Don’t Wait Till Bandits Attack Presidential Villa, Astronaut Salis Warns Tinubu.

First Nigerian Astronaut, Chief Owolabi Salis, has urged the nation’s leader to brace up with a sense of emergency for decisive and pragmatic measures to devastate the hydra-headed monster of banditry ravaging the nation once and for all. He urged both the President and his Deputy, Kashim Shettima, to take a cue from the exemplary […]

First Nigerian Astronaut, Chief Owolabi Salis, has urged the nation’s leader to brace up with a sense of emergency for decisive and pragmatic measures to devastate the hydra-headed monster of banditry ravaging the nation once and for all.

He urged both the President and his Deputy, Kashim Shettima, to take a cue from the exemplary instance of the late Chadian President Idriss Derby whose obsession against the terrorising wave of banditry was so intense that he would often personally lead the battle against them during his lifetime.

“Although I am not saying here that the President and his Vice should go out to the battle-front to lead any battle, what I am rather trying to commend unto them is the need to imbibe the monomaniac fury with which the late Chadian President tried to grapple with the knotty question of terrorism during his lifetime,” said the Ikorodu-born Lagosian who also made history as the first Black man to travel to the North and South Pole, both within a season

Speaking against the backdrop of speculations by security experts warning of possible escalation of terrorist insurgency with the approach of the dry season, the Lawyer-Politician warned that “we should not wait until these dare-devil bandits over-run the country or even attack the Presidential Villa and the strategic Legislative bloc before it dawns on us that they really mean business.

He therefore advocated an urgent need for Nigeria to evolve into a military super-power, armed to the teeth with sophisticated modern armament that essentially inspire awe and formidable presence in the global military arena.

He said that this is necessary in view of the natural demographic attribute of Nigeria as accommodating the greatest number of blacks both in Africa and diaspora.

He advised on the need to embark on massive recruitment into all arms of the military for sufficient numerical superiority capable of responding with impregnable resilience and adroit competence to multi-faceted areas of threat and tiresome crises of protracted nature as might possibly arise from time to time.

“Meaningful efforts also need be made not only to boost sagging morale of the existing fighting force, but also attract a massive flow of prospective entrants, by reviewing their meagerly earnings to a meaningful proportion commensurate to the life-saving nature of their job and the ever looming danger to their own lives.” said the history-making Astronaut and Polar traveller who in 2019 contested for governorship on the platform of the Alliance For Democracy (A.D.) in Lagos State.

He recalled that the lamentable episode of the one-star General who met his tragic death in the hands of the violent Islamic Fundamentalist militants (ISWAP) was an unfortunate experience which has sent an awry signal to the larger global world on the severe limitations that rattle the multi-faceted segments of the Nigerian Defense sector.

According to him “it was particularly horrible that a whole army of a nation which should constitute a terrific dread-nought terror to enemies and armed to the teeth at all times had to fight itself to a frightful escape rather than formidably stand up to rout the bandits ruthlessly to supine stupor.

“Unfortunately this was not to be,as the bandits armed with superior fire-power overwhelmed a whole standing national army, putting them in disarray to the point that an elevated top brass officer of the rank of Brigadier-General equally had to run away for dear life, only to be caught so cheap by the enemy and slaughtered like a chicken.”

He wondered that “the Battalion of soldiers that he led knew quite well that their commander was missing,yet they ran away with such unabashed fright and cowardliness leaving him in such harsh lonely isolation to face his fate without any attempt to instantly fight their way through to save his life”

“This indeed is not only unfortunate but one expose too many and irredeemably costly as it has gone a long way in demystifying the nation laying it vulnerable and liable to be taken for granted by lesser nations who may see it as a clay-feet giant which can only bark and not bite.”