Towards a safe and secure Nigeria

I attended this forum and like many others who did, profited handsomely from the ideas that flowed freely about how our national security can be better managed. The army, the Nigeria Police Force, the media, Office of the National Security Adviser, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, some government establishments, civil society organisations and […]

I attended this forum and like many others who did, profited handsomely from the ideas that flowed freely about how our national security can be better managed. The army, the Nigeria Police Force, the media, Office of the National Security Adviser, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, some government establishments, civil society organisations and interested individuals were all represented at the event.
What informed the sta-ging of the forum was the need to develop co-operation and understanding between government actors (represented by the above named security forces) and non-governmental actors (represented by civil society activists, the media and ordinary citizens) in the management of issues related to national security. I think it was William Shakespeare who noted that there are uses in adversity. It took the sort of challenge facing us now for some of our thinkers to wake up to the reality that there are certain weaknesses in our security management that need to be corrected. Adversity sometimes makes a people to try to find a creative, innovative or inspired solution to what has been tormenting all.
One of the key ideas that emerged at the forum was that a nation that wants to remain stable and advance its development agenda must engage or employ its citizens to help the security forces in carrying out security duties and intelligence gathering. Each stakeholder in the polity has a critical role to play in the maintenance of safety and security. In the course of the exchange of ideas it became clear to some of us that the forum was not only timely but most appropriate for a nation that is trying desperately to grapple with not only the Boko Haram insurgency but others like the monumental theft of crude oil, the proliferation of small arms, smuggling and uncontrolled movement of persons across its vast porous borders.
Security forces elsewhere succeed largely because of co-operation between them and the civil society organisations and the ordinary people. Security agents are not spirits so cannot be everywhere at the same time to become aware of threats or potential threats to national security. They necessarily have to depend on the people for information that can help them to handle any threat. This has not been much of the story of Nigeria and the management of its security. Security agencies carry on as if it a matter between ‘they’ and ‘others’. The ideal is that security is a matter of the collective efforts of a people to enable them to be in a safe and secure environment for each to pursue his social, economic, political and spiritual goals.
The Army, which was represented by a brilliant and humorous Colonel who read a lecture that should have been delivered by Major-General M.A. Koleoso, Chief of Civil-Military Affairs, said at the event that since its existence it has not been presented with such a tricky to handle and seemingly impossible security challenge as the Boko Haram insurgency. Not even the Nigerian Civil War or the Niger Delta militancy has been as challenging, the Army representative said, because in the Boko Haram terrorists the Army is confronted by an ‘enemy’ that is not clearly defined; one with a definite mission, a definite set of grievances, a definite leadership, and a defined territory under its control.
Among the measures which the Army bigwig canvassed for enhancing Nigeria’s security is that there is urgent need to create a force that will serve as a buffer between the police and the military as the visibility and excessive exposure of the military in internal security ope-rations was adversely affecting the professional development of the military.
Another key idea emerged from the key note speaker, the well known Professor Emeka Enejere, a political scientist and security consultant, who recommended for Nigeria the Chinese approach to national security. In China, he said, nearly everyone in the polity is involved in one way or another in security work. They rely on large numbers of people, each producing relatively small amounts of intelligence. Their intelligence collection efforts and method do not look like espionage and are more diffuse, subtle; almost to the point of being imperceptible and as such much harder to detect, the professor said.
However for the Chinese model to work in Nigeria there is urgent need for conscious efforts to conscientize the people to harbour nationalistic feelings. Our political system is yet to forge a people who love Nigeria dearly and are committed to preserving the country against external or internal aggression or sabotage.
Some of the speakers at the event felt that media coverage of the current security challenges has not been entirely in the country’s national interest as on some occasion the media have tended to give undue attention to the terrorists’ propaganda. The security agencies were also carpeted for operational excesses. It was said that sometimes they do not place a high premium on the freedoms of citizens. They were told that there is need to balance security imperative with the human rights of citizens.
No one discussed the Swiss model of using business men for intelligence gathering which has served the Swiss economy so well. This writer also expected an elaborate discussion of the role of informants in security issues. No security outfit no matter how efficient can burst crime or collect vital intelligence information without the active collaboration of informants among the ordinary citizenry. Those who are in a position to know say that informants do not play an active role in the work of our security agencies because money voted for such a vital service is often embezzled by the big wigs in the security agencies. Without a good informant system it is doubtful if any security outfit can do its job well.
Whatever may be some of the issues that were not treated, the forum succeeded to a large extent in creating the awareness that violence, acts of sabotage and instability undermine our collective desire for national development. And that the way to have a safe and secure Nigeria is for the community to be mobilised to support the security forces. It is now left to the security forces to see how they can buy the co-operation of the people in the interest of their job and in the larger interest of national security, stability and prosperity.