The National Security Adviser (NSA) Babagana Monguno says human intelligence is the most effective instrument to fight insurgency and banditry.
Monguno spoke at the weekend in Abuja at the presentation of a report on ‘Terrorism and Banditry: The Nexus’ by the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation (GJF).
The retired Major General said the evolvement of the 21st century made tackling insecurity more difficult.
He noted that intelligence of different kinds, such as human, technical, cyber, human intelligence derived from communities remained the most important.
“As long as an agent of government decides to franchise or eliminate the agent of community, you are depriving yourself of the most important oxygen – the intelligence from locals”, NAN quoted him as saying.
The NSA said what Nigeria needed to do in tackling security challenges was to learn from the experience of developed countries.
“No matter how much you spend on defence forces, if you lack the relevant intelligence, you will just be like three blind men operating in a dark environment.”
He added that intelligence is in various layers but must be fused and acted upon timely.
Crisis Group Nigeria Senior Adviser, Nnamdi Obasi stressed the need to scale up security presence across the country.
The policy analyst and international relations expert also called for improved humanitarian assistance to Nigerians affected by insecurity.
A former Director at the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor urged the government to improve the capacity of security agencies and deal with bad eggs among them.
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