A former Commander of Operation Safe Haven in Plateau State, Major General Henry Ayoola (retd) said former President Muhammadu Buhari lacked the political will to name the financiers of terrorism in the country.
Ayoola stated this in an interview on a television programme last week.
The retired Major General said President Bola Tinubu should be commended for naming the terror financiers.
He said, āNigeria has been battling to kill terrorism for over 20 years now from the northeast region. And now weāre seeing some active roles of these terror gangs within the northwest region of the country in the name of banditry.ā
Recall that Tukur Mamu, who is currently facing a trial over alleged link to the train attack in Kaduna, is one of the persons named as terror financiers in the country.
When asked what comes to mind when the Buhari government said it would release the list of terror financiers, but for eight years that never happened, Ayoola said, āI think this is one place that we should give a pat on the back to the current government (the Bola Tinubu administration).
āI was on the edge severally during the last regime. There was lack of national will to deal with this situation at the time. It is good to see a government that is showing a stronger will to deal with these situations.
āI have said it again and again, that what we have is a political strategic problem masquerading as security challenges.
āIāve said that 1001 times. In my analysis of insurgency and terrorism, Iāve talked about eight essays and indeed, one of the essays is what is coming out now ā sponsors ā because out of the eight essays, all the approaches we have applied in trying to solve the insurgency and terrorism in the country are just about two components of those eight.
āSo adding this third one to it will go a long way because itās like weāve been dodging the issue. Itās like weāve been dodging naming the enemy, naming the adversaries behind this problem.
āAre we saying that the gates of hell were open suddenly and Nigeria is just having these all-around security challenges coming? Is it that aliens were sent from some abyss to come and attack Nigeria all at the same time?ā he said.
Peoplesmind