National Security Adviser, (NSA), retired Maj.-General Babagana Monguno, has called for vigilance and cooperation between Nigeria and Ghana in the quest to tackle regional security threats in the West African subregion.
The Head, Strategic Communication, Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Mr Zakari Usman, in a statement on Tuesday said that Monguno made the call during a visit to Ghana.
Usman said the NSA delivered a lecture at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, titled “The State of Security in West Africa: Curbing the Spread of Terrorism and Preventing Coup Contagion”
The lecture was delivered for the members of the Ghana Armed Forces and students.
Monguno underscored the importance of countering terrorism and violent extremism, transnational organised crime, climate change, cyber threats, porous borders and piracy/sea robbery in the Gulf of Guinea.
During his meetings with Ghanaian officials, Monguno congratulated the Minister of National Security, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, on the successful hosting of the maiden edition of ECOWAS Forum of NSAs in the country.
He advised that the need to strengthen collective regional response, developing capabilities to tackle regional threats and the development of regional security be vigorously pursued and implemented.
NSA also reiterated the need for vigilance and cooperation to discourage coup d’états within the sub region.
He said that Nigerian government had recorded tremendous success in addressing the challenges of maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea via the ‘Falcon Eye’ facility.
At the inauguration of the facility in 2021, the NSA said: “The Project was borne out of the necessity to combat the myriad of security challenges within the maritime sector ranging from cases of kidnapping of oil workers, sea robbery/piracy, incessant problems of crude oil theft, illegal bunkering, hostage-taking, maritime terrorism amongst other criminal activities perpetrated within the maritime domain.
“Scope of the Falcon Eye project includes the establishment of a detection layer, identification layer as well as command and control centres. It also includes the installation of mobile platforms and the training of personnel. In addition, the facilities of the Project are designed to combine massive multilayer surveillance sensors to generate a comprehensive real-time picture of the activities within Nigeria’s maritime area of interest.”
Monguno also called for concerted effort towards containing the expansion of terrorist groups in East Burkina Faso and Southern Mali, suggesting that these two issues be discussed in the next Accra Initiative Summit and ECOWAS Forum of NSAs.
He further called for cooperation among security agencies of Ghana and Nigeria in tackling the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, herders and farmers’ clashes, cross- border movement of criminals and drug trafficking in the region.
