Israel to collaborate with Nigeria

Deputy Head of the Geneva-based Centre for Democratic Control of the Armed Forces (DCAF), Dr. Jean-Jaques Gacond has said that the implementation of national security policies would check terrorism in Nigeria.

Gacond spoke in Abuja at a workshop on "Increased Wave of Insecurity in Nigeria", organised by the National Defence College.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that DCAF is a 61-member organisation, with eight African countries including Nigeria.

Gacond stressed that national security was not only for the President and top military leaders but also for the media, whom he said "are central to the realisation of the objectives of a national security policy.

"The national security policy is an instrument to reinforce the legitimacy and its security apparatus to build confidence of the people in their security providers and to promote human and national development.

He noted that Nigeria had yet to adopt or approve any functional national security policy.

Commandant, National Defence College Rear Admiral Thomas Lokoson, said security was the primary purpose of government

Lokoson said that once security was guaranteed, the stage was set for every other thing to be added unto that nation, including economic prosperity.

He explained that the emphasis of security tended to be on physical security, adding that the modern concept of security had gone beyond that.

"Security in its broader perspective is not limited to the military security viewpoint alone, but also covers issues that have the potential of creating casualties, causing damage to property or hampering economic prosperity.

"Security thus include physical, health, food, environmental, job and educational security.’’

The Israeli government may have begun collaboration with Nigeria to check threats to security, it was learnt yesterday.

Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Moshe Ram made this known in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. It was at a lecture organised by the Centre for International Education of the University of Ilorin.

The lecture was entitled: "Nigeria-Israel Relations: Harnessing Opportunities for Capacity Development in Tertiary Education."

The envoy that his country had already begun a relationship with Nigeria "which we cannot say more than that here," to help stem the tide of Boko Haram menace and other terror attacks.

His words: "The most effective weapons against terrorism are intelligence and data collation of the base of the terrorists and the will to fight it. Our hands are always open to our friends and partners, Nigeria is one of them. Efforts are on the way over this, we cannot say more than that now. It falls under a bilateral arrangement and relationship."