Onwuka Nzeshi and Emmanuel Onani 
The Coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Office of the National Security Adviser, Maj-Gen. Adamu Laka, has said that: “Issues of national security have both military and nonmilitary dimensions”.
Accordingly, the two star General called for a multi- pronged approach in addressing challenges of insecurity, occasioned by terrorism, insurgency, banditry, and other violent crimes confronting the nation.
Speaking at a strategic engagement with media executives/editors on counter terrorism concerns, yesterday, Laka said: “With the development of the National Counter Terrorism Strategy 2016, Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism 2017 and the National Security Strategy 2019, the functions of the Counterterrorism Centre expanded as a value adding entity to various agencies and strategic partners in the counterterrorism efforts and actions.
“It is for the effective coordination of the increasingly counterterrorism efforts and activities that further informed the upgrade of the Counterterrorism Centre to a fully-fledged National Centre following the enactment of the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022 and thus fully mandated us to coordinate all counterterrorism activities and efforts including terrorism financing.
National security is all encompassing. “Security affairs are not only confined to the military, police, intelligence, and other law enforcement agencies as many people assume.
Issues of national security have both military and nonmilitary dimensions. It operates (through) the military border, geostrategic, demographic, cyber, resources, information, and many areas relating to socio-economic matters.
“This is the reason we engage kinetic, non-kinetic, and other generally accepted means in the efforts to resolve the security challenges confronting our great nation.
The National Counterterrorism Centre is engaged in a whole of government and whole of society approach in order to drive home the significance of contribution of every strata of the Nigerian economy in the fight against the enemies of the Nigerian state.
“This meeting is to enable us draw from your wealth of knowledge and experience with the hope to spark a conversation that will set tangible agenda for the government, political leaders, and policymakers, and also offer guides for informed decision-making, national planning, and implementation of laudable projects and programs for national reconstruction and attainment of sustainable development.”
He added: “Since the rise of the Boko Haram insurgency in north-eastern Nigeria in 2009, the country’s insecurity is exacerbated by terrorism, violent extremism, banditry, secessionist agitations and other forms of organised crimes.
“It is with the deliberate intent to address terrorism that warranted the signing into law the Terrorism Prevention Act. The Act necessitated the establishment of the Counterterrorism Centre in 2012 as a directorate in the Office of the National Security Advisor.”
Also speaking, the Special Adviser, Strategic Communication, ONSA, Zakari Mijinyawa, noted that: “Decisions of the media on what to report, how to report it, and when to report it can have profound implications, both intended and unintended.”
