By Bisi Olawunmi
These are trying times, security wise, for Nigerians. House Nigeria is tilting at a crazy angle and prayer warriors are in fervent supplication to the Almighty that this house must not fall. However, the people are getting wearied given the seemingly unanswered prayers for peace in the land as the nation wakes up to a daily nightmare of bombings, killings,
kidnappings, robberies and widespread mayhem, with rampaging Boko Haram being the poster boy of the nation’s insecurity. And to counter putative islamist terror, hitherto peace and forgiveness preaching pastors are turning into fire-spitting evangelical militants. In spite of the palpable insecurity, the Nigerian spirit of resilience endures – for now. But the portents are that things have to start turning the corner for the better before the situation unravels.
And recent pronouncements by three top security chiefs are enough to give anyone not just the jitters, but a sense of foreboding. The security chiefs’ statements were reported in the media within a period of three days – between July 29 and July 31, 2012 – signaling a potentially scary security situation for the second half of the year 2012. Starting from the most recent, the Yobe state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Patrick Egbuniwe, in a July 31, 2012 media report had lamented the non cooperation of members of the public in volunteering information to the police.
He impliedly accused the public of aiding and abetting the Boko Haram insurgents. “The problem we have here is that the residents shield the Boko Haram men by hiding their identities. If they had cooperated, we would have finished our job here since”, Egbuniwe remarked. He was reacting to suspected Boko Haram gun attack on a bus carrying the police command staff to office the previous day in which a woman was killed. Pointing out that the people know the homes of the Boko Haram men but would not disclose to the security agency, the police commissioner, in plaintive frustration, declared : “The boys attack the police and disturb everybody’s peace.
Then they go back to their homes. The people in this area have refused to help the police”. The poser for the police is : What level of confidence has it built with the people? And how can the people put the safety of their lives on the line when the police cannot save its own officers ? On July 29, 2012, a newspaper story captioned ‘Northern communities shielding Boko Haram – SSS’ had the director of the State Security Service in charge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Mr. Little Okojie alleging community cover up for Boko Haram militants. H
e had regretted non cooperation from the public in the fight against violent crime when Abuja chapter executives of the Nigeria Union of Journalists visited him. Apparently admitting lack of synergy among the security agencies, Mr. Okojie pledged that the agencies would work towards effective coordination of the campaign against crimes in the country. What Mr. Okojie would perhaps not admit is the seeming unhealthy rivalry among the security agencies to score points, sort of upstaging each other. For instance, the SSS used to enjoy a dreaded reputation as an invisible, ruthlessly efficient security machine that operates in the shadows.
This shadowy nature of its operations had created a fearsome myth about the organization. Today, the SSS has come into the open and seem to be in competition with the police in terms of public visibility with its frequent media briefings. The SSS needs to return to the shadows as an undercover intelligence agency. If the nature of a particular job requires anonymity to enhance its efficiency, its staff must be willing to remain anonymous.
It is one of the steps needed to enhance cooperation and effectiveness of the security agencies. However, considered most worrisome of the statements from the three security chiefs was that published on Sunday, July 29, 2012, in which a national newspaper carried a front page teaser headline : Boko Haram, others over-stretching military – Army Chief. The story, which ran on page four of the newspaper, credited Major-General Usman Abdulkaldir, Chief of Army Standards and Evaluation, as stating that the deployment of the military to various flashpoints in the country was over-stretching the resources of the army.
Gen. Abdulkadir, who was delivering the Ramadan lecture of the Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria in Abuja on July 28, 2012, had listed inadequate logistics and lack of expedient procedures and laws to bring criminals to justice as some of the factors impeding restoration of law and order. But what is most telling in his lecture is the critique of lack of coordination among the security agencies and the implication of widespread, intractable violence for the survival of democracy in the country. On coordination among the security agencies, the General had observed : “Most agencies pay more allegiance to their respective services to the detriment of the operation they are supporting.
Therefore , most internal security operations in Nigeria become problematic to manage and coordinate while synergy is lost”. What, perhaps, is the most weighty aspect of the lecture is his foray into the political. General Abdulkadir had noted the high-level insecurity in the country and admonished : “The present situation has bred an atmosphere of political insecurity, instability, including declining confidence in the political leadership and apprehension about the system. Invariably, continuing escalation of violence and crises across the country interrupts the survival of democracy”. The import of this is that an army compelled to perform police duties over an extended period could become fatigued and frustrated, consequently even posing a threat to the polity.
It is a reality that must be faced. The General’s critique of the nation’s insecurity has drawn its own critics. One is The Nation newspaper August 1, 2012 editorial titled : ‘Over-stretched military ?’ with the rider : Gen. Abdulkadir’s complaint is unwelcome surrender. No doubt, the pronouncements of the three security chiefs, particularly the General’s, could, as pointed out in the editorial, be interpreted as a surrender and at the worst a “testing the waters” in opposition to which the paper declared : “Nigerians say no to any rude prospective military intervention in power”.
A perceived surrender of the security forces could further embolden criminal elements. However, the General’s statement could also be a timely wake up call to the political leadership to sort itself out. When some other people have to clean up after a mess created mainly by politicians, it can be resentful. So, the political class, like the security agencies, must embrace synergy to effectively tackle the nation’s pervasive violence-induced insecurity that has created fear in all.
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