IraborGeneral Lucky Irabor (retired), former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of Nigeria, has urged the Federal Government to
formally declare war against insurgents, bandits and other violent groups destabilizing the nation. Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Irabor
said that Nigeria currently lacks the legal framework to treat the situation as a war. “There are no legal instruments indicating that Nigeria is at war.
There’s none; we’re only assuming that we are at war,” Irabor declared, emphasizing that a formal declaration would empower the state’s security apparatus to act more decisively.
According to the former CDS, making an official declaration would allow Nigeria to channel state resources more effectively toward combatting terrorists, insurgents, and bandits.
With clear legal backing, the deployment of state power military, policy, intelligence, and administrative could be better coordinated. Irabor also stressed that war is not only about military operations.
He called for a “paradigm shift” in how the country responds to insecurity, one that mixes hard power (military efforts) with soft power such as education, social welfare, and policy reforms.
He suggested that reducing the vulnerability of youth especially those out of school or without jobs could help shrink the pool of people that terrorists or bandits recruit.
The former CDS launched his views in the context of rising violence across Nigeria, particularly from banditry, kidnappings, and terrorism in the North-East, North-West, and other troubled regions.
He believes that declaring war officially would also improve accountability for how security funds are spent and how operations are carried out.
Irabor lamented that for too long the country has been “assuming” war, without invoking the full suite of legal, constitutional, and institutional tools that accompany a declared war status.
Without such instruments, certain constitutional powers remain unactivated, and the holistic usage of all elements of state power is constrained.
He also warned against politicizing security, arguing that instability is a national threat that cuts across party lines, ethnicity, and region.
To him, true success in countering terrorism will require unified leadership, robust legal authority, sufficient funding, and policies that address underlying socioeconomic issues.
General Irabor’s book, Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum, further explores the failures of past political leadership in not establishing the legal foundations for fully prosecuting the war on insurgency and terrorism.
In the book, he proposes practical reforms legal, strategic, and social that he believes are essential to achieving long-term peace.
Kindly Share this News!!!