An ex-Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Abdurrahman Dambazau (retd.), says the insurgency is now beyond being a threat to only Nigeria.
He said the security challenges being faced in Nigeria have extended to about 15 countries in West Africa, including the Benin Republic.
“This (insecurity) has become a regional issue because it is an issue that has engulfed the whole of the Lake Chad Basin region and it is an issue that also has a connection with the Sahel region as a whole.
“It is a regional issue and even Benin (Republic), our neighbor, is getting a touch of it.
“Initially, some of those countries in the Lake Chad Basin did not show much concern about it; that it was Nigeria’s problem until it became very much a reality that it was a regional problem,” he said.
The former minister said the countries have joined the fight against terrorism through the Multinational Joint Task Force established by the Nigerian Government to checkmate trans-border security challenges.
Dambazau was COAS from August 2008 to September 2010 and Nigeria’s Minister of Interior between November 2015 and May 2019.
