Former
Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called on the Federal Government to recall
all ex-service men and women who are willing to return to service.
Atiku
made the call on Tuesday in a statement titled “The Time For A Total War On
Terror Is Now.”
He said
“The security situation in Nigeria is deteriorating rapidly and ordinary
Nigerians are living in fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
Nowhere seems to be safe. Farms, markets, schools, homes, mosques, churches,
and urban areas are all affected.
Terrorists
are spreading their areas of operation beyond the Northeast, into far flung
areas as far as Niger State in the North-Central. That is merely hours from our
Federal Capital.”
He
stressed that “Now is the time for decisive leadership and I call on the
Federal Government to consider recalling all ex-servicemen and women, who are
willing to return to service, and take the fight to the insurgents, until they
are rolled back and defeated.”
Alhaji
Atiku Abubakar said “As a former vice chairman of the National Security
Council, I am aware that Nigeria has a sizeable population of military
veterans, who are alive, and were trained locally and internationally, and it
serves no purpose to allow these valuable national assets lie fallow when there
is an existential threat to our nation. “
Continuing,
he said ” Call them up. Immediately. Mobilise them to the field. The time has
come for us to put in all our effort and stamp out this menace from our nation.
“The
men and women of Nigeria’s armed forces, whether serving or retired, who
restored peace to Lebanon, Liberia, Sierra Leone and São Tomé and Príncipe can,
and should be used to do the same in the motherland.”
“But
they need arms and ammunition. It is incumbent on the federal government to
develop a more efficient means of sourcing for weapons and delivering them to
the troops at the battlefront.
“A
situation where terrorists and criminals are better armed than our troops on
the battlefront is intolerable.
We need
to urgently improve the conditions of service of the men and women of our armed
forces. And not just the government.
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