LAGOS, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian president Tuesday said his government is focusing on strengthening the country's intelligence gathering capacity to rout insurgency and other violent crimes.
"For this to happen intelligence gathering must not be seen as solely a task for law enforcement agencies," Muhammadu Buhari said in Abuja, the nation's capital.
He spoke at the 8th National Security Seminar 2018 of the Alumini Association of the National Defense College (NDC), as the country is still reeling from reports of the abduction of 110 schoolgirls by Boko Haram fighters on Feb. 19.
"It is a task that must involve every citizen, every community," Buhari told his audience.
"And at the level of the military and intelligence agencies, intelligence-sharing must become the rule and not the exception," he added.
According to him, the scope of the battle against insurgency is broadened by the vast land mass in the North-east.
He said without investing in intelligence gathering, there would be very little hope for the country at the mercy of large swathes of ungoverned spaces and feeble borders.
Buhari said the nation has for nine years been confronted with the menace of Boko Haram insurgency but as of the end of 2016, the group as a fighting force has been effectively degraded.
The militant group has been blamed for more than 20,000 deaths since 2009 through terror attacks.
He said with the use of cyberspace and technology by terror and criminal gangs, the armed forces should make technology an important tool of warfare.
The worrisome state of insecurity has prompted the Nigerian government to spend heavily on the military and police apparatus in recent years.
