President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said
military action alone could never be enough to end the menace of terrorism and
extremism currently eating deep into global polity.
He said adherence to good governance,
transparency, accountability and rule of law, were some of the best ways to
start the process of ridding the world of terrorism.
Buhari made his position known in a statement he
delivered at a Global Leaders’ Summit on Countering ISIL and Violent Extremism
organised by President Barack Obama on the sideline of the 70th United Nations
General Assembly in New York.
He said while military action was not enough, it
was however capable of stemming the tide and reversing the process of
recruitment, movement and effective operation of foreign terrorists’ fighters
and their associated radical elements.
He said while Nigeria noted the efforts being
made by the UN and the international community to tackle ISIL, a lot more
needed to be done.
Buhari said, “Nigeria notes with satisfaction the
efforts of the United Nations and the rest of the international community to
contain ISIL. We certainly need to do more.
“We need to take military action combined with
effective border security, intelligence collection and sharing, and vigorous
policing action.
“These alone may not suffice, but they can
certainly stem the tide and reverse the process of recruitment, movement and effective
operation of foreign terrorist fighters and their associated radical
extremists.
“In order to put in place the critical components
of an effective approach to countering ISIL and eventually defeating it, we
must address the threat from the source.
“We must find a way to prevent young people from
turning to terror in the first place. And the young people that turn to violent
extremism do not exist in a vacuum – they are often part of communities and
families and are lured into the fold of barbaric and nihilistic organisations,
somehow, through a misguided appeal to their worst fears, expectations and
apparent frustrations.
“While addressing the causes of this attraction
and how to deal with them, we should pay close attention to other manifest
factors that may not be tangible but can be crucial.
“Good governance, which entails transparency,
accountability and the rule of law, remains the basis on which we should
kick-start the process of ridding the world of the menace of terrorism and
violent extremism.
“The international community will be required to
work together to deter and disrupt illicit financial flows from nations with
weak anti-theft structures to other parts of the world.”
The President said where such funds were
identified, the victim state should be assisted to recover them expeditiously.
He said member states needed to address local
socio-economic grievances by formulating policies that would ensure broad-based
transformation through job creation, equalisation of opportunities and
expanding access to social services.
He added that African leaders also needed to
rededicate themselves to uphold the mandate of the African Union’s Peer Review
Mechanism and other good governance initiatives that they had adopted in the
region, to encourage conformity with political, economic and corporate
governance values.
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