The former Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin has called for an urgent need to secure Nigeria’s forests, warning that the next warfare and crisis in the country will be in the forests.

Olonisakin said this during his screening by the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs on Thursday.

He explained that research which he conducted on forests three years ago shows that Nigeria has over 1,000 forest reserves and therefore this calls for an urgent need to man and protect the forests which have become hideouts for criminals.

The immediate past Service Chiefs are currently at the National Assembly for their screening as ambassadorial nominees.

The committee which is led by Senator Mohammed Bulkachuwa held a closed-session before the service chiefs were ushered into the room for the commencement of the screening.

For the Former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, he lamented that the terrorists have permeated the society and won the communities to their side.

According to him, the solution to the security crisis in the country is a multi-pronged approach and military warfare alone is not the solution.

He added that there are so many ungovernable spaces in the country with no government presence. The government he says must provide infrastructure in these communities to win the people and it will take another twenty years to resolve this crisis.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, on Thursday, February 4 announced that the immediate service chiefs have been nominated by President Buhari for the position of ambassadors.

They are former Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin, the former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, and the former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas.

Others are former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, and the former Chief of Defence Intelligence, Air Vice Marshal Mohammed Usman.