Security: I won’t leave office a failure, says Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to win the battle against insecurity, stressing that he will not leave Nigeria a failure.

He spoke on Thursday after a meeting with the security chiefs at the presidential villa, Abuja.

The National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, who spoke with state house correspondents after the meeting, relayed the President speech.

Monguno said although Buhari acknowledged that the military was currently recording success in the war against terrorists in the North-East, the president promised not to relent until every part of the country is safe.

He said, “He has made it very clear that he’s not ready to exit government as a failure. He is not going to tolerate that; he’s made changes and is ready to make further changes if he is not satisfied. He is completely determined to ensure that there’s a turnaround in the fortunes in the theatre of operations.”

The NSA also reported the President to have noted, “It is evident that a lot of successes have been recorded. Large numbers of people are surrendering in the North-East as a consequence of the relentless efforts of the armed forces, intelligence and security agencies.

“This is very evident. We’ve never had such large numbers of people defecting from the other side to the Nigerian side, mainly, as a result of many issues within the theatre; issues of infighting among the various factions of the terrorist groups.

“But the new drive of the armed forces, the police, and the intelligence agencies, there has been great cooperation, synergy in intelligence sharing, as well as our partnership in the regional intelligence unit.”

He added that “the atmosphere is improving” in the North-East and North-West, but “a lot has to be done”.

Monguno said the issue of hunger in the country, which he described as an “emergency situation”, was also discussed at the meeting.