Minister of Defence, Major-General Bashir Magashi (retd), on Monday said he has he cannot tell when the war against insurgency in Nigeria would end.
According to him, the ongoing war against insurgency in the country is not a conventional war that could be predicted by determining the weakness of the enemies.
Magashi spoke with journalists after revalidating his membership of the All Progressives Congress at Galandasi, Gwale Local Government Area of Kano State.
“Nobody can predict anything because it is not a conventional war in which the strength and weakness of the enemy could be established”, the defence minister said.
The minister, who lauded the general public on intelligent reports about criminals in their states said the military could not defeat the enemies alone.
“To be honest, the role of the armed forces and other security agencies have really been very encouraging and we implore Nigerians to encourage us to do more.
“But if you are only waiting for success, nobody can predict anything, especially with the kind of war we are fighting. The new concept of everything is not so conventional as to predict that you can beat the enemy at your own pace.
“The only way conventional warfare is fought is to know the strength of your enemy, his weaknesses and compare with what you have. Then, you can certainly predict whether or not you can win the war. But the most important thing is the ability of the people that you are fighting for to appreciate the effort the military is putting in and encourage them to do better.
“Today, everybody seems to rely on success, without corresponding interest to assist the military. However, I think Nigerians are getting it better. They know that the military cannot do it alone and they are doing all their best to see that they assist us in whatever manner — intellectually, materially and anything that will make us get out of this thing, especially, in the area of intelligence.
“We want to know what these people are up to; we want to know what they are doing so that we can predict where to hit them hard. “I am the minister of defence and the defence of this country is entirely my responsibility. We have the mandate to ensure that the lives and properties of people are protected”, he said.
