Those Mossad interrogators

This is a shame and a national tragedy and an act that is intolerable on more than one count. First, torture, even if it is carried out by Nigerian operatives is wrong and must remain unacceptable; but by agents of a foreign power on our soil it becomes an act that is doubly reprehensible—and which […]

This is a shame and a national tragedy and an act that is intolerable on more than one count. First, torture, even if it is carried out by Nigerian operatives is wrong and must remain unacceptable; but by agents of a foreign power on our soil it becomes an act that is doubly reprehensible—and which must be thoroughly investigated and punished.
But how could this anomaly have ever become at all possible? As early as September 2008, it was reported that Nigeria had signed a secret security pact with Israel under which its agents would train Nigerian operatives, a development that prompted Honourable Abdullahi Faruk, then chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence, to come out and deny what we all thought at that time was an unfounded rumour.
But two years later, it was reported that agents of Mossad had been invited by the National Intelligence Agency to help curtail the rampant cases of kidnappings going on, in some of which officers of the Nigeria Police had been fingered. In July 2011, the Israeli ambassador here publicly offered Israeli help to the government to get on top of the security situation; and within two months, as if that was the only signal he had been waiting for, President Goodluck Jonathan had handed over the security of Aso Rock to them, and had, in addition, commissioned them to undertake a probe of the nation’s security agencies.
But even with all this, nothing could have prepared Nigerians to the fact that foreign secret service officers were in fact not just training them but doing their work for them. This is unconstitutional in all the countries of the world. So, it is true then that Mossad had really taken over our security agencies that they are now a mere extension of the IDF. Or has the incompetence of our own security operatives reached such a level that they cannot even interrogate suspects themselves, and they needed foreign advice? Whichever the case, neither of these scenarios should be acceptable to the nation.
Meanwhile, in between all these tragedies, Israeli firms have reportedly cornered uncompetitive, open-ended mega-contracts to supply security technology, closed-circuit television cameras, electric fencing and border defence equipment, and even drones!
Now, we must ask the following questions: What precisely is the nature of this security intelligence that these people are supposed to supply us? What kind of security intelligence technology do we have or are we getting now, thanks to the mega-contract, that quite easily detectable munitions, grenades and bomb materials are being ferried across our borders and transferred unhindered from city to town all over the country? Isn’t the nature, size, quantity and the spread of these weapons already an indictment of the strategy and technology that are supposed to have been in place? Or, are they? And are the CCTV cameras that we see being installed at street corners—equipment that is already breaking down before it is commissioned—part of this contract? And what is Nigeria going to do with drones? And what does probing our secret service mean?
Obviously, no self-respecting sovereign nation will allow the secret service of a foreign entity to probe its own secret service, and, in the process, get a chance to conduct espionage for its own benefit; and engage in the interrogation of suspects in counter-terrorism measures against its [the foreign entity’s] enemies. This is not only unacceptable, it is impossible to find it happening in any country except ours; and those who allowed it are not only unpatriotic, they are indeed committing treasonable felony. If the president is aware and allows it to happen, that’s treachery to the nation and to the constitution that he has sworn to uphold; and if he doesn’t know, that’s dereliction of duty, both of which are impeachable offences. And all for something that may not be worth it.
As far as Nigerians are concerned, all the trumped-up Mossad reputation for ruthless efficiency is more of media hype than reality on the ground. First, in 1984, following the coup that ousted the Shagari administration, Israeli operatives, said to have been former Mossad staff, were contracted by the Buhari administration to bring back Alhaji Umaru Dikko to Nigeria from the UK to answer charges. They botched up the plan and almost killed the former minister in the process. Second, Mossad agents were brought into Nigeria by the Babangida administration to serve as the regime’s praetorian guards, but on the eve of the Gideon Orkar coup of 1991, they just melted into thin air when Babangida needed them most; and it was Lt Col UK Bello who was left to carry the can of their failure. And now, third, here they are in Nigeria since 2010 ostensibly to stop kidnapping, which, however, has continued to this very day.
And since then, it is as if we have become the world’s dumping ground for intelligence toxic waste. While we had for long heard that the Americans were here—invited by our government sometime ago and deployed in Borno and Kebbi States; later on it was the arrival of FBI, the CIA and now Mossad. Now, the direct involvement of Mossad in a purely domestic operation is by itself unacceptable; and to unleash them on suspects in the custody of our security service is intolerable.
And, moreover, it is a sign that the Federal Government of Nigeria has dishonourably taken sides in a foreign dispute, and has allowed that Middle Eastern struggle to play itself out in our security interrogation cells. From the questions posed to the detained Lebanese it was clear that the Israeli agents were hiding behind a Nigerian problem, using Nigerian resources on Nigerian soil to fight an Israeli battle.
This is simply unacceptable and in view of all the foregoing, we must demand to know: What exactly are all these foreign secret services doing in the country today? If there is strategic thinking in our intelligence community we ought by now to have started looking into the possibility that, even if a domestic need existed for it, our security challenge was in the main created, encouraged or at least cashed in on to furnish an excuse for the process of foreign intelligence operations on our soil; and provide justification for the award of these massive contracts. Obviously, the beneficiaries of a tragedy – domestic and foreign, even if they have been contracted as advisers – are not likely to divulge information that will bring profit – national or private – to an end.
Since their presence predated the eruption of the Boko Haram crisis, it couldn’t have been on account of it that they were here. Yet even if we accept that they are all here to stop it, what have they been doing for the more than five years that they have been here without stopping it? And we refuse to accept that these foreign forces are here for intelligence gathering operations, or for some harmless, cooperative strategic purposes. To all intents and purposes, and especially as the emergency wore on, it is clear now that they are here for tactical combat intelligence operations, which, as a sovereign nation, Nigeria must find deeply disturbing and unacceptable. It matters little that this is done with the approval of the commander-in-chief of Nigeria’s armed forces.
Even in that capacity the president has no legitimate power to compromise the nation’s security or mortgage its sovereignty. Unfortunately, in Nigeria the constitution lacks the guardians who will protect its integrity and it forever stands in dire need of oversight institutions that can and will force all operators of the constitution to respect its provisions, and do what is right to, and with, it.
And in this, even if the National Assembly will not be moved when an impeachable offence is committed by the president, or when our sovereignty is being tested and threatened, or when our institutions are being taken over by alien forces, Nigerians must ask the government to tell us the nation the total number, the places of deployment and the nature of activities of all foreign troops and intelligence personnel operating in Nigeria today.