As attacks by insurgents continue to rise in the country, Buba Galadima, a former ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, has called on the federal government to recruit mercenaries to assist Nigerian troops.
He made this call while speaking when he featured on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Tuesday.
Galadima expressed that Nigeria has become extremely vulnerable and failure to boost the morale of the Nigerian military may lead to more violent attacks.
He stated that Nigeria lost “a good chance of seeking foreign help” when the president refused to attend the burial of the late President Idris Deby of Chad.
“Nigeria has become extremely vulnerable and we lost a very good chance when our president refused to attend the burial of the Chadian strongman.
“Because there were world leaders including France and it could have been a very big opportunity if the president was there and discuss the security situation in both West and Central Africa.
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“As we know, the Chadian strong man was the super cop in this region. He has soldiers stationed in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic to maintain peace.
“We lost this chance again because two days ago, the military council in Chad said they will never negotiate with bandits which means Chad will fall into civil war and you have the proliferation of small arms coming into Nigeria.
“And Nigerian military is overstretched; not enough manpower to tackle insecurity in the south-east, north-east, north-central, it means that the north can be overrun anytime.
“For now, I sympathise with the military because they are overstretched, under-armed and their morale is so low, so all we need to do is to boost their morale
“Tribal wars in Chad will make small arms filter into Nigeria and our military will be incapacitated. We have to recruit mercenaries to assist the spirit and carriage of our own troops.”