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Take ownership of security, defence chief tells Nigerians after Plateau massacre of 23 villages on christmas day
Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, has called on Nigerians to take ownership of security challenges in the country.
He spoke yesterday at the Defence Headquarters Hospital located at Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja, when he visited ailing personnel to mark Christmas and his birthday.
Musa, who also called on all Nigerians to have love for and confidence in Nigeria and fight together for its peace and progress, noted that running away from the country is not the solution to the present challenging situation.
He was explaining what he meant in his Christmas message that Nigerians should be united against the common enemies.
“It (Christmas message) entails that all Nigerians should take ownership of the challenges we’re facing as a country. The security challenges, especially, are not armed forces or police challenges or any individual parastatal.
“It is a collective effort for all Nigerians and all Nigerians should put hands together. We cannot do it alone. We need the support of everyone. When you see something, say something, talk as quickly as possible so that measures can be put in place.
“We will continue to seek support from members of the public to take ownership of our challenges. Nigeria is our own. If Nigeria succeeds, we all succeed, if Nigeria fails we all fail and we don’t want Nigeria to fail. So, I call on all Nigerians to give us all the support,” he said.
Musa told journalists that the visit to the hospital was in tune with his leadership concept, which is people-centric, adding that the outreach was to ensure that people, both the security agents and the citizens, felt the impact of love being shared, especially their healthcare.
According to him, it is always good at this period of celebration to come around and see how those who are in hospital who don’t have the ability to celebrate, how they are doing and to wish them well.
“It is for them to always know that we are always with them, we are praying with them and we want them to recover so that they can come back fully to life. We will continue to do that as we have been doing. So this is just not a one off thing, it is something we do regularly,” he added.
Speaking further, the defence chief said those traveling out of the country would not have countries to run to if the indigenes did not develop those countries.
He stated, “We must stay and fight whatever challenge is. Those countries they are running to, stood back and fought and got to where they are. If they had run away, they would not have achieved that for them to go and meet them.”
The CDS, who was flanked by his wife and other principal officers at Defence Headquarters, donated hampers and cash gifts to all the patients in the hospital during the visit.
