCs. I think that in years’ time we’ll be able to produce and sell to our neighbouring countries. I think that will give us leverage.”
