Insecurity: Buhari Advises New CoAS To Learn From His Experiences 

Minister of Defense, Bashir Magashi, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has given a fresh security tips to the new Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Farouk Yahaya who was introduced to him at the presidential villa, Abuja, on Monday.

The Defence Minister, told State House Correspondents, after the meeting that the President had told them to improve on synergy among the various arms in the military, noting that they should also learn from his personal experience as a soldier.

“What really brought us to the Villa today was to present the new Chief of Army Staff to Mr. President for his blessing and guidance to the new Chief of Army Staff, Major General Farouk Yahaya, who has just been appointed about eleven days ago.

“The President received us, offered some advice on how we can go about doing this operation and the entire security of the country. We assured him that we will do our best to bring an end to the problem of insecurity in this country, “he stated .

Asked what exactly did the President tell the Army Boss on how to tackle insecurity, he responded saying, “He told him that there’s a lot of pressure on security and being an actor, at one point or the other, has has given us a direction in which we can learn from his experiences and apply them to our modern operations and I think we have taken the advice seriously. The issue of synergy among the security forces was also stressed and I’m sure there will be a lot of changes as regards to the security operations in this country.

“In the Northwestern part of the country you know that the more concern we have is the insecurity of banditry, kidnapping, and other criminalities. We are taking the challenge, but you know, really, this is the constitutional responsibility of the police, we are only an aid to the police and we are giving maximum cooperation to the police in order to see an end to this banditry and insecurity in the Northwest, otherwise I think it’s quite different from the Northeast.

On maintaining security in the North, Magashi said the military were up and doing in their mandate but was only aiding the police, whose primary responsibility is to maintain law and order.

“In the Northeast, it’s Boko Haram issue is and we’re up and doing to ensure that we bring an end to this Boko Haram issue, especially with this development of ISWAP”.