Falana Advice’s Buhari to Recruit more Military, Police Personnel
A senior advocate of Nigeria, SAN and Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has called on President. Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) to embark on mass recruitment of military and police personnel, equip and motivate them to defend every part of the country.
He stated this on Thursday in Abuja, during a paper presentation at a public lecture to mark the 80th birthday of Prof Omotoye Olorode, an academia. The paper was entitled, ‘Labour And The Quest For Nigeria’s Development: Reflections And Prognosis On The Way Forward’.
According to Falana, Buhari may be giving false impression that the Joe Biden’s administration will send United States troops to defend Nigerians.
Recall that Buhari had called on the US to help it fight against the challenges affecting the nation. He has asked the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, for Biden’s support to tackle the security menace in Nigeria.
Buhari, had also said their maybe a spill over of insecurity to neighbouring West African states, which made the call necessary and further called on the US to consider relocating US Africa Command from Stuttgart, Germany, to Africa, nearer the Theatre of Operation.
Falana who spoke on the request said the government should endeavour to strengthen the security forces and not wait for US support which maynot likely come.
In his words, “Regrettably, Nigeria is currently witnessing the virtual collapse of the security architecture of the neocolonial State due to the diversion of the huge fund earmarked for procurement of arms and ammunition for the armed forces and the police by successive regimes.
“To prevent terrorists and bandits from sacking the government, President Buhari has appealed to President Joe Biden to come to the aid the ruling class in waging war against terror and banditry. And without consulting either the African Union or the ECOWAS the federal government has asked President Biden to relocate the US African Command (AFRICOM) in Germany to Africa.
“Since 2009, the cry for help in prosecuting the counter insurgency operations had fallen on the deaf ears of the leaders of the West. As if that was not enough, the United States and her allies prevented Nigeria from acquiring vital security equipment to prosecute the war on terror due to the abysmal poor human rights record of the armed forces and the police.
“Even though the Buhari administration was allowed to pay the sum of $329 million for 12 super Tucanofighter jets in November 2018 to aid the counter insurgency operations in the North East Zone the jets have not been delivered.
“Instead of giving Nigerians the false impression that the United States is going to send troops to defend them the federal government should be compelled to embark on mass recruitment of military and police personnel, equip and motivate them to defend every part of the country. In addition, all state and local governments should proceed to set up defence committees constituted by young men and women in every community to collaborate with the Police in securing the lives and properties of all citizens.”
