Nigeria’s legion of notorious facts

Indeed that Nigeria has a legion of notorious facts is itself a notorious fact going by the legal definition of notorious facts as issues which require no proof because they are too easy and obvious to know. Even those who dispute them know in their hearts that such facts are irrefutable. A good example is […]

Indeed that Nigeria has a legion of notorious facts is itself a notorious fact going by the legal definition of notorious facts as issues which require no proof because they are too easy and obvious to know. Even those who dispute them know in their hearts that such facts are irrefutable. A good example is a report credited to the Commandant of the Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna a few days ago that intelligence failure accounts for the nation’s inability to withstand its current security challenges. Although it was neither a new point nor one that needed proof, the aides of the Commandant later refuted it perhaps to avoid the wrath of some authorities. However, both the alleged author of the statement and his aides who refuted it as well as the authorities who were uncomfortable with it know it to be true.  Many Nigerians would also recognize the statement to be true because it is a notorious fact that we are combating our current security challenges such as ‘Bombings’ with 19th Century weapons and strategies. For instance, make shift security check points mounted with the use of broken pillars and blocks in several locations across the country are not quite different from the heap of stones with which my ancestors-the warriors of ancient Benin- sought to stop the British invaders in 1897. Yet, a suicide bomber can, in the twinkle of an eye, kill himself and everybody in the long queues around the check points including the security personnel who mounted the barricades. The particular challenge which such check points are designed to address may therefore not be easy for a layman like this writer to comprehend.

To start with, I only have some knowledge of Journalism, Law and Management but nothing about security. Indeed, the most dangerous weapon available to me is a kitchen knife making me incompetent to evaluate our security managers. Yet, there is some inexplicable suspicion in my sub consciousness that the difference between our security managers and myself may not be much. Hence, I wondered aloud last Tuesday at the Civil-Military Relations Seminar in Jos why we have so much mundane, manual and cumbersome physical security structure in Nigeria when many other nations have since gone digital in this age of technology. For analysts like me therefore, intelligence failure is an inevitable consequence of our type of security framework. Whether a commandant also says it or not is irrelevant.  The ordinary citizen is also likely to have the same feeling because it is difficult to appreciate the trial and error method of determining which vehicles are searched at check points. What appears obvious is that any well dressed fellow in a new or expensive vehicle is not searched.

Other routine security assignments which serve as ample evidence of intelligence failure in our country include the clearance of politicians to contest elections in which several negative revelations about a candidate come to light only at the end of the election. Of course, Nigeria would love to emulate other nations which always exclude dubious characters from top political positions but intelligence failure would make that a hard nut to crack. Even if our security operatives successfully gather some useful data, the political class has more than enough resources to ‘kill’ any report thereby confirming that there is a strong correlation between politics and crime in Nigeria. It was thus refreshing to read the comments of the different people who condemned General Owoeye Azazi, the National Security Adviser (NSA) for attributing our current security challenges to the Zoning principle of the ruling People’s Democratic (PDP). While there is some logic in the argument that the NSA should not have publicly condemned the ruling party which appointed him into office, everyone seems to forget that the inability of the nation to overcome its challenges derogates from the personal sterling qualities of Azazi who by any standard is not a man of mean achievements. A former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Azazi had served as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) soon after holding office as General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division, Kaduna

Meanwhile those who think Azazi should have channeled his opinion through establishment procedures are unaware that in government, the so called internal channels are easily exhausted in the unending communication of the deaf posture of the public service. In any case whether the statement by General Azazi was decent or not amounts to shadow chasing. The real issue is its veracity which no one questioned because it is a notorious fact.  It is indeed a notorious fact that ethnicity which zoning is all about is one of the ‘settled’ issues of our federalism. If not, our successive Presidents would not have had to often abandon the state house to go to their ‘places’ to register and to vote during elections. It was for the same over-all importance of ethnicity that Abia state disengaged from its public service more than 1,800 fellow Ibo workers of Anambra State origin. It also explains why the indigene-settler imbroglio in Plateau state degenerated to what it has become. There is thus no need to fight the NSA over a notorious fact. To do so is to refuse to recognize the many realities of Nigeria which constitute its legion of notorious facts. Among them are the following: every year the Nigerian budget must be delayed; the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) must organize an annual strike action; voting by under aged voters takes place in every Nigerian election; Nigerian judges corruptly pervert the course of justice; traditional rulers honour questionable characters with chieftaincy titles while we-Nigerian journalists collect brown envelopes to manipulate news. These are facts that require no proof.