Jonathan charges military to launch offensive attacks on Boko Haram

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President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that the country requires new thinking, new approaches, more sophisticated equipment and new ways of doing things to be able to confront the threats posed by   Boko Haram.

'We cannot defeat this enemy by being on the defensive because the enemy has no nation or citizen to defend,' he warned.

President Jonathan who stated this in an address delivered on his behalf by the Vice President, Alhaji Namadi Sambo at the graduation ceremony of course 20 of the National Defence College, Abuja, said 'we must take the battle to the enemy and disrupt his source of arsenal.'

The president also said that the security agencies must also identify and destroy the sect training bases and recruitment efforts. Not just only that they should be more proactive in the way they confront the threats before they emerge.

'Our security will therefore require the best intelligence to reveal threats hidden in built up areas, in forests, in remote settlements and so on' he further charged. While stating that interagency cooperation among the security agencies must be reinforced and to respond to attacks more swift, he said that they should work with loyal citizens of this country to bring the threats under check.

'I hate to describe the enemy as terrorists but they operate just like them. We must uncover their cells using all available tools. President Jonathan noted that we are in conflict between good and evil and we must be bold enough to call evil by its name. This evil goes by name Boko Haram.'

He said that the government initiative on terrorisms tagged National Counter Terrorism strategy, NACTEST, will be subject to review on a bi-annual basis.

Earlier, the Minister of Defence, Erelu Olusola Obada urged the participants to use knowledge acquired from their one year course to address the country's numerous security problems which she believed solutions can be handy through the formulation of durable strategies , effective coordination and synergy , and speedy decision making.

The Commandant National Defence College, Vice Admiral TJ   Lokoson said the 130 graduating participants spent one year studying security and strategic studies.