By Sonia Dibie
Security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu has advised the newly appointed military chiefs in the country to predict victory over the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast, banditry in the Northwest and other sundry challenges in the country.
He said that by making a prediction of victory and focusing on its achievement, the military chiefs may defeat the sundry threats.
In a statement issued in Lagos, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, National President of Association of Industrial Security & Safety Operator of Nigeria (AISSON), said that the current outcome of the efforts to vanquish terrorists, insurgents and bandits was a stalemate.
“While the bandits control three local governments in Niger State, the government controls all others. This means the adversaries are not winning and cannot win. So, we have a stalemate. I’m therefore calling upon the new service chiefs to employ sophisticated knowledge and cutting-edge military tools available to them to ensure victory,” he added.
Dr. Ekhomu said service chiefs must be cerebral in approaching the “extant and existential security threats.” He said that there has been a metastasis of the threat, and just like COVID-19, more virulent strains of Boko Haram and Banditry are evolving. The security situation is really quite troubling and needs to be addressed with utmost urgency and brilliance.
He urged the military chiefs to apply structured analytical thinking in inventing solutions to the security threats. He advised the military helmsmen to use powerful idea generation tools like morphological analysis, quadrant crunching, cross impact matrix, nominal group technique, structured brainstorming, virtual brainstorming and star bursting.
He also advised that the high-level risk mitigation tools contained in his new book entitled, “Boko Haram Security Consideration and the Rise of Insurgency,” should be employed to combat the hydra-headed monster of insurgency, banditry and terrorism.
Dr. Ekhomu said given the pedigree of the new Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Lucky Irabor, who he described as a “brainy, courageous and battle-hardened military officer,” he was sure that the inter-service rivalry that had bedevilled integrated warfare against Boko Haram would be a thing of the past.
The first chartered security professional in Nigeria thanked Mr. President for choosing an excellent set of officers as service chiefs.
He said that he was confident that they would win the support and cooperation of Nigerians, which would be crucial in defeating insurgency in the country.
He advised them to anticipate obstacles and overcome them. He said that encountering “dead ends, road closures and detours” are a part of the journey of leadership. As experienced leaders, the military chiefs are expected to overcome these obstacles and achieve victory.
