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…Receives Senior Course 46, Armed Forces Command and Staff College

Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, has commended Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State on improved security of lives and property in the state, saying Mbah’s commitment to maintain very good working relationship with the armed forces would continue to bring enhanced peace and security in the South East region.

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Air Marshal Abubakar said the Nigeria Airforce had recently invigorated its operations for peace and security in the region through the air components of the joint task force, Operation Udoka II, headquartered in Enugu by injecting a fresh set of troops.

This was even as Governor Mbah separately assured the Chief of the Air Staff and visiting participants of the Senior Course 46 of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State, of his administration’s continued partnership with the security forces for the security and stability of Enugu and the South East region.

The Chief of the Air Staff gave the commendation on Thursday when he led the top echelon of the service on a working visit to the governor at the Government House Enugu, noting that Mbah was the first governor to visit him upon his appointment to seek collaboration towards the security of his state.

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He commended the governor’s vision and determination to eradicate poverty, noting that 75 per cent of crime eradication was non-kinetic and applauded Mbah for his “zeal and mission to deliver quality, people-focused governance by making Enugu State the preferred destination for tourism, business, investment and living”.

He said: “It has been empirically proven that poverty and issues of criminality are directly proportional. The more poverty you have, the more likely that people will go into criminal activities.

“The issue of insecurity is usually very complex, multifaceted, and requires multifaceted and very comprehensive approaches to resolve them; and we are very happy to identify with a lot of efforts at resolving some of these problems, particularly your plans to eradicate poverty in the state by addressing all the indices of poverty

“Again, we can continue to carry out our kinetic actions to address the issues of insecurity, but again, empirically, it has been proven that only 25 per cent of internal security issues can be resolved using kinetic means. The remaining 75 per cent can be resolved using the whole of government approach.

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“This whole of government approach has to do with the eradication of poverty, illiteracy, good education, medical care, and all the issues. I am very happy to see that a lot of these issues you are already addressing; which means that your policies and plans align with this whole of government approach.”

The service chief equally applauded Mbah for ending illegal Monday sit-at-home and for waging war against fake news purveyors, especially on the social media, whom he described as “media terrorists”, who use fake news to stir tension and insecurity.

“I also want to commend your stand against the illegal sit-at-home order. You are taking a very strong stance against it. You have also resolved to take legal action against the perpetrators and facilitators of this illegal order”, he said.

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Responding, Mbah said his administration needed to take hard stance against insecurity as it was impossible to grow the state’s economy from the present $4.4 billion to $30 billion in a state of insecurity, reiterating that the government was taking deliberate measures to create employment to fight the crime industry.

“The typical thing is that you cannot have sustainable development without security. Conversely, you cannot have security without sustainable development. So, they are both intricately intertwined and we need to address them frontally. So, we also thought that if we must deal insecurity, we must deal with the root causes. And dealing with the root causes requires that we address unemployment so we can get our young people constructively and gainfully engaged in other useful activities other than criminalities”, he said.

Meanwhile, receiving participants of the Senior Course 46 of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, led by the Chief Instructor of the College, Col. Olurotimi Adejoro, Mbah said his administration was already implementing a “Cut-Off Point” policy, which was intended to catch Enugu children young from the age of three and expose them to holistic education, including digital skills and moral education up basic education level to ensure that they were fully equipped to be responsible and gainfully employed members of the society in future.