Nigeria is Winning the War on Terrorism

President Goodluck Jonathan recently disclosed that the sum of over N800M had been spent on training and retraining of SSS officers in a bid to prepare them effectively for the challenges of stemming the tide of terrorism mostly through intelligence gathering. He revealed that N800M was released for training this year, adding that in 2011 and 2012, the sums were N237m and N300m respectively.

The State Security Service in its own response said the war against terrorism is paying off as terrorists have been drastically weakened and can no longer carry out coordinated attacks in the country. According to the Director-General of the agency, Ekpenyong Ita, during the passing out parade and inauguration of 385 members of the Cadet Officers Basic Course 27 in Lagos, he stated that terrorism would soon be a thing of the past in the country.

Ita said the SSS had been able to help curb terrorism due to investment in human capacity development as well as cooperation from members of the public, sister agencies and the press. He said, "We can confidently say that we have decimated the terrorist' top and middle level leadership and its foot soldiers thereby dislodging its centre of gravity".

He revealed further that "there is no doubt that our strategies have invariably affected the cohesion of the group as well as the chain of command, to the level that the group, for now does not possess the capacity to direct and launch simultaneous attacks on several cities or targets in Nigeria as had been the situation in the past two years".

"We intend to build and consolidate on our successes in this war against the terrorists in order to create a conducive environment for democracy and development". Ita said the new officers, who had undergone almost a year of training, were coming at a sensitive time in the nation’s history. He therefore advised them to remain focused and put the nation's interest first.

He said, "to our graduating cadets, you are coming into the service at a very auspicious time, when the service is being re-invented to position herself for even greater effectiveness in the global security landscape. You are coming at a time when the nation grapples with serious security challenges.  You must collectively and individually contribute to the attainment of the service’s mandate".

President Goodluck Jonathan represented by the supervising Minister for Education, Nyesom Wike, said the training of the service personnel was necessitated by the current security challenges facing the country. The President said "we will do more as peace and security are important to the economy. The Federal Government through the National Assembly recently passed the anti-terrorism law".

He concluded by encouraging the cadets. He said "you have performed well but remember that your passing out today is the beginning of your job. Your training was necessitated by the current security challenges facing the country." The Boko Haram menace and other heinous crimes like kidnapping and several cult and communal clashes have posed great security challenges to the country.