Muhammadu Buhari.
The Federal Government will continue to monitor the
activities of terrorists online to control radicalisation of
Nigerians by terrorist groups and other violent cells, the
President has said.
President Muhammadu Buhari explained that this was important
following the huge traffic online and growing constraints on
physical contacts and movements due to the coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic.
He made the remarks on Wednesday in Abuja, while participating
at the AQABA Process virtual meeting in the Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan.
“It is important to state that the spread of COVID-19 has led to
the movement of activities to cyberspace,” the President was quoted
as saying in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and
Publicity, Femi Adesina.
He added, “Furthermore, lockdown policies and restrictions of
movement in affected areas means that people would move their day
to day social and business activities to cyberspace.
“This, however, comes with an increase in the risk of
individuals being radicalised online.”
Sustaining Human Security
President Buhari said the Federal Government would sustain
efforts to make adjustments to new lifestyles and be sensitive to
the security underpinnings, as experts try to find vaccines for
COVID-19 and a possible acceptable cure.
He noted that Nigeria developed a robust framework led by the
Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 to coordinate and oversee
the country’s multi-sectoral inter-governmental efforts at
containing the spread and mitigating the impact of the
pandemic.
“This was done while currently monitoring the effects of the
measures and taking steps to mitigate these effects as quickly as
possible. This was in a bid to ensure sustained human security
across the population.
“Earlier, we had established the National Humanitarian
Coordination Committee with the responsibility of providing among
others, a national vision for humanitarian actors and settling
disputes that may arise from interactions between security services
and the humanitarian community.
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“This committee was timely as a stop-gap measure in coping with
the effects of COVID-19,” the President told the meeting.
An Economic Crisis
He disclosed that the government had also taken measures to
tackle the devastation of social and economic dimensions of the
pandemic, with a focus on the most vulnerable citizens in the
society through the provision of palliatives and other economic
stimulus packages.
President Buhari explained that the measures came at a cost, but
would be sustained while citing Mali as an example where social and
economic challenges took a toll on the government and pushed
democracy to a “breaking point.”
“Such a situation could create a vacuum that can be exploited by
terrorists and violent extremists,” he said.
The President also informed the gathering of Heads of
Governments at the meeting that the security landscape in Nigeria
and across West Africa has continued to evolve with the advent of
the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that various systems in society came
grinding to a halt as a result of the urgent measures taken to slow
down the spread of the disease.
According to him, the measures were taken while being mindful of
the toll that the virus has had in the various epicentres across
the world where medical structures were strained up to breaking
point while dealing with mass casualties as a result of infections
from the disease.
“These measures are not without their challenges as livelihood
were drastically affected and civic lifestyle is being tested to
its limits.
“The whole instruments of government are now mobilised to
confront what has now turned both a health emergency and an
economic crisis,” President Buhari said.