Former Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin (retd), has disclosed that he identified and tackled at least 14 security challenges as the head of the Nigerian Armed Forces between 2015 and 2021.
Olonisakin said the military under him worked assiduously as both the security agencies and intelligence agencies synergised to tackle the menace of crime and insecurity which took over the entire country.
The former CDS made this known during a special thanksgiving service held in his honour at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (Sunrise Parish), Ode Ekiti, Gbonyin Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
According to him, “I want start by really thanking God for the privilege to serve the nation at the highest military level. I also thank President Muhammadu Buhari for giving me the opportunity to head the armed forces for 66 months and 13 days.
”My own drive, as it were, was to be an agent of value addition. We went through the storm and came up with those babies of necessities. The system did not have those structures to do what we were facing, so we had to come up with ad hoc arrangements like the platforms we created with the intelligence agencies.
”I was also futuristic in our approach to address some of the strategies. This forest thing we are experiencing at the moment, I saw it years back. I did a kind of study and I knew that our next target was going to be the forest.”
Olonisakin revealed that the use of Special Forces and re-training of personnel became necessary due to the situation at the moment, adding that though the challenges are still in existence, the structures put in place addressed the issues.
”It’s just that you’re not likely to finish a case, but at least we had out structures in place to address some of those threats like cyber security because we knew the cyberspace was also a threat.
”We also made sure we encourage a lot of research and development because we knew without that, we were not likely to change the game,” he said.
He therefore advised his successor, Gen Lucky Irabor and other security chiefs to be diligent and patriotic, noting that solutions come with commitment.
While appreciating the president for selecting him as an ambassador-designate after retirement, Olonisakin promised to facilitate mutual cooperation and collaborate with the host country in all aspects.