PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has admitted publicly for the first time that members of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, have infiltrated his government at various levels.
Speaking at an inter-denomination church service to mark the 2012 Armed Forces Remembrance Day at the National Christian Centre Abuja, he revealed that the extremists were now present in the executive, legislative and judiciary arms of government and even in the armed forces.
He said this was part of why it had been difficult for security agencies to deal with the menace, which has led to the death of many people.
Describing the present situation in the country as worse than civil war experience, Jonathan noted that "this is a particular time when the country has major security challenges. There are explosions every day, people are dying and are being killed daily without any reason.
"It is a period we also call on the armed forces, including those that have retired, to join hands with their colleagues that are still in service and government to see how collectively we can protect our nation.
"I believe we will overcome our immediate challenges. The situation we have in our hands is even worse than the civil war that we fought."
Continuing, he said, "during the civil war, we knew and we could even predict where the enemy was coming from, you can even know the route they were coming from, you can even know what calibre of weapons they would use and so on.
"But the challenge we have today is more complicated. I remember when I held a meeting with elders from the North-East and some parts of the North-West, where the Boko Haram phenomenon is more prevalent, somebody said that the situation is bad that even if one's son is a member, one will not even know.
"That means that if the person will plant a bomb behind your house, you won't know. Some of them are in the executive arm of government; some of them are in the legislative arm of government while some of them are even in the judiciary.
"Some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security agencies. Some continue to dip their hands and eat with you and you won't even know the person who will point a gun at you or plant a bomb behind your house. That is how complex the situation is.
"Our security services are trying because, as the president, I know what they are doing. Nigerians may not appreciate their efforts, especially when you know that we are underpoliced. We have a police force that is about 300,000 in number.
"Countries that have the kind of challenge that we have today who have about 20 per cent of our population have five times more than that number. That number would have been okay some years back but definitely not the number that can cope with the security challenges we have now."
FG bars protesters from Eagle Square
In another development, the Federal Government has barred the organised labour and civil society groups protesting against the removal oil subsidy from staging demonstration at Eagle Square.
This is just as it has urged all public servants to ignore the today's nationwide strike declared by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC).
Indications to this emerged in Abuja, as all routes leading to the Federal Secretariat have been cordoned off by heavily armed policemen ahead of today's planned mass protest by NLC and civil society organisations.
The National Industrial Court had restrained the NLC and TUC from embarking on the strike, but the organised labour said it would not back down.
Accordingly, the Head of Service of the Federation, Alhaji Isa Bello Sali, has directed all civil servants to ignore the strike and continue to perform their normal duties by reporting to the office as usual.
ACN govs sue for peace
Also, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) controlled states, on Saturday, called on the protesters to eschew violence and also demanded fiscal federalism. Describing subsidy as a financial and economic tool, but not an end in itself, the governors, at the end of the meeting, said the call for fiscal federalism became imperative because of the alleged lopsidedness in the revenue allocation formula.
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