More than ever before, Nigeria is facing a plethora of internal security challenges all at the same time, with numerous groups taking up arms against the government. These major internal security operations include the war against terrorism, deadly herdsmen, cattle rustlers, kidnappers, oil thieves, pipeline vandals and the joint police/military security outfits against criminal activities such as armed robbery in the 36 states of the federation.
They all involve a huge deployment of military assets and manpower and are being prosecuted simultaneously at a period of dwindling national revenue and the protracted war against terrorism and insurgency that has lasted six years. In the northeast, there is Operation Lafiya Dole, which handles the fight against Boko Haram, with expanded scope, scale and depth comprising three divisions of the Nigerian Army in more than five states.
Of late, this has dovetailed to other specialised operations like Operation Crackdown to wind down the war against insurgents and clear the remnants of the Boko Haram in Sambisa Forest. Then there is Operation Gama Aiki, which serves same purpose in the northern part of Borno State and Operation Safe Corridor, set up for the de-radicalisation and rehabilitation of repentant Boko Haram terrorists.
In north central Nigeria, there is Operation Safe Haven stationed in Plateau State whose area of operation extends to Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa and Kwara States to quell ethno-religious conflicts and other criminal activities. There is also Operation Sara Daji and Operation Harbin Kunama in the northwest, established to battle the criminal activities of armed bandits, cattle rustlers and robbers operating particularly in Zamfara, Kaduna and fringes of Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina and Kano states.
Down south, the military has a major operation codenamed Operation Delta Safe which was formerly Operation Pulo Shield. It is now complemented by the Nigerian Army’s Operation Crocodile Smile and the Nigerian Navy’s Operation Tsera Teku, aimed at crushing the resurgent Niger Delta militancy and other acts of criminality like oil theft, vandalism, and bunkering.
In the South west, there is Operation Awase with a mandate to contain the criminal operations around Ogun-Lagos axis, particularly in Arepo where illegal oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism are regular occurrences. In the southeast, there is Operation Iron Fence to combat armed robbers, hooligans and kidnappers.
In addition to all these operations is Operation Mesa, which is a Joint Task Force operation against all forms of criminal activities in all the states of the federation. Defence spokesman Brigadier Rabe Abubakar, confirmed that the military was currently handling not less than 10 such major operations but gave assurances that the Nigerian armed forces were capable of the assigned internal security responsibilities.
He added: “There is no military in the world that can claim that it is overstretched when it comes to internal security challenges. This is our primary duty to ensure that our country is united, even though the military would have loved a situation where other security agencies step up and play their role to complement our supporting duties.
“There are certain security operations that could have rightly been carried out by other security agencies to assist the armed forces but in the event this were not done we cannot just fold our arms to allow things to deteriorate. This is our country, it is our duty to protect it and we are able and capable of defending our territorial integrity.”
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