The National Security Adviser (NSA) to the President, Retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, has cited intelligence as an important driver of operations against insurgency and banditry in Nigeria,
Monguno disclosed this on Friday, in Abuja at the public presentation of a research report titled “Terrorism and Banditry: The Nexus,” conducted by the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation (GJF), according to NAN.
He added that the involvement of intelligence in tackling insecurity was a necessity for fighting insurgency in the 21st century, stating that intelligence could come in different forms, including human intelligence, technical intelligence, cyber intelligence, and others.
What the NSA boss said
Monguno noted that human intelligence gotten from the local community remained top priority.
He said, “For as long as an agent of government decides to franchise or eliminate the agent of community, then you are depriving yourself of the most important oxygen, which is intelligence from the local community.
“Intelligence is the driver of operation. No matter how much you spend on defense forces—land, air, maritime or police—if you lack the relevant intelligence, you will just be like three blind men operating in a dark environment.
“You can imagine what that will amount to.
“From the moment you get intelligence, if the operational elements do not respond with the speed required, that intelligence becomes stale and it compounds the problems that will come later.
He disclosed that Nigeria needed to learn from the experiences of developed countries with vast intelligence capabilities in fighting insecurity.
In case you missed it
Recall Nairametrics reported this week that the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) had revealed that critical infrastructure in Nigerian cutting across sectors including electricity, transportation, water, oil pipelines, telecommunications was increasingly under the threat of attacks by violent groups.
