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I had long been planning to do a piece on the worsening security crisis
in Nigeria, but had to differ putting pen to paper on the
subject due to competing demands, not necessarily in order
of importance, for nothing is more important than security
of lives and properties in any nation, but in order of
immediate relevancy and topicality to rapidly unfolding
events.
Presently Nigeria is in the death grip of politics and not unexpectedly
politics has held us all hostages to its infinite demands.
However, recent high profile security related events in
Nigeria have compelled me to move this subject to the top of
my To-do list. I could no longer defer it when bombs are
going off in Abuja right in the thick of the nation’s golden
jubilee celebrations in the nation’s capital in presence of
foreign dignitaries.
And it couldn’t be deferred any longer when innocent, under-age pupils,
whom the good Lord, Jesus, had declared would inherit the
earth on account of their sheer innocence, harmlessness and
defenseless, are being attached, brutalized and traumatized
by heartless and conscienceless hoodlums, who would rather
prefer not to be known and addressed as lawyers, engineers,
doctors, accountants, journalists, professors, writers,
scientists, technologists, business moguls, movie stars,
musicians, poets, inventors, industrialists, clergymen, whiz
kids, or some other noble professional callings, but as
hoodlums, kidnappers, and outlaws, who are always on the run
from the law even when no one is after them. Anyone who
cannot stand up in the crowd to disclose his calling and
means of livelihood has got to do some serious reality
checks on his life and entire existence.
Sadly and tragically enough, that’s the kind of troubled life some able
bodied, mentally alert Nigerians, who could put their brains
and brawns to better use have chosen to lead in a world
where the youths of other nations are at the cutting edge of
technological innovations, creative profundity and
entrepreneurial sagacity, among others. Their elders have
bequeathed to them such atrocious values of get-rich-quick
that no one would be proud to be associated with in the
public square siring a generation of “Yahoo Boys,” “Area
Boys,” “Bakassi,” “OPC,” campus cultists, hired militants,
kidnappers, and what else is out there in the blighted
landscape of the Nigerian youth-hood .
I’m exceedingly troubled and profoundly pained in my heart that those who
have it within their intellectual and physical competence to
help put Nigeria and Africa on the world map of scientific,
artistic and technological innovations in order to help
raise the profile of the black race are being utterly wasted
in Nigeria. And nowhere is this more profoundly disturbing
than in the kidnapping business. Life is too precious and
finite to be wasted in criminal activities.
It takes a whole lot more intellectual capital to plan and execute
criminal acts and it takes even more efforts to run away
from the law in perpetuity than to engage in wholesome
activities that would bring glory and honor to the
individuals, their families, ethnicity and their country.
The usual argument of unemployment in the land predisposing
such individuals to criminal behaviors does not hold water
because even students from wealthy families have been known
to engage in such acts. Besides, they’re not the only
unemployed youths in Nigeria. How come they’re the only ones
engaging in such heinous crimes when the rest are not?
Should every unemployed youth take to criminal activities
then, rather than finding and engaging in other wholesome
activity? Hard times ought to bring out the best in
ingenuity, resourcefulness and innovations, not criminality.
But the reverse seems to be the case in Nigeria,
particularly in the South/East.
The Nigerian nation ought to address seriously its traditional value
system that has been destroyed by morally corrupt,
degenerate politicians and military opportunists and
adventurers in leadership positions over the years. What is
happening in Nigeria today is un-Nigerian and un-African.
There are crimes and there are crimes. Kidnapping for ransom
is not in the cultural make-up of the people of the
South/East or any part of the nation for that matter. It
just doesn’t square up with our traditional value system.
But then our traditional values have been upended by
political vultures. The nation must therefore find ways to
reconnect with its traditional roots in order to put an end
to these strange behaviors emanating from our youths.
Abia State as Ground Zero
However, for some reasons that I have yet to fathom, it appears
kidnappers have settled on Abia state as their national
operational headquarters from where they seem to have grown
their business model into a veritable franchise of sorts;
rapidly expanding throughout the South/East and moving
westward into neighboring Delta and Edo states. With every
state governor fighting or pretending to be fighting to
create jobs for his state’s teeming jobless youths, choosing
Abia state as the headquarters of a business would
ordinarily have gladdened the heart of Governor Theodore
Orji. But being the headquarters of the nation’s burgeoning
kidnapping cottage industry is farthest from Orji’s idea of
a job spinning industry and would rather its promoters close
shop and shop for land elsewhere outside his state to set up
shop. That is the Devil’s trophy he does not want for his
state.
Unfortunately for him the promoters of this business model don’t care
about his opinion and his likes or dislikes. They don’t need
his permission. And why should they, anyway? They don’t
need his Certificate of Approval (C of O).They don’t need a
license from Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to commence
operations. And they don’t need all that battery of
lawyers, accountants, marketing gurus, board of directors
and a pesky workforce to get down to business. In short,
they need no legal framework and paperwork because they
operate outside of the law. They’re outlaws! All they need
is a bunch of SIM cards to contact the press and demand
ransom from relatives of their victims and a few handguns to
terrorize the entire state and smile their ways to the
banks. And that’s why laughed his so-called amnesty
fashioned after the federal government’s to scorn. With a
business that lucrative who needs an amnesty program from a
Governor Theodore Orji?
They simply set up shop in his state as a strategic location and dared
him to use his gubernatorial powers to evict them. And the
poor governor has since found out that he’s powerless and
helpless. That sense of powerlessness and helplessness
pervades not only the corridors of power in Abia state, but
the entire state whose citizens are fleeing the state in
droves. That, in and of itself, is a vote of no confidence
in the government of the state, which should be of great
concern to the government of the state. Security of lives
and properties is the first duty of any government, not road
construction, hospitals and schools. Security comes first
before any other thing.
As the operational headquarters of kidnappers, therefore, the good people
of Abia state have had to bear the brunt of the wrath of
kidnappers, who have literarily overrun the state and
reduced Governor Orji to a poor, miserable player fretting
on stage, seemingly dazed and overwhelmed by the kidnappers’
onslaught.
Security wise, these are indeed sad times for the nation. When hoodlums
are striking with impunity unchallenged in broad daylight
and citizens of a state are fleeing from their homes to the
other states and parents are withdrawing their children and
wards from schools due to fear of kidnappers, then it is
time to get real and get tough. Yes, it’s time to take out
the gloves and fight back with all the resources at our
disposal because the nation cannot allow itself to be held
hostage by a few miscreants.
Therefore, sad and horrifying as these incidents are, they serve to
provide the nation with the opportunity to upgrade its
security infrastructures. It’s a truism that every action
begets a reaction. Security infrastructure is not emplaced
in a vacuum but in response to security challenges. The
nations with some of the best security infrastructures in
the world today, such as India, Britain, Spain and the
United States, for example, did not always have such
security systems in place. The security systems these
nations have today were put in place in response to the
security challenges they faced in the past and as well as in
the present. Security systems anywhere are built in response
to prevailing security challenges not fortuitously or
hypothetically. Otherwise they would not have been built at
all. Americans have a saying to drive this home: “If it
ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” And how do we know it’s broken
if it is not put to the test as has happened in Nigeria?
While the loss of lives is regrettable real world test is a
whole lot better than terror drills and war games that are
at best distant approximations to real time security
challenges. In the absence of such challenges government and
society become complacent and indifferent to potential
threats until doomsday is upon them.
There are places in the United States bristling with security cameras,
police patrols and security guards due to high crime rates,
and there are equally places in the same country with no
security cameras at all and minimal law enforcement
footprints, where doors are left open all night and cars
parked with keys left hanging out their steering wheels.
This is equally true of other places. Such places have no
need to invest in sophisticated security apparatus and could
therefore become soft targets to would be terrorists.
9/11 provided the wake-up call for the US. Kashmir bombings provided the
wake-up call for India. IRA bombings provided the wake-up
call for Britain. The Bath Separatist Movement bombings
provided the wake-up call for Spain, and one could go on and
on. Nigeria will not be an exception. Nigeria’s response to
the AbdulMuttab saga with full body scanners at the nation’s
international gateways shows that it is capable of doing
just that as other nations have done when faced with similar
challenges. And that is the bottom line.
The ubiquitous close circuit security camera surveillance system in
Britain was informed by the nation’s security challenges
spawned by the IRA, which regularly sets off bombs in London
and other cities putting Britain in perpetual state of
alert, which has now heightened by international terrorism.
The same is true in the United States, which till this day
is the singular focus and target of international terrorism
from Al-Queda and its affiliates.
And Europe is not left out either. The whole of the EU is placed under
NATO’s and EU security blanket with the security agencies of
member nations locked in a mesh of security networks to deal
with both local and international terrorism. Security has
become one of the biggest industries in the developed and
developing worlds stalked by international terrorism.
Although considered at the periphery of international terrorism, Nigeria
is gradually being sucked into the vortex of international
terrorism. With Abdul Mutallab’s ill-fated attempt to blow
up the Northwest Airline Flight 253 on December 25, 2009, to
bombs going off in Warri and Abuja, there is no question
that Nigeria will be forced to shed its toga of innocence
and complacence and move to emplace robust security
surveillance infrastructures just like India, Britain, Spain
and the United States, not only at the nation’s
international gateways, but internally at municipal level as
well, in cities and towns.
Deploying full body scanners at the nation’s international gateways as
the Nigerian authorities have done is therefore a direct
response to these security challenges, but that’s only the
beginning not the end. It’s just the down payment necessary
to keep the nation safe at all times. No investment in
security is too much because the very existence of the
nation and its people depends on it in the age of global
terrorism.
The nation’s security challenges have been violently and forcefully
brought to the fore by the Abuja bombings and the Abia
kidnapping incidents. Both events happening
contemporaneously and similar ones in the past, including
the kidnap of Lagos based journalists in the same Abia state
a few months ago, have served to highlight the inherent
weaknesses of the nation’s security infrastructures at both
retail and wholesale levels.
By retail is meant security infrastructures deployed and operated in
private homes, corporate and institutional premises designed
to meet their own security requirements as distinct from
public security. Wholesale security level on the other hand
entails the general security infrastructures spanning across
local and state territories all the way to the nation’s
international borders, which could be likened to a nation’s
transportation infrastructures.
There is no question that the events in Abuja and Abia state exposed the
gaping holes in both retail and wholesale security
apparatuses. These holes are so huge a freightliner could go
through them effortlessly even while its driver is fast
asleep. The hijack of a school bus in broad daylight by a
band of kidnappers right under the nose of early morning
commuters at 7 am in a presumably traffic choked Aba
Township roads and driven around town to a safe haven of the
kidnappers, was by no means a fleeting operation conducted
in a flash. It’s fair to conjecture that the operation might
have taken the kidnappers a few hours to get in and out of
town to their hideouts in the woodland. We have since learnt
that the kidnappers’ hideouts are not in the city itself but
outside of the city, somewhere in the wilderness.
With the previous rampant incidents of kidnappings in the state it is
inconceivable that the city of Aba had not been placed on a
security blanket with all of its entry and exit points
adequately policed and placed on twenty-four hour security
surveillance. As soon as the kidnap was made, signals out to
have gone out immediately to all security formations from a
Command Center, and the entire Aba Township completely
locked down and cordoned off, with no vehicles or
individuals going in and out of the city. This would have
enabled security agents to comb the city and track down the
kidnappers in a matter of hours, not days. That’s the
business of a well trained, well kitted, motivated
professional security outfit that’s alive to its
responsibility, not the make believe, lousy patchwork
masquerading as law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.
There is no way a huge school bus could make its way out of the city to
the wilderness without getting accosted by security agents
in the process. And if the kidnapped kids had been
transferred to a different vehicle somewhere in the city
before being driven out of the city in a getaway car, there
is still no way 15 kids could fit into a single car. They
had to be split in different cars to convey them outside of
the city to the kidnappers’ hideouts. All these take
enormous time sufficient enough to activate the security
apparatus and spring it into action before the criminals had
a chance to get away with their human cargo.
There is no question in the mind, therefore, that hours not minutes,
passed between the time the school bus carrying the kids was
ambushed and hijacked, and when the criminals finally got
out of the city to their hideouts with a busload of
terrified kids and possibly the bus driver himself and his
conductor. In all emergency security situations, time is of
the essence and reaction time of security and/or emergency
operatives is critical to success. Any undue lag in reaction
time gives the criminals a chance to get away with their
crimes. It’s unacceptable that a huge busload of pupils
could be waylaid and hijacked in broad daylight and
meandered out of the busy Aba township roads with no one
lifting a finger to intercept the hoodlums. And it is
equally unacceptable that there is total absence of security
apparatus at the city’s entry and exit points to intercept
the bus and apprehend the criminals in real time.
What is even more appalling in the Nigerian situation is the fact that
kidnappers freely use their cell phones to contact the
press, issue statements without getting located and
apprehended in the process. How is it that in a country rife
with high profile criminality there are no location-
tracking devices to pin-point the exact locations of
hoodlums, who freely communicate with the Nigerian media at
will when these devices are readily available in the open
market? What’s going out there, folks? Is it that no one is
in charge of the nation’s security or those in charge are
too busy lining their own pockets before they’re tossed
aside by the powers that be for gross incompetence or other
less noble reasons? And why is it so difficult for our
security Czars to distinguish themselves on the job so as to
make their superiors think twice before they’re relieved of
their duties?
It is a matter for regret that former IGP Onovo sat there at Alhaji Kam
Salem House in Abuja for close to two years doing nothing
about the nation’s security situation. It makes one wonder
whether these people are abreast of modern development in
security tools and systems that are available in the open
markets, or they’re more interested in corruption than
protecting the lives and properties of Nigerians. This
writer hereby calls for a thoroughly professionalized
Nigerian police establishment from the top down as has been
done for the military, because the status quo is too
embarrassing and no longer acceptable. It has never been,
anyway.
Governors’ Security Responsibility
The business of securing the state of Abia rests squarely in the hands of
the state government and no one else. And that is a
constitutional mandate. Governors have a constitutional
responsibility to protect lives and properties in their
respective states. The governor of Abia state should not be
allowed to pass the buck of securing his state on someone
else, elsewhere in Abuja. The governor is the chief security
officer of his state as per the nation’s constitution and it
is his burden duty to police the borders of his state and
protect the lives and properties of its citizens.
It is no excuse that he has no direct control of the Nigerian police. He
doesn’t necessarily need to be in control of the Nigerian
police before he discharges his duty to his state. And this,
by the way goes for all the state governors. He has not
complained about lack of cooperation from the Abia state
police command. In any case, this is not just a question of
baton and gun-toting federal police looking for hapless
motorists to fleece of their hard earned daily income. It
goes beyond regular police work of arresting and prosecuting
common criminals to a robust security network that’s capable
of responding adequately to the state’s unique security
challenges.
And you ask: where is the electricity to power such systems? My answer
is, it’s the responsibility of state governors to provide
electricity for their states. And you ask further: where
will they get the money to provide electricity in their
states? My answer is, it’s their responsibility to generate
the revenue required to meet their needs including
electricity generation and security provisions. No state
governor should go cap in hand to Abuja to receive handouts
from the federation account in a supposedly federal system
of government where states are supposed to be
semi-autonomous and semi-independent. The nation cannot
afford to continue operating what I would characterize as
dependent federalism, which has only succeeded in producing
what may be termed executive gubernatorial panhandlers in
the nation. Why must the states rely on Abuja for everything
from revenue to garbage collection? What do we have state
governments for if they cannot perform basic
responsibilities assigned to them by the constitution?
Designing and deploying security surveillance apparatus in the city of
Aba and its environs does not require permission of the
Nigerian police and the federal government. Rather than
donating money and equipment to the federal police in his
state that invariably winds up in private pockets the
governor is well advised to use his state resources to
establish a well articulated security infrastructure in his
state with the best expertise available anywhere in the
world. And good enough Governor Orji does not need armored
tanks and sophisticated firearms to do this. 80% of security
work is about intelligence gathering, analysis and sharing,
which the state government is lawfully authorized to do
without recourse to the Nigerian police. With the spate of
kidnapping incidents, Abia state should be bristling with
both human and high tech security surveillance
infrastructure able to respond to the security demands of
the state in real time complete with Central Command Center
(CCC), not the ad hoc, fire brigade approach we are
witnessing after the fact.
There is this misconception that security is the business of the Nigerian
police alone. Nigerians and the various governments at all
levels must come to the understanding that a nation’s
security is not the business of one single agency, but a
network of several security outfits, including, in several
cases, even non security related agencies. Nothing stops the
Abia state government from setting up its own security
infrastructure equipped with modern surveillance systems and
adequately trained security operatives to operate within its
own borders. They do not have to carry guns to do their job
discretely and effectively, because, as noted above, 80% of
security work is devoted to intelligence gathering and
sharing, not popping firearms and parading armored tanks in
the streets to awe and intimidate.
States must demonstrate their competence in handling their internal
security challenges. Just like the States’ Independent
Electoral Commissions, nothing stops states from having
their own State Security Agencies (SSAs), just like the SSS
at the center.
The Nigerian army has no place in this matter. It’s a shame that the army
was called in and literarily took over Abia state while it
lasted. Over exposure of the army in matters relating to
internal security is dangerous to democracy. The army can
only appropriately be called in matters of internal
insurrection as was the case with Boko Haram saga in Bauchi
and the pogrom in Plateau state, which were clearly beyond
the capacity of the police. Anything less should be within
the professional competence and capability of the regular
police establishment to hand and handle effectively with
recourse to the military.
Internal security is the business of law enforcement agents, who are
better trained to deal with civil unrest and crimes and the
like with minimal use of light firearms. Although state
security operatives might not be allowed to carry light
arms, police backup would not be unreasonably denied if
requested where there is prior collaborative arrangement on
the ground with the state police command in designing and
deploying the system. And in the event of failure of timely
response by the police, the nation would know where to
apportion blame because the state would have done its part.
It’s, therefore, unacceptable to have a situation where a state governor
would have to cry to Abuja all the time to call for help
when he had all the opportunity in the world of doing the
job himself and preventing the hijack of a school bus in his
own state in the first place.
I read the newspaper report of how Governor Orji was gushing with
appreciation and literarily swooning at the federal
authorities in getting the kids freed after he cried to
Abuja for help. Pathetic and disgusting, to say the least!
It shows how he had abdicated his responsibility to the
citizens of Abia state by outsourcing his state security to
the federal government rather than manning up to it as the
chief security officer of his state.
Running to Abuja for help each time there is an incident in the state
shows the Abia state governor as lacking in resources and
proactive disposition to security matters in his own state.
Those innocent pupils could have been dead before help came
their way all the way from Abuja for a matter that’s within
his government’s powers and competence to handle and handle
effectively, if, and only if he had been proactive and
resourceful enough to get a real handle on security matters
in his state. Harassed Abians would want to know from their
governor how many more kidnapping incidents he needs to see
take place in Abia state before he moves to seize the bull
by the horn and take the security of his people into his own
hands and not in the hands of Abuja bureaucrats? Other state
governors shouldn’t wait until their states are turned into
Abia state before they put in place appropriate security
infrastructures, not mere ad hoc measures.
State government shouldn’t be concerned only about the roads and bridges
they have built or for that matter, the schools and
hospitals they have established, but about the investments
they have made in securing lives and properties in their
respective states because no investment will come to their
states in an atmosphere of acute insecurity. A governor that
is serious about development must start with providing an
environment that’s conducive to economic development.
Insecurity is antithetical to economic development. Abia
state is fast losing its economic competitive edge to other
less security challenged states. All the investments made in
Abia state will come to nothing if businesses are fleeing
from the state due to unrelenting state of insecurity. No
sane investor would set up shop in a security challenged
state like Abia. And as reported Abia state is already
losing its own citizens to other states as well. Governor
Orji should and must not rely on the federal might to deal
with the security challenges in own state. He can only do so
if his own efforts fail to match the challenges at hand in
particular instances and not as a matter of course in all
cases.
It bears repeating that as the chief security officer of his state it is
his duty to do his job of securing the lives and properties
of all Abians and the buck stops at his desk. Running to
Abuja for help is not the solution but may well be part of
the problem in that it beclouds his vision of his duty as a
governor. It’s about time state governors viewed security
matters of their states as their business and their business
alone. The wanton disregard state governors have for the
security of their states is reflected in the lack of
security portfolio in their cabinets. The fact that there is
hardly any state government with security portfolio in its
cabinet speaks volume about governors lack of commitment to
security issues which they naïve see as federal concern just
because they have no state police under their absolute
control.
It would appear however, that one state governor has decided to seize the
bull by the horn in security matters in his state. And he is
no other than Governor Segun Oni of Ekiti state. How so?
Well, as I was rounding up this article this report suddenly
popped out on my radar screen as god sent and it made my
day. Below is the report as published by the Nigerian
Tribune 10062010:
“Ekiti State governor, Mr Segun Oni, has inaugurated the
test running of a statewide Integrated Security Alert System
designed to trigger-off simultaneous alarms in major police
and security formations in the state when crimes are
committed.
Speaking at the ceremony held in Ado-Ekiti, on Tuesday,
Governor Oni, who called on the people of the state to
always volunteer useful information on the activities of
criminals to the police and other security agencies, noted
that provision of vital information and intelligence reports
to security agencies were important factors in crime
prevention and detection.
Governor Oni said that a Swift Response Squad (SRS) made up
of mobile police men would patrol the state in 50 new
patrol vehicles recently procured by the state government
and were expected to respond rapidly to security alarm, and
distress calls from members of the public.”
Here we go at last! Somebody has finally picked up the
gauntlet. Governor Oni has indeed given flesh and blood to
what is being advocated in this write-up. Oh, how I wished
it was Governor Theodore Orji of Abia state that is behind
this new thinking. Sad to say his name has not been linked
to this type of project despite the dire security situation
in his state. Perhaps he will read this report. Perhaps his
press secretary will show it to him. Or perhaps he’s just
flat out too busy worrying about his second term to worry
about the state of insecurity in his state. Or perhaps he
will surprise us someday.
Now, it may very well be that the governor already has some
rickety security structure on the ground in Abia state.
There is no question in my mind that the Abia state
government has something on the ground given the spate of
kidnapping and general crime situation in the state. But
having an anaemic security outfit is worse than not having
one at all in that it lulls citizens into a false sense of
security to the citizens and thus let their guards down.
It’s not enough to have “something” on the ground. Security
has gone hi-tech. This is not your grandfather time’s
whistle and torchlight night-guard-type outfit. Whatever is
on the ground must be robust, modern, sophisticated and
effective. It must comprise 24-hour, round the clock
monitoring, reporting and response components. Orji and
other governors are well advised to borrow a leaf from their
counterpart in Ekiti state and even improve on his system.
Ekiti is one of the poorest states in the federation yet
it’s able to invest in a sophisticated security
infrastructure as the report shows. It’s all a matter of
priority and the political will to pull it through. But I
can assure the state governors that investing in robust and
sophisticated security network will not break their
treasuries. Far from it!
Citizens’ Civic Security Responsibility
By citizens is meant not just natural, biological citizens but
artificial, corporate citizens well. As indicated earlier,
security is the business of all not just the government.
Both private and corporate citizens need to take proactive
actions to protect themselves and their properties. It’s
unimaginable that the citizens of a nation suffering from
such high levels of insecurity have no individual security
outfits for their homes and offices but would rather
outsource their security to an inefficient and ineffective
state police establishment that cannot even police itself
let alone others.
It’s inconceivable that robbers and assassins could invade home and
businesses with utter impunity and operate for hours on end
with no security camera and surveillance systems in place.
And these are supposed to be homes and businesses of multi
millionaires not some poor individuals who cannot afford the
cost of security surveillance system.
It’s inconceivable too, that Nigerian entrepreneurs have not seized on
the huge opportunities created by the dire security
environment in the nation to venture into security related
businesses. Even with the relative efficiency and
effectiveness of police departments in cities and towns
across the US, for example, private security firms are the
order of the day and individual and corporate firms invest
heavily in their own security infrastructures to help and
complement the work of the state and local security
agencies.
Cops will not come and guard the homes of individuals and corporate
organizations. At best they can only do street patrols not
mount guard in the homes of individuals or corporate
premises. If individuals and corporate organizations leave
their behinds open in the hope that the cops will protect
them in their homes and offices, they will pay a big price
for that and leave their flanks open to attacks by hoodlums.
It’s, therefore, in their own interest to protect their behinds and their
assets by investing in well heeled security personnel and
materials. And that explains why private security is big
business in the United States. It’s not because it has no
effective and efficient law enforcement agencies on the
ground but because the job of securing lives and properties
is not for the law enforcement agencies alone to handle.
They alone can do but little in protecting people’s homes
and business establishments or even public places, for that
matter.
It’s about time Nigerians, individual citizens, and corporate
organizations alike took their own security into their own
hands by investing in security surveillance equipment, men
and materials, to help secure their own persons and assets
rather than leaving everything to the government. As stated
above, government cannot secure people in their homes and
offices all by itself and can only respond to events after
the fact, which is not good enough. When armed robbers come
calling the police will not be there and that’s the reality
everywhere in the world both in developed and developing
countries. It’s just the reality that we cannot run away
unless we want to provide a cop for each and every household
and business premise.
In the same token the police will not be there when kidnappers strike or
for that matter, when a bomb is planted in a vehicle and
driven to a spot to be set off later. In all these and other
cases security surveillance in individual homes, offices as
well as in public places, together with hard intelligence
work and public alertness, help to expose such activities
and nib potential crimes in the bud. That’s why security is
the business of everybody not just state security agencies
alone.
And that reminds me of the slogan in some cities in the United States:
“If you see something, say something,” which is an
exhortation to members of the public to be alert and
proactive by reporting unusual conditions and situations
including the actions and dispositions of individuals that
are out of the ordinary or out of the norm. It goes to
underline the fact that everybody has a stake in security
not just official security agencies, because as said
earlier, security is everybody’s business.
This could be illustrated by the example of the street vendor in New York
who spotted smokes coming out of a pick-up van loaded with
explosives parked in the vicinity of New York City’s Times
Square and immediately contacted the police. But for the
vigilance of the street vendor the van might have exploded
resulting in mass casualties at the ever bustling
“Crossroads of the World!”
Perhaps the Nigerian government needs to start or step up public security
awareness campaign rather than remaining complacent and
indifferent to goings on in their immediate environments.
The two bomb laden vehicles that exploded within the
precincts of the Abuja Eagle Square during the jubilee
celebrations might have been spotted by some vigilant
passersby if Nigerians were a bit more security conscious.
Perhaps the kidnap of a school bus laden with school kids might have been
prevented if Abians were a bit more security conscious and
had not left everything to the so-called security agencies.
It is gratifying to note however that such security
consciousness is beginning to germinate in official quarters
in Nigeria and hopefully will move into the public domain.
Here is a sampler from NNPC, as reported by Thisday Online
10062010:
"In consonance with the
health and safety core values of the oil and gas industry
worldwide, the management of the NNPC as usual conducted a
security drill at the corporate headquarters and all its
strategic business units across the country to ward off any
possible security breach.
“There is no cause for
alarm. The drill is a regular exercise that the corporation
carries out from time to time to assure our staff and all
our visitors that we are on top of our security situation
and to heighten our security alertness. The NNPC Towers is
well secured and there is no threat of bomb scare anywhere,”
Ajuonuma said.
It was
also reported that the management of the National Assembly
has instituted stringent security measures to safeguard the
premises from possible terrorist attacks. And just today,
10082010, the report came out that the Federal Government
has concluded plans to install Closed Circuit Television
(CCTV) surveillance system in Abuja! According to the
report by Thisday captioned:
“FG to Install CCTV in Abuja,” it quoted the Minister of Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja, Senator Bala Mohammed, as disclosing that
“CCTV would be installed in strategic locations within the
city to transmit signals that would aid in nipping any
criminal activity on the bud.”
All
these go to buttress my earlier postulation in this article
that it takes events like these to awaken a nation to its
security challenges. It’s already happening in Nigeria as it
happened in the US, India, Israel, Kenya, Saudi Arabia,
Britain, Spain, Germany, not to mention, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq and all other nations that have
suffered terrorist attacks in the past and are still living
in fear of further attacks. Eternal vigilance is the price
of freedom from terrorism.
Federal Security Responsibility
Overall, the nation’s security, whether external or internal, rests with
the Federal Government at the center. It is even more so in
Nigeria where the central government is in complete control
of security agencies including law enforcement agencies. As
such, the federal government has a duty to coordinate
security matters with the states in order to make for a
seamless operation throughout the country under the
jurisprudential doctrine of “Covering the Field”.
It’s, therefore, necessary for the federal government to help design a
common security platform for the states that’s full
integrated with the federal security infrastructures. While
regular security challenges can be handled at the state and
local levels major security challenges such a breakdown of
law and order and terrorism, insurrections and the like
properly belong to the federal authorities.
It is true that Nigeria is not a terrorist nation and therefore has no
experience in handling terrorist challenges as other nations
living in the shadows of terrorism. Therefore, her
performance in responding to a major terrorist event such as
the Abuja car bombings must be seen and evaluated in that
light. It is equally true that nations with more advanced
security networks have not always succeeded in preventing
terrorist attacks as happened in India, US, Britain, Spain
and other countries. As security experts have cautioned,
terrorists only have to succeed once to get attention and
claim victory even if they fail a million times before that.
No one credits security agents for foiling terrorist
attacks, but they get all the blame when one manages to pull
through no matter how insignificant it might be.
I’m, therefore, not interested in pointing fingers, but to undertake an
objective post mortem of the events. Atrocious and
unfortunate as the bombing incidents may have been, and
while the nation mourns those who gave up their lives in
defense of their country, the incidents provide some silver
lining that will ultimately be of immense benefits to the
nation.
In some weird way, MEND, which claimed responsibility for the Abuja
bombings may have unwittingly provided the nation’s security
agencies and the government the opportunity not only to test
their security drills in real time as opposed to
hypothetical or theoretical exercises, but also to overhaul
and upgrade the nation’s security infrastructures to world’s
standards. The unfortunate part, however, is the deaths that
followed, which must be counted as the price the nation had
to pay for securing herself in future.
Although MEND claimed to have issued prior warnings a few hours before
the bombs went off, it is clear that those warnings came too
little too late. Either that the warnings never got to the
targeted audience, who might not be expected to be glued to
their laptop screens at that material time or the warnings
probably fell on deaf ears. How many people received the
text messages and how specific and detailed were the
messages?
It’s not enough to generalize the information because Abuja is not a
village, but a huge city and specificity is critical to how
people react to security intel. The whole of Abuja would not
be grounded or all vehicles towed away from the city when
the nation was celebrating her golden jubilee with people
streaming in and out of the city because of terrorist
threats.
The threat must therefore be localized and appropriately dealt with
minimal disruptions to normal economic and social activities
in the city. In this case preventive actions would probably
have been limited to the vicinities of the Three Arms Zone
and of course, the Eagle Square, venue of the festivities in
the absence of specific intel. But that is by no means a
safe bet.
Terrorist could strike anywhere around the city and still have the same
impact, same level of casualties and deliver the same
message of insecurity to the nation. But the clear political
undertone of the action cannot be lost on the nation. There
is no question that the strikes were calculated to undermine
the Jonathan administration by portraying it as weak and
therefore incapable of protecting the nation few months to
the general elections.
It is highly unlikely, in fact inconceivable that the bombing of the
nation’s capital during her golden jubilee celebrations
would have been contemplated let alone executed if the late
President Musa Yar’Adua was still in power. MEND, which
claimed responsibility for the attacks had never gone beyond
Niger Delta to prosecute its war not against the federal
government per se, but against oil companies and their
installations based in Niger Delta region, not in Abuja,
with no oil installations or elsewhere in the federation
outside the Niger Delta region. And that’s why the attacks
are dripping with the oil of politics, using Niger Delta
struggle, which is being addressed under President Jonathan
as a convenient smokescreen.
There are no oil companies and installations in Abuja to have warranted
the extension of the war to Abuja, which makes the whole
thing look, feel and smell politics through and through, and
the arrests made so far seem to confirm this view.
If MEND was out to probe Nigeria’s security defenses just to send a
message about the nation’s vulnerabilities, it ought to have
issued the warnings publicly through the broadcast media and
the newspapers way ahead of time so as to get to the
targeted audience well ahead of time. Its failure to do so
was a fatal error for which it is now expressing regrets at
the unfortunate and senseless deaths that its acts have
caused. Those individuals have been callously sacrificed
like guinea pigs in a terrorist laboratory.
It is well within the realm of possibility, however, given the
information coming out from the governments of Nigeria and
South Africa that the operation might have been executed in
a hurry having possibly been detected by British security
agencies, which alerted their Nigerian counterparts to the
plot. This hypothesis seems more plausible given the fact
that the bombers only succeeded in emplacing two bomb laden
cars in the vicinity of the Eagle Square, some 500 meters
away from the famous Square. If as the SSS spokesperson said
in her briefings that some 65 vehicles were towed away from
the Three Arms Zone, which she alleged was targeted in the
plot, it stands to reason that more vehicles might have been
involved in the plot than just the two that exploded.
All of these lead one to the conclusion that the plot was probably
conceived to inflict maximum casualties on innocent
Nigerians but was thwarted by the authorities who moved in
to foil it when the plot was leaked. If this postulation is
correct, there’s every reason then to applaud the efforts of
the security agencies in minimizing the death tolls to nine.
It could have been a whole lot worse.
While every death is regrettable and painful enough, the nation should
find consolation in the fact that it could have been much
worse. We have witnessed the execution of similar terrorist
plots in India, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Britain, and good old
US with mass casualties, even with the best of intelligence
available to security operatives in those countries.
The Nigerian security agencies deserve a pat on their backs for moving to
neutralize the plot and minimize the casualties, where 100%
success had proved unattainable in the circumstances. They
cannot be blamed for receiving intelligence from the British
about the plot and not completely foiling it. Intelligence
information is never precise and often vague and it is left
for the security agencies concerned to take all appropriate
measures as best they can. But as the 9/11 and the Abdul-
Muttalab incidents have proved time and again, it is one
thing to have the intelligence and it is quite another to
interpret and pin point the specific targets of the
terrorist threats.
As I’m writing this piece the entire continent of Europe is in the grip
of terrorist threats. The intelligence is there alright but
no one knows the specific targets and the day and time of
their executions, prompting the Obama administration to
issue travel warnings to US citizens travelling to Europe.
That’s the messy and indeterminate nature of security intel.
Political Undertone
I would prefer to reserve my comments at this time on the unfolding
developments regarding the alleged possible involvement of
some high level political operatives of a particular
presidential aspirant as indicated in their alleged text
messages found in the arrested suspects’ cell phones and the
political brickbats that are being hauled at one another by
those implicated in the terrorist plot and the presidency.
All I can say for now is that terrorist attacks have occurred on Nigerian
soil and on no account should this be reduced to politics as
usual. The Nigerian nation has been attacked and is
currently under siege like Europe. That amounts to a
declaration of war. As such, anyone seeking to introduce
politics into a clear security matter deserves to be
arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law as an
accomplice after the fact, because no one has the right to
play politics with the security of the nation and the wholly
unwarranted death of fellow Nigerians in the service of
their country.
Politics might be dirty, but it has its boundaries nevertheless. It’s one
of the most shameful things to have come from the desperate
camp of some presidential aspirants who are looking for
openings to breathe life into their doomed campaigns to seek
to gain some political mileage from these sad events. It is
my considered view therefore that those seeking to introduce
politics into this have something to hide. But should their
desperate tactics still the hand of the law from exacting
justice? I don’t think so.
The blood of innocent Nigerians that perished in the terrorist attack is
in their hands. Therefore, the incipient campaign of
intimidation by certain political desperadoes from certain
parts of the country that is designed to obfuscate issues of
culpability of certain individuals being linked to the
terrorist act must not be allowed to stand and should be
rejected by all well meaning Nigerians whose fatherland has
been desecrated with the blood of their compatriots.
I’m
however reassured by the statement emanating from the bowels
of the presidency
that “no amount of blackmail will slow the hands of
justice.”
I’m further reassured by President Jonathan’s own statement
appearing on Facebook, where he reportedly wrote that
“we would be failing the past, present and future generations
of Nigerians if we do not get to the root of this dastardly
act and seek justice the way it should be done in a
civilised society such as ours,” and promising that “Whoever
is found culpable will face the full weight of the law..”
That’s all the innocent blood of the dead is crying for at this time.
Justice, and nothing but justice! Let justice take its
course and the chips fall wherever they may, for the dead
deserve nothing but justice handed out in its fullest
measures. And, may I add, Nigerians too, whose pristine
capital has been desecrated and its peace and tranquility
senselessly shattered.
Let justice prevail and heavens will not fall. We’ve gone through this
path before in the past with coup plotters. Haven’t we? And
here we go again!
May God bless and protect Nigeria and her citizens from acts of
terrorism.
Franklin Otorofani, Esq. contact:
mudiagaone@yahoo.com
|
By:
Franklin Otorofani, Esq.
Published
October 8th, 2010
