A letter to DSS and other intelligence agencies

We are no longer hearing from the leadership of the DSS. Since the initial gra-gra and controversies they’ve fallen silent.

You guys are supposed to be smart. I know you evolved from the police – just as did many other agencies. By splintering from the police you were meant to be cleaner, and smarter, much quicker on your feet. Is it politics that overcame you guys?

I heard the National Security Adviser, Monguno, for the first time since he was appointed years ago the other day, sounding very eloquent with his Queen’s English. He should be polished, after all he was one of those privileged ‘ajebutter’ Nigerian children who attended Kings College back in the day. From his speech I could hear and see an organised mind and an intelligent, functional brain, and I wondered at length why and how Abba Kyari managed to cage such a person while Buhari looked on. Monguno, later went on to allege that quite a number of the arms and ammunition that Nigeria paid for under the recently ‘ambassadorised’ military chiefs were nowhere to be found. When he saw that feathers were ruffled, he tried to walk back what he was alleged to have said. A couple of days after that happened, we heard in the news that Buhari stopped some weapons acquisition he wanted to make from Dubai through third parties. The report put Monguno in bad light and sought to expose his hypocrisy. Will we ever find a way out of our insecurity maze?

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We are no longer hearing from the leadership of the DSS. Since the initial gra-gra and controversies they’ve fallen silent. No one sees or hears from Yusuf Bichi anymore, but we sometimes see smart DSS chaps in dark suits and goggles performing their bodyguard services to the high and mighty. We even see them on few occasions heavily kitted up like ninjas, complete with balaclavas and some out-of-this-world machine guns.  But that is where it ends. It seems that the president does not care about the efficacy of the DSS and so they too have ‘jejely’ withdrawn to their cocoon. There is some politics going on there.

The police, we know their problem; that one is agelong. I am writing not to draw the attention of these bodies to myself but well I am available for their attention if they take this personal. I am writing as a concerned Nigerian citizen. I’m afraid that there is no intelligence in this country anymore. I am prompted to write specifically because the nation is totally adrift and even if we accuse the politicians of being asleep at the wheels, it is inexcusable for our intelligence services to also be snoring.

There looks to be a deliberate abandonment of Nigeria into the hands of the elements – kidnappers, secessionists, fake news agents, online terrorists, and other forms of terrorists.

Who does not know that security is won and lost at the level of intelligence?

Whereas Nigeria has come to disrespect the police force, but many still hold the intelligence services in awe as we see them as elite corps. At least they cannot be seen on the roads collecting money from bus drivers. However, one can conclude that with the rifeness of crime, and general disintegration of society, the intelligence services have lost their bite and famed prowess, especially under this government.

How can a faceless group named FUNAM be sowing so much discord in the Nigerian society and we have intelligence services feigning ignorance? Whoever is putting out statements on behalf of FUNAM is certainly playing a childish game on the minds of Nigerians but even professors believe them. This is because at the end, we are very emotional people in this country. However, the intelligence services have deliberately looked away while all this has been going on. I googled ‘statement by FUNAM’ just to be able to get some direct quotes for this article and up popped a statement from 2018 wherein this same FUNAM claimed that Nigeria is their only inheritance and that the whole of Nigeria up to the Atlantic belongs to them, that Plateau is their indigenous territory, even as they claimed responsibility for some gruesome killings. In recent times, the same group claimed that it attacked Benue Governor Ortom, and only missed killing him because of some ‘slight technical communications error’.  The group went further to say “Our intention is unequivocal: TO KILL HIM. The mission will one day be fulfilled and very soon too”. Furthermore,“We warn collaborators working against Fulani people across Nigeria: WE SHALL GET YOU irrespective of your hidden place… We state clearly, any state or individual that opposes RUGA will be confronted. Any State or individual that opposes ranching, we shall get you. Speak against ranching and RUGA even on the internet: Our Noiseless fighters shall find and fix you…In the next few months, FUNAM will carry out attacks on strategic human and material assets of States and Non State groups or individuals known for their anti-Fulani campaigns… We shall hunt you down in your houses, in your work places, in your car, in your streets. It’s a matter of time”.  People sign these documents but no one has been apprehended, neither has the statements been declared fake by our intelligence services.

From my own humble perception these statements are childishly written by someone who wants to foment trouble and arouse public anger and disunity in general. The statements also deflect from focusing on real perpetrators. I have been on many WhatsApp groups trying to calm people down by bringing attention to the fact that their minds are being manipulated. But why am I doing DSS job?

Even Ortom had earlier called a press conference at which he read another statement that this group put online to the extent that Benue State belongs to them and that it was their pleasure to kill Tiv people! A lot of Nigerians have been hailing Ortom for being a governor who loves his people for these public shows. However, those who attacked him must be found.  We hear that the police have arrested some fishermen in the area.

I have become a bit wary as every crime in Nigeria is now attributed to herders. Are we not leaving the space open for other criminals to ride on our sentiments?  Are we saying with all the resources at the behest of our intelligence services, no one can fish out those dumping things online, stewing up the minds of Nigerians, causing mayhem all over the place and even getting people primed to the idea of war and national disintegration? Is this the best that we can do really gentlemen?