Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa, says terrorism has reduced significntly across the country, even as kidnappings and violent attacks continue to spark public outrage.
Speaking during an interview on AriseNews on Friday, May 29, monitored by The News Chronicle Musa gave the government’s security efforts a score of between 65 and 70 percent, insisting that Nigeria’s security situation has improved significantly compared to previous years.
The defence minister, however, admitted that criminal activities still persist, blaming the growing wave of kidnappings on the collapse of family values, poor social orientation and the obsession with quick wealth.
According to him, the increasing involvement of relatives in abduction cases reflects a deeper moral and societal crisis that security operations alone cannot solve.
“Yes, I’ll give ourselves 65 to 70 percent score. No nation is totally free from crime and criminality, but the level of terrorism across the country has actually drastically reduced,” he said.
“Now we have acts of terrorism, and terrorism, like I said, is a social vice, a failure of family values. We have seen fathers kidnapping children, children kidnapping each other, and brothers kidnapping sisters.
“It tells you that there’s something wrong with the family, and we need to also look inward to see how we can now develop those aspects again, like the issue of education. People need to understand that to make money, work very hard, don’t look for shortcuts.”
Musa said many individuals involved in kidnapping were motivated by the desire for fast money instead of legitimate means of livelihood.
“Most of these people taking part in those kidnappings and all these things are looking for shortcuts,” he added.
The defence chief also suggested that some criminal activities may be politically motivated and deliberately orchestrated to undermine the government and create the impression that the country is unsafe.
“And again, you can’t rule out politics, because most of these people they are kidnapping are people that don’t have anything to offer, and you’re asking for one billion naira, knowing that the individual you are kidnapping cannot offer.
“That’s to tell you that there are some times you can look at it as acts of sabotage to make the government look weak, or to make the country look ungovernable,” he said.
