Breaking News: Christopher Musa Defends Paying Repentant Terrørists As International Law

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]I want to talk about operation safe corridor which has now graduated over 744 repentant terrorists offering them you know vocational training, psychological support and reintegration into the society. But general I have highlighted a a viral video which was showing an IDP um from Boro state whose father was actually killed by insurgents. He alleged that, you know, rehabilitated terrorists received government salaries up to 70,000 naira monthly and I believe plus a lump sum payment of, you know, 3 million naira and government provided vehicles. This one um terrorist he named Adamu. I believe he said that the man killed about 96 people in one day and he was given a helock. I mean on the other hand we are even seeing you know our officers we've seen police officers uh recently I talked about one who was shot five times fighting bandits in Kaduna.

[00:01:04]He has waited four years for medical support and is begging Nigerians online for help. Now is Nigeria rewarding perpetrators while abandoning its heroes?

[00:01:18]>> Not at all. Uh I told you earlier that I had the privilege of being um um the operation officer when I was a major in Sri Lon and we disarmed the uh the the the the the terrorists that were operating in Sri Lon as a den. And uh one of the things I observed then was that a lot of emphasis was placed on the on the terrorists themselves and not the victims. And so we didn't want to repeat same thing here in Nigeria when we started when I was in Maduguri. Um, international law says once your enemy surrenders, you are bound to treat him humanly.

[00:01:52]>> Under the international law, once your enemy surrenders, you treat them with human treatment. You treat them humanly.

[00:02:00]That is the excuse that Christopher Musa is giving. Why the federal government are paying the terrorists, buying the repentant terrorist gone and buying them. Why people who fought genuinely, who were fighting against these terrorists, they were now discarded, begging Nigerians for food on social media, retired soldiers, soldiers that they cut off their legs. In fact, I have some of them in my inboxes. So, these people don't have even money to take drugs and so on and so forth. Most of them, the allowances are not being paid like nothing. And you are paying the terrorist, supporting the terrorists.

[00:02:34]And I'm surprised Christopher Musa is coming out to defend this guys.

[00:02:37]Christopher Musa was on Arise News earlier. He was talking about you know the issue of insecurity in Nigeria administration 3 years in office.

[00:02:50]Amidst the insecurity in Nigeria, Christopher Musa did not feel sober. And when you watch what Christopher Musa said, he was literally, you know, endorsing the rehabilitation, the payment of money to all these terrorists. Like how do we get here?

[00:03:05]Removing APC from office is not going to solve the whole problem in Nigeria because Nigeria is doomed. Nigeria is not sustainable. But I can tell you that taking these lunatics out of power is a counterterrorism. Listen to the narratives of Christopher Musa about what is going on in Nigeria, saying that Nigeria is more safer. Must he play politics with everything? Now, you were at the helm of the CDS during years 1 and two, but you know, many Nigerians would argue that things have gotten worse, not better. Just this week alone, 13 people were kidnapped from their homes. At about 1:00 a.m. in KBI state, three worshippers killed and 15 abducted during a prayer vigil in Quara. Students in Ekiti states fleeing schools over bandit fears. Now, how do you respond to Nigerians who say insecurity has escalated under your watch?

[00:04:03]>> Yeah, like what I'm saying that Nigeria is going through a trying period.

[00:04:07]>> Countries go through this. It's what you make out of it that makes you better or worse. And I think we're addressing it holistically. Um the armed forces and other security agencies cannot cover the entire length and breadth of Nigeria.

[00:04:19]Nigeria has over 927 square kilometers and we're just how many and what they do is because they want to show that there is this order or there is insecurity they look for soft spots where there are no security agencies and they want to attack or they want to kidnap and you know the trajectory is this criminality starts when people break laws and order then it gets to kidnapping then it gets to banditry then it gets to terrorism and once you start dealing with the terrorist terrorism it now falls back towards banditry getting back to petty crimes and this is what we're going through you see that we have more kidnappings now than acts of terrorism and what it shows is that it is going down and that we need to come together to be able to address that because the security forces cannot be everywhere >> I'm sure you aware that even other countries even the developed countries are facing issues of kidnappings it's not only Nigeria but all I'm saying is that we need to come together instead of u uh people throwing blames here and there there are security forces are doing. Ultimately, we're putting in their best considering the situation we're in to address this. Um, border security is one issue where we have to look at and for us, we need the states to partner with the federal government.

[00:05:32]The federal government, I think, is doing it best. States are getting their funds as required more than they ever had. The issue we need to have is that we need to have our local governments work because there are steps that we need to take to address these issues.

[00:05:43]Our local governments must be up and doing because crime is local. If local governments are working, they'll be able to tackle these things within their own area before it gets to the state, before it gets to the federal. So, I think it's it's a whole of society approach to security.

[00:05:56]>> All right. You're talking about uh border security. Now, you commanded operation had kai in the northeast from 2021 to 2023. You know the terrain, you know the tactics. So, why are we still seeing these midnight raids? You've talked about border security. There's continuous mass abductions and attacks on soft targets like schools, churches, markets. What's really is the solution to this border security? And you also made mention about how we should all come together. What exactly do you mean?

[00:06:35]>> Uh border security is such that we have to be in tandem with our neighbors. You know, we have uh some issues with Niger.

[00:06:41]We share about 1,500 km with Nijel, 1,650 with Cameroon. We have some level with Ben Republic and the Atlantic Sea and then with Chad. So our neighbors too need and so what what the terrorists do actually is that when you attack them more, they move to the next country. So you need the other country to to also be able to block his own side of the border so that they don't have any safe heaven.

[00:07:03]Uh so it's um uh we're working together with the truly multinational joint task force uh to ensure that we address this.

[00:07:09]We have seen uh level of threats coming in between Ben Nigeria and Nij border.

[00:07:14]We are through the multinational joint task force we're establishing a new sector to address those areas so that from Bokina they don't penetrate through Benin into Nigeria. We want to stop it.

[00:07:23]Now why the question is why do we seem to have this penetration again because as Africans we share a lot of community within ourselves. We have u uh cultural areas. We have religious tribes that cross across border and because asymmetric warfare is such that the enemy is usually within it's that person you are protecting that could be your enemy and that's why it's most difficult. Conventional warfare you know the enemy is within states so you can easily take him out. Now it's difficult and you know the situations we having most times you want to conduct any attack these guys blend within civilians and you are forced not to you are forced to call off the attack and this prolongs it because we want to avoid um killing innocent civilians and again the media we want to appeal to the media to understand that we are partners in progress we're not enemies. Uh we have had some media houses that have taken upon themselves to spread falsehoods. Um there are situations where even when there were no attacks, they report that 14 people have been killed or this has happened and only to find out nothing as such. We must come together to understand this is our country. If Nigeria fails, if the armed forces fails, nobody >> will be able to even sit in any office to write any report. So we must understand this and the more we support each other, the more we work together as a team, the more we succeed.

[00:08:39]>> All right. So you're calling for support and uh responsible journalism. Now you transitioned from uh chief of uh yeah you transitioned from uh chief of defense staff to minister of defense.

[00:08:51]Now what are you doing differently now that you couldn't do then? And you know more importantly what has changed in strategy or even execution >> now now as a minister of defense you know now I I'm dealing with the administration with policym uh to support uh members of the armed forces.

[00:09:11]As the chief of defense staff, I was directly involved. So I could move troops. I could do this. Now uh we bring out what we use is we use mission command and we tell them look we need this place to be secured. The way manner they do it is left to them to be able to carry out. And then the troops are actually doing their best considering the situation we are in. Um we want to also ensure that they get the required equipments because we need to change our equipments. We need to improve on the equipments we're having. uh we don't produce what we need and that's one of the greatest challenges we're having because we don't produce this equipments. The president have approved and signed the the the DACOM bill enabling us now to partner with other countries countries that produce such equipments. Uh places like Turkey, like Brazil, like South Africa, like Egypt, China and so on that are friends of Nigeria. We are working with them. We have started producing some of these items. Our youth have started producing drones that we need. If we don't produce what we need, it's always very difficult, even with your money, to get what you need to fight with.

[00:10:10]>> Right now, I want you to be honest with me. Um, General Musa, now if you were to rate this government's performance on insecurity from 0 to 10, where of course 10 is complete security and zero is total collapse. What score would you give? And be honest, please. Would Nigerians agree with that score?

[00:10:35]>> I'll give us >> Yes, I'll give I'll give ourselves 6570.

[00:10:40]>> 65%.

[00:10:41]>> No nation is free.

[00:10:44]>> Yes. 6570.

[00:10:47]>> You were you were saying >> no nation is totally free from crime and criminality.

[00:10:50]>> Yeah. No nation. You I'm sure you are sure that level of terrorism across has actually drastically reduced. Now we have acts of terrorism and terrorism like I said is a social vice. failure of family values. People we have seen fathers kidnapping children, children kidnapping each other, brothers kidnapping sisters. It tells you that there's something wrong with the family.

[00:11:12]Uh we need to also leak inward to see how we can now develop those aspects.

[00:11:17]Again, the issue of education, people to understand that look to make money work very hard. Don't look for shortcuts. Most of these people taking part in those kidnappings and all these things are looking for shortcuts.

[00:11:28]And again, you can't rule out politics because what I ask you is >> most of these people they are kidnapping are people that have not don't have anything to offer. And you asking you kidnap somebody I ask for 1 billion naira knowing that the individual you are kidnapping cannot offer. So what are you who are you expecting to pay that money and that's to tell you that there are some times you can look at that acts of sabotage to make the government look weak or to make the the the the country look ungovernable or whatever. But however it is, the armed forces and the security forces are working tirelessly to address those issues. And I can tell you Nigerians working with us and I want to appreciate Nigerians.

[00:12:03]>> The level of support we are getting is a lot better than used to be in the past.

[00:12:06]And we are making more inroads. Uh you're aware that we're working with our partners, the Americans, the British, the French >> and all lovers of Nigeria that want us to succeed. They are bringing out those platforms we don't have and we're working. uh the recent attack killing of that uh deputy ISIS uh commander was a painstaking operation that was conducted. It started since last year.

[00:12:27]>> We followed and ensure that we were sure what we're doing and then when we struck we got them just rightly and that's what we're doing. So it's it's a bit difficult. It's a very difficult operation. I advise countries no country should ad should allow asymmetric warfare to commence.

[00:12:43]>> Don't allow acts of terrorism or is your it's a very very difficult operation. We have seen examples, their military equipments. Now we're partnering with them. We're developing our special forces. We're getting experiences from them. We are working with the French, with the Brazilians, with so everybody is putting hands on deck to ensure that we achieve success.

[00:13:12]>> All right. I mean, I'd love to also talk about the joint efforts and you just mentioned the killing of that ISIS second in command, Abu Bilal al- Muniki.

[00:13:22]I mean, he was hiding in um Nigeria and you know, kudos to uh the Nigerian government and of course the United States government on that win. But I'd like to ask because you just made mention that you know, terrorism has reduced in Nigeria. I'd like to really understand what you mean by that and and if you can explain to Nigerians what terrorism really means. I mean or even the different acts of terrorism going on right now in Nigeria. Oh, we're talking about right now.

[00:13:55]>> In the past, you know, in the past you hear almost on daily basis here issues of uh of IEDs exploding from here and there. You keep on hearing about vehicle born ID, bodyb born ID and all these things. You don't hear them. You hear them maybe once in a while here and there and most of it political I can say uh the last ones that happened in meduri were meant to dissuade the president from visiting UK it was deliberate and if you look at it who and why what was the intent the intent is to uh uh make sure that the president doesn't go there or even if he goes there he doesn't have any leverage to want to speak and to tell you that it's intentional people deliberately planned that and conducted that just to make that point and is very unfortunate but want to appeal to Nigerians not to allow anybody to use them for whatever reason your country is your country if you allow your country to get destroyed you go to any somebody's country you'll be a secondass citizen we have seen it happen I was I was in Sri Lon we were in Liberia we were different places war is not good >> it's important that we come together address this issue and stop it >> you know speaking about acts of terrorism and you know why terrorism fers I I want to talk about operation safe corridor which has now graduated over 744 repentant terrorists offering them you know vocational training psychological support and reintegration into the society but general I have highlighted a viral video which was showing an IDP um from Boro state whose father was actually killed by insurgents. He alleged that you know rehabilitated terrorists received government salaries up to 70,000 naira monthly and I believe plus a lump sum payment of you know 3 million naira and government provided vehicles. This one um terrorist he named Adamu I believe he said that the man killed about 96 people in one day and he was given a helox. I mean on the other hand we are even seeing you know our officers we've seen police officers uh recently I talked about one who was shot five times fighting bandits in Kaduna.

[00:16:10]He has waited four years for medical support and he's begging Nigerians online for help. Now is Nigeria rewarding perpetrators while abandoning its heroes?

[00:16:25]>> Not at all. I told you earlier that I had the privilege of being um um the operation officer when I was a major in Sri Alon and we disarmed the uh the the the the terrorists that were operating in Syria alone as a den and uh one of the things I observed then was that a lot of emphasis was placed on the on the terrorists themselves and not the victims and so we didn't want to repeat same thing here in Nigeria when we started when I was in Muguri um international law says once your enemy surreners you are bound to treat him humanly.

[00:16:58]>> That is international law and it's unfortunate but that's just the truth.

[00:17:03]And again you know there are issues sometimes when we do some things people come against us and say we are killing innocent civilian. So it's always it's always a thin line between what you do.

[00:17:12]Now operation safe cor is international is an internationalist um setup um uh avenue where you take out those supposedly terrorists. Now let me explain in detail when we started arresting I was theata commander in the in the northeast when when when the the the terrorists uh started surrendering and what happened we were able to take out their crossing points their their feeding the oxygen that keeps on going they couldn't get ammunition they couldn't get food they couldn't get water they didn't oil so those of them that were really tired fed up of this started surrendering now when they came out what we did is that we worked together with the Bruno state government they provided the transport and the management and administration ation. We were able to disarm those ones that came out and what we found out that there are three categories of people.

[00:17:59]>> Firstly, there were this sort that were conscripted by force. Now, what the terrorists were doing then is when they attack a village, they bring out all the male all the male guys to one side and ask you to either join them or you die.

[00:18:12]Those that joined were left. Those that didn't join were beheaded.

[00:18:17]So, those ones were forced into it.

[00:18:20]There were different groups that were picked for one reason or the other. They were used as farmers to help assist them in farming out there in the field and all they were using them for as as slaves. And then there were the real perpetrators who are the combatants. Now we're able to identify these three sets.

[00:18:34]Those two first two sets were kept.

[00:18:36]Those are the ones we normally send to operation safe corridor for rehabilitation. The terrorists those ones that had are the ones we are still keeping and handed over to the attorney general of federation. And I'm sure you've heard of recent some of them were were jailed. Now because of the legal system, it takes a long while because you have to bring proof. You have to bring exhibits that you're going to use against them. So the military provides camp to keep them. Meanwhile, the the the the attorney general of federation is profiling them, taking them to court when they have cases and then jailing them for those ones that were found guilty. So this had the set. So I wanted to make that clarification because everybody thought that we just carry everybody, put them in and give them I should be give them food. No, I don't know about the 70,000 you were talking about, but all I know is that this first two sets, the ones that were enslaved, the ones that were conscripted, they were forced into it. Not that it was a will, it was a willing thing they did.

[00:19:28]We kept them to one side and they give them mineral je because sometimes why do they join? They join because one, they were deceived to think that they were fighting for God. Some of them were deceived because they were poor and they felt that was the only way they could have some because those guys had money to give them. They enticed them with money and promised them heaven and earth and so they joined them. So when we treat those ones and they were given some skills, they rehabilitated back into the community and I can tell you where we keep monitoring them and there is none that has really gone back and has gone bad because we're also monitoring what they're doing but those perpetrators are kept to one side. Now in Boro the governor I remember we had a stakeholders meeting where somebody an individual came because we had to bring the victims. one of the representative of the victims I remember very clearly came and said that he killed nine of his brother nine of his family members >> but that if forgiving them is going to bring peace he's ready to do it because whatever you do you have to still sit down on the table and sit down in South Africa we have the truth and uh reconciliation program Rwanda they had it after all the killings and all these things so these are the things no matter what you do you must have a round table where you sit down and discuss these issues those ones that are found guilty will face the law that's just the rule >> so Are you saying that Nigeria is not rewarding the killers, the ones that have been found guilty of this crime? Is that what you're saying?

[00:20:49]>> Not at all. Not at all. We're not rewarding, we're not rewarding acts of criminal. It will be too fully and full heady for us to do that.

[00:20:56]>> All right. And so this reintegration program >> understand, we can understand. We can understand. Yes. Yes. We can understand the sentiment. You know, people feel agrieved and naturally they will feel look everybody that is there should be killed. But we can't do that because the same Nigerians that will come and say we're also killing innocent civilians.

[00:21:12]>> All right. So you give amnesty to terrorists who have not killed. That's what you're saying to me right now. And you're not are you paying them salary?

[00:21:23]>> We are rehabilitating. Yes. No. No.

[00:21:25]We're not we're not we're not paying terrorist salary. Those ones that were terrorists, those commanders and those ones that perpetrators are facing the law. The attorney general is dealing with them and they've been jailing them for several times. I'm sure a few weeks ago some of them were also jailed.

[00:21:40]>> All right. Well, okay. Thank you for that uh clarification. Now, General, you recently welcomed Pastor Mo to the Ministry of Defense. I saw that statement, you know, speaking about prayers and, you know, boosting troop morale. But last Saturday, like I said, uh earlier, three worshippers were killed and 15 kidnapped during, you know, a night vigil in Quir State. Now the PFN is now calling communities killing fields and you know demanding international intervention when religious leaders are protesting in security instead of just praying.

[00:22:16]Doesn't that tell you uh moral support isn't enough? I mean what material support are troops actually >> guessing? Yeah.

[00:22:26]>> You see Nigerians Nigerians we are prayerful. We are prayerful. But it's not just to pray. You also pray and you walk. and working means also attacking those uh those terrorists those criminals not allowing them to drive wherever it is they are and it's it's very important that for Nigerians prayer is good and I can tell you for every military man especially in the battle for prayer is critical because that what gives him the moral to continue to work so please let us not play down that aspect of prayer but we're not saying you should pray and sleep no you must do the work because even God wants you to work and that's why prayer is always there so we are working while we are praying And I want to appeal and I thank God you brought that issue. I want to appeal to our religious leaders, our traditional rulers, our cultural leaders. Please is important. Hope is critical for a human being. If he loses hope, he has lost everything. I've had some comments of recent of some uh very highly placed religious leaders saying Nigeria is finished. Nigeria is no more.

[00:23:22]Dra is no more. It's quite unfortunate.

[00:23:24]>> Nigeria gave us deliveries to get to where we are today. We cannot because of something happening today or tomorrow and think everything else is bad. You cannot just say all the years that Nigeria has put. Nigeria gave us the landline. Nigeria gave us the platform to be where we are. That's why we sit down and talk. And because we are opinion leaders, we should be very careful about the kind of words we say, what we do. We should learn to give hope to people. We should learn to encourage people even in damaging. During the Second World War, we had people worse things were done. But people didn't come out and give up. They fought it. And today there is peace. That is why I want to encourage us our religious leaders, our traditional rulers, our cultural leaders. Please let's be positive. Let's come together.

[00:24:05]>> Forget our comfort zone because a lot of them you can sit down in your aces and think everything is okay because you are not facing this. Those guys that are in the bushes fishing these issues know what they are going through. We must encourage them. We must show them that God is with them. We must tell them that look this thing will not be forever and that there's light at the end of the tunnel. That's how to go about it.

[00:24:23]>> Yeah. Thank you for that. I mean we do need hope in Nigeria especially for those families who you know their children their husbands have been abducted there are so many families that are in mourning right now general as we are speaking so I mean as much as we want hope we want to find a way to comfort those Nigerians that are in the dark at this moment now general 36 military officers face court marshal over an alleged who plot against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Now, former petroleum minister Tim Pra Silva has been named in court documents with billions allegedly traced to his account and is, you know, now reportedly hiding in Argentina.

[00:25:11]You were removed as chief of defense staff at the height of this investigation. Then, you know, you were brought back two months later, barely two months later as a minister of defense. Now, were you removed because of the alleged links to the coup plot?

[00:25:25]And if not, was it simply a mistake given the president needed you back so quickly?

[00:25:31]>> Well, you know, that's a presidential decision. Um, I've spent over 34 years.

[00:25:35]So, at any time at the discretion of Mr. President, I could be relieved and so I was I was I was let go and 5 weeks later I'm back to show you that yes, it wasn't that because I was involved in anything.

[00:25:46]And far from it, we were the ones actually identified the coup. who were the one who reported. I was the one who convened the committee that did the investigation. So we did all this uh together. Uh what we are trying to do now is to show the junior ones that that school doesn't pay anything.

[00:26:00]>> Democracy is far far better than any military regime. And so this is an opportunity. Um I just looked at the people that were involved in that and I shook my head because they are just bunch of confused uh individuals that uh exposed very junior officers that didn't have know their left from their right and put them into this this mess. Uh it's quite unfortunate. Uh we always feel bad when we see uh our colleagues drilling. But the good thing is that the system has a way of going about it. The investigation was very thorough. uh the the the prosecution the prosecution now is going and the court court marshall will go as as as planned is go ongoing and we're giving them all the benefits to defend themselves but the facts on the ground are very very clear >> and I can tell you that we're following all the processes nothing is hidden it's quite unfortunate what they did they had no reason to do that the country was going very well uh the armed forces have been taken care of quite very well we've never had issues with our salaries efforts have been made to even increase our salaries and our allowances uh our troops are doing quite very Well, we're getting more equipments to to fight and make sure this and um anybody who is thinking of planning on I think it's just wasting even the civilians in Nigeria would have taken them down. So I think it was just full heady uh for them to have done what they are trying to do or what they wanted to do.

[00:27:15]>> The civilians in Nigeria would have taken them down. All right. Now, as Minister of Defense General, do you have President Tinubu's full confidence? And do you have the mandate to make the hard decisions necessary to fix Nigeria's security crisis, even if it means holding powerful people accountable?

[00:27:39]>> You're very well. Very well. Of course.

[00:27:40]I mean, for I mean, to show you, I left CDS and five weeks later, I was back as Minister of Defense. Uh, we've had several discussions, one-on-one discussion with Mr. president and we have told him about our plans and what we intend doing and he's probably he's following up um we're working together with all the other security agencies. Uh decisions are going to be taken collectively so that we make sure that we are doing that uh we're getting the right results. Uh wherever there are setbacks we can look at. You asked about the issue of uh the sponsors. Sponsors two are being taken out. Um the names are going to been I think they were listed out and I think the attorney general too is doing investigation you know because it takes uh because we a sovereign nation and it's democratic. So we need to really take out this and find out in details the level of uh complexity before uh actions could be taken. Uh but working together we're happy. Mr. President, he's equally happy what we're doing. He wants more results because every time we meet him, he wants these things to end. And we assure him that we're working tirelessly in ensuring that. I want to appeal to Nigeria to continue to still very strong. Let them not be discouraged. Let them not allow anybody to talk them down. Nigeria is a great country.

[00:28:49]Nigeria will continue to thrive.

[00:28:51]>> Nigeria will continue to thrive. 3 years into this administration, finally, General Musa, you've had a distinguished military career. You've commanded operations. You've led troops.

[00:29:05]You've earned medals. But right now, some Nigerians are mourning. They are asking where are the results? 3 years in what concrete changes can Nigerians expect in the next 12 months? And if things don't improve, who should be held accountable?

[00:29:27]>> We are working. We are working tirelessly. We are getting results. Uh sometimes the results might be very slow you might think but I can tell you on daily basis we are rescuing people we are bringing people out we are preventing attacks we are we're taking out commanders of bandits of terrorists we are working together with our neighboring countries to ensure we do we are talking with our partners to continue to do it's just a matter of time I want to appeal to Nigerians yes it looks difficult it looks really really difficult and we understand with that >> but what we're saying is that there's a light at the end of the tunnel we must continue to push together and we're going to succeed. Uh I don't want a situation where we throw blames at each other.

[00:30:05]>> This is a Nigerian challenge. Nobody, like I said, nobody ever thought Nigeria was going to get into this, but we're in it now. It's not the time for us to sit down and be crying or be complaining or grumbling. It's a time for us to work together, support each other, and deal with these enemies of the states.

[00:30:20]>> All right. You've talked about support at length and you've talked about um you know measures that have been put in place like the collaboration with the US government also with the deployment of drones. Now I'd like to ask you you know to be very frank uh at this moment now if you were still a soldier on the ground in Boro Kebi Quir Benway Plu and other hotspots and you are not a minister in Abuja what would you want your commander-in-chief to do differently?

[00:31:02]Uh no I I think for us is to continue to do what he's doing. Continue to improve on releasing for you know issues of funds. Nobody gets 100% of what he requires. So we're making do with the little we have. Uh we wish we could have more. Uh want to partner with other countries to be able to do more. If we have more we can do better. Uh like issues of satellite you know satellite is something that we the ones we have cannot give us realtime focus. Now the partners are providing that. We need to have this. We need to be self-sufficient in in this military production. Uh we feel that if we are able to continue to do the way we're doing, we going we're going to get better results. Uh we're all committed into it. I'm happy we have a new um inspector general police who is also very proactive. He has had a lot of experience which is also bringing to bear. Uh because a country without a good police is is it's difficult for it to thrive. So we need to also refine the police quite very well. And I'm happy what he's doing. I'm happy that the president is also considering it. And then the aspect of state police, state police are very very important because they will be able to work together with the local government chairman and they will know all the criminals around them. So they will be able to tackle this completely. So it's it's a holistic thing and it's a whole of society approach.

[00:32:15]>> All right. Before I let you go, I have a question from the presidency. I actually interviewed Daniel Bala who talked about how Nigerians can get license to arm themselves. I'd like for you to help us unpack that statement that he made right here on the show. He talked about how Nigerians are able to defend themselves if they were to have, you know, a self um a militia group of some sort.

[00:32:46]No, I think he was just talking about uh community policing. Part of community policing uh the president has a prerogative to authorize uh different groups that have been identified, have been profiled, have been uh authorized to to bear arms in support like we did in in the northeast. We have the civilian JTF. We work together with them. The local governments get them pump action, buy them cartridges, we go for operations together with them. Um that's what we want to do. Now we have hunters you know officially we have also the hunters group we have the vigilantes we can also use those ones uh because as hunters they they able to carry den guns and carry this uh light rifles to go into the forest to do that people must learn to work together with members of the armed forces and like I said you can't sit back and said you are waiting because there's no soldier or there's no policeman then you won't protect yourself first preservation of every human being is protection of your life so whatever you need to do to ensure that you stay alive Please do it. But the important thing is collectively communities must come together. Get your group so that you can have people that can identify if you have criminals coming in. Uh states, local government should be able to identify markets because most of them movement of arms and ammunition and drugs comes from true markets or illegal car parks. We must identify those car parks. We must take those illegal ones and those legal ones we must have the police or the security agencies that will be there to identify because those are the things we did in the northeast that assisted us in ensuring that we address such of these issues.

[00:34:12]>> For the central bank, we need them to also be able to follow up when when when payments are made, they should be able to get the profile. If they see such monies that were paid being transferred into banks, they should be able to track it. POS, we must find ways of addressing that. But I think the overall thing is again we must have a database. There are steps we need to take to address security. If we don't do them, they will continue to haunt us. We must have a database. As Nigerians with the database, if you go abroad, you commit an offense. It's very easy for them to arrest you. It's not by magic. It's because I have a database. They get your thumb print or your face or your signature or something, they can get you as quickly as possible. We need to do that. And sensors is one thing I want to also want to encourage. We must conduct a comprehensive of all Nigerians in the world with technology. We can do that.

[00:34:59]And once we do that, it makes crime and criminality difficult. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

[00:35:04]>> All right. On that note, um General Christopher Musa, I'd like to thank you very much for your contribution on this program. We look forward to, you know, that list of um people that are financing terrorism. We look forward to a comprehensive database for Nigerians and of course I like your thoughts about census. I'd love to thank you very much for your time and for answering those questions directly.

[00:35:34]>> All right.

[00:35:34]>> Thank you very much.

[00:35:36]>> Thank you. or made you