FG Would Be Weak To Dialogue With Terrorists – Major-General Babagana Monguno

The Federal Government has come out to rule out engaging mercenaries to assist Nigeria in the fight against insurgency.

National Security Adviser, Major-General Babagana Monguno, retd recently revealed this while addressing journalists at the weekly presidential media briefing at the Council Chamber of State House, Abuja.

According to him, the present service chiefs will deploy all necessary force to deal with terrorists and bandits operating in the country, so employing mercenaries will not be necessary.

Monguno added that he is also against dialoguing with the terrorists because that would be weakness and incapacity on the part of the government.

His words, “The President’s view and directive is that we will not engage mercenaries. When this administration came in, it’s true, we had these mercenaries helping out in the North-East. But the directive of the Commander-in-Chief is that we do not engage mercenaries when we have our own people to deal with this problem.”

“This is basically a presidential directive. And there are so many issues when you come to the issue of mercenaries. It has to do with the issue of national pride also. I know you’d say can pride be more of a concern than our security? I do understand that.”

“But what we are looking at here is that we have the resources, it’s just misapplication or under-utilisation that has affected our ability to deal with these people.”

“While government is not averse to talking with these entities, it also has to fully apply its weight. You can’t (negotiate) with people who are unreliable and who will continue to hurt society. We will apply the full weight of government to deal with these criminals.”

“These are not people looking for anything that is genuine or legitimate, they’re just out to take calculated measures to inflict pain and violence on innocent people. We must deal with them the way they need to be dealt with. We will fully assert the government’s will.”

“We are also focusing on the associated dimensions of banditry and terrorism: Illegal drugs, the flow of small arms and light weapons, and illegal mining in places like Zamfara. These are some of the scenarios fueling the violence and we are already tackling them decisively.”

“Government wants to use military assets to eliminate them but if along the line, they come out, good. It paints the picture of weakness, incapacity.”