The chief of defense staff, General Kristoff Musa, has called for the fencing of Nigeria's borders as a strategic move to combat terrorism and crossber crime.
Speaking at a security conference in Abuja, General Musa stressed that effective border management is crucial in the fight against insecurity. He cited examples of countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that achieved relative peace after fencing their borders with Afghanistan and Iraq respectively. He urged Nigeria
00:00:36 to consider similar action especially given its long and porous borders with countries like Niger Republic, Cameroon and Chad. General Musa also highlighted the need for a comprehensive national database that includes both citizens and foreigners, noting that such systems have been effective in tracking and apprehending criminals in other parts of the world. We must learn to love our country. It's only Nigeria. Sometimes you hear when something happens, Nigeria is bad, Nigeria is terrible, we are this, we are
00:01:07 that. Go to other countries and see what happens. where everybody uh protects his sovereignty. We to move ahead. So these are aspects that we should look at. I look at the aspects of good governance which is critical dividends of democracy, local government autonomy. These are aspects that will help in securing our country because if you have a state with 20 local governments and you have 20 local government chairman working, sec insecurity is localized. they would individually be able to deal with the security situation within their
00:01:43 local government before it comes to the collective as a state. These are aspects that we have to look at. Do we have a cont comprehensive database? As Nigerians, we need a census that will capture every Nigerian in the world, not only Nigeria. If you go abroad and you do the crime, you easily be caught. Why? That's a database to fall back on. If they get your picture or your fingerprint or your signature or anything about you, you could be traced. That makes it a lot easier. Do we have that now? Border management is very
00:02:14 critical. I've had countries because of the level of insecurity they had, they had to fence their borders. I know sometime when you mention people say ah no it's not it's impossible. Pakistan fenced 1,350 km border with Afghanistan. That was the only time they had peace. Saudi Arabia and Iraq 1,400 km fenced completely. Can we start thinking of fencing our borders? We have 1,500 kilometers with Niger Republic, 1,900 kilometers with Cameroon. Chad is there all over us surrounded by franophhone countries and the Sahel is
00:02:52 heating up. Gentlemen, if we don't do anything when the Sahel falls, it is Nigeria that everybody's interested in because they believe Nigeria is huge, Nigeria is big, Nigeria is rich. And that is what we should start thinking about. How do we secure fully and take control of our borders?
