Terrorism: Azazi on Trial
Sixty-year-old General Owoeye Andrew Azazi, the National Security Adviser (NSA), has an impressive credential as an intelligence officer in the army. Apart from rising to the enviable position of Chief of Defense Staff in 2007, General Azazi served as a Brigade Intelligence Officer, Divisional Intelligence Officer, and Colonel Coordinator, Headquarters Directorate of Military Intelligence. In […]
Sixty-year-old General Owoeye Andrew Azazi, the National Security Adviser (NSA), has an impressive credential as an intelligence officer in the army. Apart from rising to the enviable position of Chief of Defense Staff in 2007, General Azazi served as a Brigade Intelligence Officer, Divisional Intelligence Officer, and Colonel Coordinator, Headquarters Directorate of Military Intelligence. In 2003, he was appointed as the Director of Military Intelligence. Given his experience in the intelligence arm of the army, why has it been difficult for him to take on the near rag-tag fighters of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad), better known by its Hausa name Boko Haram? Rising with anger and fire from a complex in Maiduguri in Borno State, which they used as its base, the Boko Haram sect has spread its violence from the North-East to the North-West and now in the North Central at a speed that spreads hopelessly among the people. Why is it difficult to contain this sect? Why is it difficult to tame the kidnappers in the South-South and South East? Why is the security situation worsening by the day?
“It is not difficult to stop or put an end to the menace of the sect,” the office of the NSA told Sunday Trust in an email response to our questions. “It will only take some time. Boko Haram onslaught came as a new security challenge which required some time to overcome, and we almost are getting there. Remember that the terrorist is not a conventional enemy. The enemy could just be next to you, so a lot of discretion is required in combating terrorism.”
The office added that it is not totally correct to say that the country’s security agencies have failed in tackling the menace of the sect. Rather, it said, “The successes recorded against the Boko Haram sect cannot be exhausted in this write-up. Breakthroughs recorded essentially include the bursting of their hideouts and bomb making factories, the arrest of some of their leaders and aborting their advanced plans by the security agents. The sect is really receiving the heat from security agencies and what you see now as onslaught from the sect is a desperate attempt to make the sect still relevant.”
In spite of this picture that is painted, the NSA seems to admit that the exploits of the sect in recent times are not by chance. He told the gathering at the South-South Summit in Delta State on April 26, 2012 that the group received a kind of sophisticated training that is not ordinary.
General Azazi explained the sect’s expertise thus: “It takes very long for somebody to train a sniper. But I can assure you that Boko Haram has got to that level of sophistication over time. There’s a lot we know they are doing, there’s a lot that could be done to address the problem. But again I also seek to point out that today, even if all leaders we know in Boko Haram are arrested, I don’t think the problem will end. I don’t think they will be satisfied, because (of) the problem that created the phenomena: religion, poverty or the desire to rule. I think it is a combination of everything.”
With the unending killings in the northern part of the country, the NSA is very apt to say that the crisis cannot be arrested as swiftly as many Nigerians would expect. However, his thesis on the political dimension to the violence has stirred the hornet’s nest. At the South South summit, Azazi implicated the PDP’s zoning principle as a contributory factor to the spate of violence that dovetailed Jonathan’s administration. In his presentation, the NSA said, “The third problem I looked at is politicizing of security. I believe that I have talked to them at the council of states and I said: how come the extent of violence did not increase until the proclamation by the current president that he was going to contest. And I would like to say the PDP will not agree with me. I want to believe the PDP got it wrong from the beginning by saying Mr A can rule, Mr A cannot rule, Mr B can rule, Mr B cannot rule according to PDP conventions rules and regulations, and not according to the constitution. I believe that created the climate for what has manifested itself this way.”
When asked why the NSA blames politics for this trend of insecurity, his office responded thus: “Boko Haram predates the PDP zoning system. Saying that a system may have fueled the menace is different from entirely associating the two issues together.” The ruling party and a cross-section of Nigerians have come hard on the NSA for this allusion. However, his kinsmen of the Ijaw descent National Security Adviser, NSA, General Andrew Owoeye Azazi (rtd) have thrown their weight behind him. One of them, a former chairman of Brass Local Government Council, Mrs Helen Bob urged PDP as a party to embrace the truth and do the right thing because, as the ruling party at the helm of the country’s affairs, the onus lies on the leadership to ensure safety for all citizens.
“To be honest, PDP has not done enough to tame the trend of violence. The party should do the right thing, as expressed by the NSA. I don’t support the call for Azazi’s removal because of his guts to speak the truth, though, it is bitter. The party should accept it in good faith and work in the interest of the generality of the people by respecting their constitution to work for a change irrespective of whose Ox is gored,” she said.
Bob, who is a PDP stalwart in the state, added that the NSA made the comment in fairness to the nation which he owed the truth in honesty to uphold the justice of his office. In the views of a human rights activist, Morris Alagoa, “Azazi has endeared himself in the heart of all well meaning Nigerians who love the truth and would stand by it at all cost. The federal government should do everything within the ambit of the law to arrest the raging violence before it propels the country into disintergration or military incursion.”
Alagoa argued that as a Nigerian, the NSA’s first loyalty should be in the interest of the entire nation and not just the ruling party, and as such, he urged all Nigerians to stand in support of Azazi and learn the great lesson.
“The lesson here is that Azazi resisted sentiment on this very important issue when he had the opportunity do so, having hailed from the same state and geopolitical zone as Mr President. This is a good example for others to imbibe by speaking the truth at all times.
“I commend my Ijaw brother, Azazi because I’m convinced beyond reasonable doubts that he said the right thing and, until otherwise proved to the contrary, I sink or remain afloat with him for the mere fact that PDP itself had said it knew those behind the sponsors of violence (Boko Haram). Although, Boko Haram came into national limelight when its leader was eliminated through extrajudicial means, violence further spread uncontrollably after the release of the April, 2011 presidential election results, due to the grievances of perceived politicians who vowed to cause unrest if the right political procedures were not adhered to,” Alagoa observed.
Contrary to the perspective above, a Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner and Niger Delta human rights activist, Ken Atsuwete, assessing the performance of the NSA in face of the current security situation in the country, said the NSA has failed, either because he did not know his job well or that he may be serving a government that is part of the security problem.
He said, “The expectation of Nigerians that he will do the job and do it effectively has been dashed. As soon as Jonathan won the elections in 2011, our expectation was that the peace enjoyed as a result of the amnesty will be sustained. Unfortunately, the spate of violence in the north took everybody unawares. But typical of Nigerians, we had expected the National Security Adviser to the president to be on top of the situation. But by the successes recorded by the Boko Haram, being the highest security threat ever and a singular action that has persisted for long and through which many more Nigerians have died than any other action by any militant, ethnic or religious group in the past, Azazi, either does not know his job, or has folded his hands and watches as Nigerians are being slaughtered by those who claim to be Boko Haram,” Atsuwete said.
He argued that “the failures Azazi has recorded so far surpass those of almost all the NSAs we have ever had in this country. This means that the colossal loss of lives in this regime over such a short period seems to have surpassed all others witnessed in other crises in this country. To be very candid, it is my humble view that Azazi has failed.
On the recent comment by Azazi that PDP rule contributed to the insecurity situation, the legal practitioner said, it was a mere shift of blame rather than acceptance of failure and an indication that the present government lacks legitimacy.
He said “Azazi works hand-in-hand with the president, and he has told Nigerians that the PDP under which Jonathan became the president and under which he, too, became the NSA has not been able to put its house in order.”
In his own thinking, Malam Shehu Sani, a Kaduna-based human rights activist who has written a book on the Boko Haram crisis, told Sunday Trust the attempt to blame ‘northern politicians’ for the Boko Haram insurgency is an excuse. Malam Sani argued thus: “From my understanding, Boko Haram is not a group funded by any political group or gang of politicians. I don’t also believe that they are a proxy force fighting to unseat Jonathan just because he is a southerner or Christian Security chiefs concocting political hypothesis or inventing conspiracy theories are saying so as an excuse for their failures to discharge their duties. A nation that has invested billions in security should not accept excuses. Blaming the politicians is simply blaming the ghost. Security votes (N1 trillion) have depleted funds that should have been channeled to education, health and infrastructure. How can we buy scapegoats and excuses for billion of Naira?”
On his part, the National Publicity Secretary of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Rotimi Fashakin and that of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) Osita Okechukwu yesterday advised the National Security Adviser Andrew Owoye Azazi on the way out of the current security challenges in Nigeria.
Fashakin, who responded to Sunday Trust’s question on whether he thinks Azazi can still handle the increasing security challenge in view of his recent comments, said the National Security Adviser has unchained himself with his outburst.
The CPC spokesperson said what is left for the NSA, having unchained himself, is to order the arrests of all those who are found culpable in the crises.
He said, “General Azazi has unchained himself with his recent outburst. What is left for the NSA, having unchained himself, is to order the arrests of all (that are legally possible) and refer to the National Assembly those that have immunity. I am sure the Nigerian people shall prevail on the National Assembly to have them impeached for the purpose of facing the law. Azazi must therefore go the whole hog and name names!”
On his part, CNPP spokesperson Okechukwu said Azazi needs to find a way to get the support of President Goodluck Jonathan, having identified one of the root causes of the problems.
“One thinks that having identified one of the root causes of the problems; he should get his boss to page with him. Secondly, his boss should give him free hand to deploy men and equipment.
Take for example the tepid CCTV being deployed at snail speed. Thirdly, his boss should lead the process of reconciliation as a balm in the sore. Otherwise without cooperation and free hand from his boss he will fail, Okechukwu also said.
He saluted what he called the uncommon courage of the General for hitting the PDP nail in the head, telling the party the bitter truth that the party by conduct is undemocratic, despotic, and unabashedly exclusive.
Okechukwu said President Goodluck Jonathan and his party should accept the responsibility that ‘the fierce struggle for power is the root cause of the fault lines dislocating our democracy’: “We have no doubt that General Azazi as a core trained intelligent officer must have closely observed how since inception PDP had manipulated its primary elections and indeed general elections, alienated its members and a critical segment of the polity; contrary to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. These undemocratic and unconstitutional acts without doubt breed acrimony and situmalate insecurity; this is the General’s message. In this context, we caution the PDP to neither dump the message nor the messenger; rather PDP should carefully dissect, analyze and reflect on the message placed on the marble by General Azazi. It is a message we had in league with other Nigerian patriots which they have been dishing out, which fell on deaf ears as PDP is consumed by Food-is-Ready philosophy, where the motto is share the money.
“PDP for the interest of the common good and the future generation of Nigerians must, as a matter of urgent national importance page with General Azazi that they have dashed and fossilized the hopes and failed to meet the high expectations Nigerians had at the eve of our return to democracy in 1999.
“At the root of the fierce struggle for power is the truism that the soul of the PDP, contrary to the spirit of the founding fathers has been wittingly or unwittingly captured by the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and his cronies; this is the gospel truth. This chapter was writ-large in the Fuel Subsidy Scam Report. For President Jonathan to transform the country, he must first transform his party, make it truly democratic and refresh his mind with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s comment before and after the 2011 presidential primaries. In spite of the unprecedented rise in oil price from $22 per barrel to $145 and about $100 per barrel today, PDP has failed to neither provide electricity, good roads, education nor other social services like employment. In sum, President Jonathan should look at the mirror, do soul searching and reflect in order to stamp out the Boko Haram and other anti-democratic elements in his cabinet, the legislature and the judiciary as he once told the world; this is the Gen. Azazi’s message,” Okechukwu added.
Another political analyst based in Maiduguri said the violence may not be an attempt to frustrate the Jonathan administration. He argued thus: “For you to say this crisis is meant to frustrate the Jonathan administration, you have to look at the facts. First, are Jonathan’s supporters being selected for killing by the sect? No. In Borno State, for instance, most of the victims were ANPP members and leaders, not PDP members. If you look at the trend of violence, the worst hit places are states where Jonathan lost support at the PDP primary election in 2011. List them: Borno, Gombe, Kano, Bauchi, Yobe, Niger. Jonathan didn’t win in these states. If this state had massive support for Jonathan and Boko Haram is killing the president’s supporters, we can say the crisis is meant to frustrate Jonathan. But I don’t see it in this light.”
As politicians continue to debate the approach to the crisis, the ordinary Nigerian feels he is under siege in an atmosphere that not even security agencies are safe.
Timeline of attacks by suspected Boko Haram fighters
7 September 2010 Bauchi prison break
31 December 2010 December 2010 Abuja attack
22 April 2011 Boko Haram frees 14 prisoners during a jailbreak in Yola, Adamawa State
29 May 2011 May 2011 northern Nigeria bombings
16 June 2011 The group claims responsibility for the 2011 Abuja police headquarters bombing
26 June 2011 Bombing attack on a beer garden in Maiduguri
10 July 2011 Bombing at the All Christian Fellowship Church in Suleja, Niger State
11 July 2011 The University of Maiduguri temperorily closes down its campus citing security concerns
12 August 2011 Prominent Muslim Cleric Liman Bana is shot dead by Boko Haram
26 August 2011 Abuja bombing
4 November 2011 Damaturu attacks
25 December 2011 Nigeria state bombings
5–6 January 2012 January 2012 Nigeria state attacks
20 January 2012 Kano bombings
28 January 2012 Nigerian army says it killed 11 Boko Haram insurgents
8 February 2012 Boko Haram claims responsibility for a suicide bombing at the army headquarters in Kaduna.
16 February 2012 Another prison break staged in central Nigeria; 119 prisoners are released, one warder killed.
8 March 2012 During a British hostage rescue attempt to free Italian engineer Franco Lamolinara and Briton Christopher McManus, abducted in 2011 by a splinter group Boko Haram, both hostages were killed.
26 April 2012 – Attack on media houses in Abuja and Kaduna
29 April 2012 – Attack on a worship centre in Bayero University, Kano
30 April 2012 – Attack in Jalingo targeting the Police commissioner