Nigeria’s former Chief of Defence Staff retired General Lucky Irabor on Monday night accused politicians of having a hand in the insecurity plaguing the country, warning that whichever political divide they belong, they should not drag issues of security into their partisan political discussions.
In an interview on Channels Television programme, Politics Today, monitored by Newsmata.com.ng where he gave further insight into his book, “Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum,” launched Friday October 3, 2025, Irabor chided opposition politicians who criticise the government in power for not doing enough to address insecurity only to change their language when they come into power and are confronted with the reality.
Asked pointedly if politicians were behind the country’s insecurity today, the former CDS said unequivocally that “They have a hand because of their actions and inactions. You asked a question which I was addressing, which is also part and parcel of what I’ve stated in the book, why Boko Haram activities still persist.
“And then what I just mentioned to you, where some politicians, at some point, begin, for reasons of maybe wanting to gain political leverage, you castigate policies that you do not know about just because there is insecurity only for you later on to realise when eventually you win power, that the problem is more.
“I mean, look at the trajectory of this insecurity. You realise that the language before now, before you gained power is different from when you gained power because the reality is now there”.
On his message for the present administration on addressing the problem, the former Commander, Operation Dole, advised: “Do not politicise security issues. Whether you are the leading political party right now, or you are in the opposition, please do not involve security issues in your partisan political discussions because eventually, you realise that we need both sides of the eye to be able to work together to be able to address the issues.
“But where you want to make it so acerbic, or because you believe that until you pull him down then for you to be able to gain power, you realise we will be running in circles”.
Reflecting on the role politics played in the Chibok girls’ abduction, the ex-CDS said “at the time, I could consider myself to be a tactical commander. Of course, I also had a clear understanding, or if you like, a clear reading of the dynamics at play at the time. Don’t forget that the politics that we play in Nigeria is a little bit too toxic and that’s also part of the essence of the book.
“To say that we need to begin to pivot on some of the approaches to politicking in Nigeria such that our desire, if you like, our objectives, should be people-centred. Let the services you want to provide be based on the political leverage that we have; let it be centred on the people and to ensuring that the led are those who benefit maximally.
“So, with that said, of course, at that time, there were a lot of discussions that were tending towards the 2015 elections. And so, we began to see that there were issues that had to do with desiring to gain upper hand for the 2015 election.
“So, there were, of course, feelings that some form of disagreement, both at the federal level and of course at the state level, especially in Borno State at the time wherein there is a view that perhaps the political party at the centre at the time was not doing enough to be able to help the state. So, by and large, that was what was in the air.
“But for me as a person on the ground, of course there was abduction. I saw it, two days after the abduction was done. But I think that a more important question is not as to whether the abduction happened or not; rather, it should be why was it that there was no sufficient capacity for the responders to be able to do something?
“This is also part of why I felt that documenting some of these experiences are essential because political decisions have a lot of implications for agents of governments that are responsible for policy implementation.
“So, the aggregate of the contributions of each of these establishments is what gives right to what you see as security or under security, or if you like, state of insecurity.
“But whatever it is, it is the sum total of economic scars that will make us begin to rethink approach of having to lay our grievances. Our grievances must not tend towards violence such that there will be carnage, there will be destructions”.
Reacting to the question about lack of equipment as documented in his book, and why it is easy to steal money meant for weapons, Irabor, who clocks 60 this year, asserted that first and foremost, maintaining an armed forces, or security, is not cheap, more so, for a nation at war.
“So, you must also realise that when a nation is at war, even though in our own case, this war has not been declared, and I say so; it’s also in the book that there is no legal instrument indicating that Nigeria is at war. There’s none. We are only assuming that we are at a war”.
Irabor underscored why war needed to be declared.
“Of course, there is need to declare a war in order to aggregate the elements of State power directly to the war effort. It will make a huge difference because resourcing of course, will not be properly channeled, and then accountability frameworks can now be properly applied in such a manner that we’re able to see results for some of the expenditures. It will make a significant impact”.
He however pointed out that talking about the war is not just the military line of operations. “We are talking about the aggregate of the deployment of the elements of State power beyond just military power that will help us. So, in my book, I have canvassed for a pivoting away from the preponderance of military, or if you like, hard power, to utilising other elements which involve, if one could say, soft power, but majorly governance policies among other things that may help us such that if we are able to reduce the number of out-of-school-children, those who are vulnerable for criminals to employ, those who do not have jobs, so many other things; then, of course, we will be reducing those who perhaps, the criminals want to recruit among other things”.
