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IDADA: Security Agencies Must Be Restructured

By Alemma Ozioruva Aliu
12 July 2015   |   12:14 am
Brigadier-General Idada Ikpomwen is the former Provost Marshal of the Nigeria Army. Now a lawyer and politician, he spoke to ALEMMA-OZIORUVA ALIU in Benin City on the resurgent activities of the Boko Haram sect. There seems to be a resurgence of Boko Haram activities in some parts of the country, what do you think is…
Idada

Idada

Brigadier-General Idada Ikpomwen is the former Provost Marshal of the Nigeria Army. Now a lawyer and politician, he spoke to ALEMMA-OZIORUVA ALIU in Benin City on the resurgent activities of the Boko Haram sect.

There seems to be a resurgence of Boko Haram activities in some parts of the country, what do you think is responsible for this?
QUITE frankly, insurgency and terrorism have become buzzword in Nigeria, lately, no thanks to Boko Haram, a name, which is said to mean that ‘anything west is bad.’ This renewed attack is something that is bound to worry any well meaning Nigerians, whether he or she is a Christian, Muslim or atheist.

Be that as it may, insurgency is not peculiar to Nigeria. It is in all parts of the world. Even, some countries that are worried about it have offered to assist us. It is a very devilish, ominous, devastating and worrisome phenomenon. This issue has been with us since 2002, because when we were in the Vision 20:2020 committee, it was made clear that there were elements like this, and they were already present in places such as, Kano and some other northern states, but they came up more noticeably, in 2005, and at that time, it was said that they had a leader called Yusuf.

However, the manner the matter was handled leaves much to be desired. He was killed without Nigerians having opportunity to know who he was, how he was being funded and what he and his sect wanted. We saw the sect coming in greater force and making more devastating impact after the swearing in of the immediate past president, Goodluck Jonathan, in 2011. It was said by many that the group was a reaction to the failure of General Buhari to emerge president.

It was even linked to the statement of Buhari that he would make Nigeria ungovernable, if election was not properly conducted, but it will appear that the story is a lie now, because not only was Buhari himself attacked, he narrowly missed being killed. Moreso, by the fact that one month after he was sworn in, activities of the group have increased, they have gone back to the guerrilla tactics typical of insurgents and terrorist groups to the extent that, in one month, between 400 and 600 people have been reportedly killed.

Be that as it may, terrorism remains a challenge for any government in power. It is particularly so, as the previous government did not appear to have had the political will to deal with it, therefore, the success or failure of the present administration will, to a very large extent, be judged by how effectively, President Muhammadu Buhari is able to address this scourge. Security of lives and property is the primary purpose of government; it is not a small issue, but a very serious one.

Some of us have spoken more than adequately and prescribed measures by which this sad development could be handled. We said that most of the measures that were evolved by the immediate past government were haphazard, because they did not go to the root of the problem. For example, when a state of emergency was declared in three states, the government did so in line with constitutional demand, yet failed to go the whole hug by allowing the then existing structures to remain. What we, therefore, had was two authorities standing side-by-side to deal with an emergency of a grave nature, whereas, from all intent and purposes, it was clear that the invocation of a state of emergency was meant to set aside existing legal and political structures, such that the emerging authorities will act fully and freely, rather than having to confer and be subordinated to some local authorities.

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo did it in Plateau and Ekiti states, when he appointed Generals Chris Alli and Tunji Olurin.

However, unless the economic, social, political and strategic environment for fighting this sort of war is really put in place, the whole thing will be ineffective. We cannot afford to be ineffective anymore in fighting this terrible scourge. When the insurgents strike, it is not the people that are their immediate victims that are their targets, their real targets, is the government and leadership of the day whom they want to discredit, whom they want to prove inefficient, who they want to prove that they cannot take care of the lives and properties of the people and we are supposed to prove them wrong by making it obvious that government is capable and doing what is right.

In fighting Boko Haram, government must rise up and live up to expectation of transparency, efficiency and corruption free governance. No military force, no matter how equipped, can succeed in fighting insurgency, unless they have the support of the people.
But is this government on the right track?

One month is too short to assess the success or failure of a government that has four years to rule, especially, given the environment in which the present government met this country. I believe that it is premature for anybody to come out and tell us convincingly that this government is not doing enough.

I want to also say that in a society that is perverse, even the military forces are likely to be compromised.

For example, we have read how the Directorate of State Security (DSS) abandoned monitoring insurgents, whose cell numbers they had, and who relied on these numbers to operate, and they were monitoring politicians in the opposition. So many things happened there that today, the country is as good as not having DSS.

So, whom do you trust when security agencies have been compromised? If they could be compromised, must we not return them to the position where their loyalty to the constitution is guaranteed, rather than individual rulers? Because the moment you abandon the system and work for the individual, you have missed it.

The security agencies must be re-motivated, they must be encouraged to do what is right and there are many ways these can be done like looking into their welfare, which is all encompassing.

It includes the treatment you give to them while they are in service, you give to their families when they die in active service, including the way you treat those who have disengaged from service.

What about the issue of dismantling military check points in parts of the country?
I have been saying this for long now that we should not find our soldiers on road blocks and other places, the military, by our constitution, is supposed to prevent external aggression, to maintain the territorial integrity of the nation and to come to the aid of civil authorities, when there is threat of insurgency.

The military must not be seen doing the routine job of the police. When the Boko Haram activities got to the level of internal war, I agreed that it was no longer a police duty, and of-course, that ought to be restricted to the areas, where the insurgency was raging. There are constitutional roles for all the security agencies and they must be seen to be doing that, we do not have to compromise the military by exposing them to drivers on the road, especially, in areas that are not involved in this nature of civil war, because what you will get is that same military that you considered as the last resort in saving this country from war and insecurity, will be compromised the same way as you are complaining about the police.

What about strategies because Boko Haram is now using suicide bombings and not direct confrontation with the military?
Suicide bombings go to the root of insurgency and terrorist activities. Their aim is to discredit government; who are these suicide bombers, they are people, who, because of their deep belief and commitment to what they are doing and in line with their religious fanatism, they believe that if they die, when they are doing the operation, they go to heaven. Government’s emphasis should be measured to re-orientate them, make them believe that this country is for all of us. There is great need for proper acquisition of information and for this information to be properly handled and translated into intelligence that will lead to something concrete and the ability to transmit this information to those who know so that they will be able to put them into action to prevent any harm or damage on the society.

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