Former Chief of Army Staff (CAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (retd.), has said that insecurity in Nigeria is fundamentally a political problem and cannot be resolved by military action alone.
During an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, Buratai stressed that addressing insecurity requires a comprehensive strategy that integrates political, economic, and social measures alongside military interventions.
“The military is just one aspect of the overall national activity. We must get it very clear that apart from the military, we have the economic, social, and political lines. And we can see that from all indications the political line is that there’s no government present or in the past that does not want insecurity to be nipped or addressed properly, and resources have been earmarked and released for such,” he explained.
The former army chief emphasised that it is not enough to depend solely on the armed forces. According to him, the root causes of insecurity must be addressed from all angles, particularly the political and social fronts.
“But you need to make sure that the social aspect and the underlying causes are all addressed. It’s not just a matter of relying completely, 100 per cent, on the military to solve the entire security challenges. There’s an underlying cause.
“It was started through some political actors, and it was essentially a political issue. This insecurity is essentially political. And now it’s been left to the military, and the political actors are staying behind.
“So, this is something that is needed for a total review of the security aspect in terms of political associations or political involvement and so on,” Buratai noted.
Addressing public perception, Buratai dismissed claims that the military is responsible for the lack of progress in combating insecurity. He maintained that the armed forces remain “a solution, not the problem,” and urged Nigerians to show greater support for soldiers risking their lives in the field.
“We cannot continuously see the military as a problem to solving insecurity. They are the solution, one aspect of the solution. And they will play their role very well if they have good support,” he said.
“Any soldier that is on the field holding a weapon and standing before or in between himself and the people of Nigeria with the adversary is very important.
“You cannot demoralise him; if you demoralise him, or you despise him, or you make things difficult for him, then you are endangering his life and that of his family, and you are endangering the lives of the whole of Nigerians.
“That is why we need to give them complete support to make sure they succeed on the field,” Buratai added.
What you should know
Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (retd.) served as Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff from 2015 to 2021 under President Muhammadu Buhari.
Known for his counterinsurgency efforts against Boko Haram and other security threats, Buratai has consistently argued that Nigeria’s insecurity challenges go beyond military solutions, stressing the importance of political responsibility, governance, and social reforms in achieving lasting peace.
