On the PDPs ‘ secret service’

So, if Bond had a ‘name’ why was he also referred to as 007? The answer just in case a certain Marilyn Ogar should come across this piece is to give the functional Bond the anonymity he required to perform his job efficiently. Bond did not qualify as a secret agent for nothing, and, in […]

So, if Bond had a ‘name’ why was he also referred to as 007? The answer just in case a certain Marilyn Ogar should come across this piece is to give the functional Bond the anonymity he required to perform his job efficiently. Bond did not qualify as a secret agent for nothing, and, in the unlikely event that he fumbled in the course of his duties the government could even deny that they even knew him.
That was why his orders were only transmitted to Bond through ‘M’ – another fictional acronym to hide the true identity of the Head of the British M16 that employed him. It was also completely in line with the demands of the cloak and dagger realities of the function that ‘M’ also happened to have a Secretary called Miss Moneypenny – you guessed right – it’s another fictional name! So much for fiction.
By most accounts, a secret service describes a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of any government agency, mandated with the gathering of intelligence data. The scope of their operations may vary depending on the specific requirements of the nations they serve. Their powers and duties may also be partly secret or not. Some countries also have separate secret service agencies for their domestic and international needs.
In Nigeria, the SSS or DSS is supposed to attend to our internal security needs with emphasis on intelligence gathering while the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA) is preoccupied with threats from abroad. It is not totally dissimilar from the roles of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). But that unfortunately is where the comparisons end.
Whether they are pre-occupied with domestic or foreign operations, secret services are at their best when their intelligence gathering qualities are able to avert major catastrophic events from occurring. In the history of secret services in the modern age, the French police officer Joseph Fouché is often regarded as the primary pioneer for his uncanny ability to acquire secret intelligence. He was said to have prevented several assassination attempts on the life of Napoleon during his time as First Consul Bonaparte (1799-1804) by operating a large and tight net of various informers.
By nature of their operations, secret services or the men and women fortunate or unfortunate to lead them at different times, can become extremely powerful and influential especially in the politics of their host nations. In America for instance, the tenure of the pioneer Head of the FBI – John Edgar Hoover will continue to haunt them long after his death.
For several decades Hoover used the cover of fighting Communism to spy on multiple American presidents and other leading figures including the late John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther king Jr. He intimidated numerous others and was even linked to the Mafia. For more than four decades that he was in the saddle at the FBI no American President had the balls to remove him. For as long as he claimed to be acting in the national interest Hoover could do no wrong at the time. He could very easily have caused the removal of American presidents if he could prove their connivance with forces that were at odds with the core American national interests.
Hoover was able to get away with everything because he rabidly exploited the morbid fear of communism among average Americans, among other things. It was only after his death when revelations began to emerge about his methods and lifestyle that Americans began to question his legacy with some even demanding that the FBI Headquarters named after him should be re-named.     
In my study of how Hoover led the FBI including a few of the books written on the man since his death, two observations in particular intrigued me. First, the great irony was that he claimed to be acting in the national interest. Second, in spite of his obvious flaws, the FBI he led was a very strong institution protected by its enabling statutes.
Today, we cannot with all sincerity say the same about our SSS. Although the mandate of the agency requires it “Protect and defend the Federal Republic of Nigeria against domestic threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of Nigeria, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to both federal and state law-enforcement organs….” among others such as the protection of VIPs etc; it is doubtful if it regards the collective protection of Nigeria’s national interest among its leading priorities.
The SSS is like our other failed national democratic institutions. They struggle to recognize the defining line between loyalty to the executive arm and the higher obligation to protect the collective national interest of the Nigerian state and its people.
Make no mistake about it; the SSS has achieved modest successes since its inception which cannot be ignored. In 2010 the SSS intercepted a large cache of arms and ammunition originating from Iran at the Apapa port in Lagos. The SSS also recorded some successes in combating kidnapping in Nigeria with the arrest of some kidnappers and the rescue of their victims. But in recent times certain unprofessional actions and pronouncements of its Spokesperson Marilyn Ogar have given cause for serious worry.
Throughout the tenure of Kayode Are as the DG of the agency, it was hard to tell if the SSS even existed because its actions were so discrete, like indeed they should be. It neither granted press interviews nor paraded suspects like the regular police. But under the current dispensation the agency has become more renowned for its overt operations such as the widely condemned killing of artisans at Apo and its regular controversial press interviews.
In a manner unworthy of its creed, the SSS allowed itself to be drawn into partisan politics. Its spokesperson regularly sings like a canary. It has also veered into football politics, while its views on contemporary political events continue to mimic those of the ruling PDP. In another embarrassing turn of events, Ogar went further to exonerate the former Chief of Army Staff Azuibike Ihejirika – alleged by the international hostage negotiator Reverend Stephen Davis to be among the sponsors of Boko Haram – even without showing proof that the matter benefitted from the serious scrutiny or investigation it deserved.
At the rate she is going, Nigerians will soon begin to wonder if the SSS is in the service of the Nigerian state or that of the ruling PDP.

The caging of Nigeria’s Super Eagles
Anyone who has been following the affairs of the senior national team obscenely referred to as the Super Eagles could see it coming. The ultimately humiliation of Nigeria by an average Congolese team coached by shrewd tactician with superior tactics did not come as a surprise. For weeks before the match Nigerian Football Federation had been in turmoil. Somebody, somewhere, is against the continued retention of the NFF President Aminu Maigari in his post even if it was to supervise the process to elect his successor as demanded by FIFA since his tenure was due to expire this month anyway.
And so the same sordid tactics that were so eerily reminiscent of the last elections into the Nigeria Governors Forum was freely deployed to enthrone impostors to the throne to no avail even with the deployment of the SSS as enforcers. They apparently bargained without FIFA.
But to me the biggest shame of the weekend was the fact that a nation of our size and endowment allowed that match to be played on the terrible pitch of the tiny Calabar stadium when we have a multi-billion Naira facility with a newly relayed pitch wasting away in Abuja. Why do we like cutting out noses to spite our faces this way? More than six stadiums were showcased during the live coverage by Supersport across Africa and the Calabar stadium was the most pathetic of the lot. Our players who are also used to the lush playing fields abroad also suffered as a result. Sad.