MY BINOCULARS: DEMOCRACY DAY, FRAGILE SECURITY ARCHITECTURE OF NIGERIA AND THIS UNENDING DAMNATION CALLED RANSOM FOR COMMERCIAL BANDITRY
Bodunrin Kayode
Looking through my binoculars, I have observed that most residents in Nigeria are so used to the old ways of doing things, which are tied to quick fixing and shortcuts to almost every challenge of life. This is why most think that mere agitation for the release of one set of captives will be the end of this lingering sing-song that has been let loose in the land by these scarecrow criminals called bandits. “Release our students”, for instance, has become a mere social album released intermittently because even the political leaders are busy trying to solve this damnation in a quick-fix manner from the head instead of permanently from the root. This is why abductions have become a commercial business run by bandits who have no respect for our security operatives because they do not dominate the landscape as in other climes using men and materials.
The interagency cooperation in terms of intelligence sharing has equally become so weak since 1999 that the policy itself has deteriorated to a mere chorus either in a staccato or crescendo format to suit the ears of foreign watchers, like the Americans who seem to care. We also know that the disparity between the vocal range of the Department of State Service (DSS) and the military is so wide that it will take the grace of God for them to continue to sing in harmony as was preached by General Chris Musa before he was dropped as Chief of Defence Staff. Until they all find their bearings by working harmoniously, these criminals extorting Nigerians in the savannah will continue to have their say with impunity. Abductions and kidnappings will surely linger for a long time until this government swallows its pride and requests massive help from willing friends or mercenaries to take out these criminals in the bush once and for all. Enough of this capability talk when they don’t show adequate capacity to match the impunity of these vagabonds in the bush.
What will it profit the residents if the people of Ngoshe are freed today and another retired military personnel member is picked up in Kankara, Matazu or even Borgu tomorrow? It would be a case of one step forward and two steps backwards. And mark you, they always check out our loopholes and grab vulnerable people after some respite. Who will stop them? The overstretched federal police?
Very few state actors within the general security network bother about taking these criminals out of their hideouts as long as their loved ones have been freed from their grips. These urchins can continue to stay in the savannah and some parts of the rainforests in the south-west of the country, carrying out their criminality on vulnerable people to make them cry. Some of the residents they have humiliated and killed include political, military and traditional rulers, and they don’t care a hoot about our common humanity. Yet the federal government in the last eleven years has continued to treat their known sponsors like sacred cows who should not be touched. Desperate genuine cries for the establishment of state police which will master their known terrain under the control of the subnationals; the issue is being treated with kid gloves by those who should speed up the process in the National Assembly.
Sadly also, ignorant observers create unnecessary fears about how governors will utilise the outfit as weapons of control and all manner of figments in their poisoned imaginations. But come to think of it, is it not better for the subnationals to control the vast expanse of forests in their states where the federal police have failed in the last three decades or more? Why the unnecessary delay and injection of misinformation concerning the formation of state police, which has been long overdue? Is the funding needed for each state to establish its own outfit up to how much has been taken from our commonwealth in the last three decades by public thieves? Why are people in authority so wicked in the way they manage the followership in this country? Do residents enjoy the killing of our people by bandits instead of the subnationals joining in the fight?
For some of these reasons, I don’t believe that the release of captives in Kwara recently will ever stop another set of residents from being captured in two weeks’ time from Zamfara. This is because these criminals will always get more vulnerable people to monitor, especially in our largely unmanned forest terrain, and pick them up like hawks clutching their prey in their claws. Poor residents, desperate to free their loved ones, will empower these criminals with “anything they want” under the sun besides humongous amounts of cash, making them richer by the day.
It’s a very sad reality that any layman can see the lacuna in our various communities for easy capture of our people because of the way our security architecture is designed. Of course, the bottom line of all this hide-and-seek game is the demand for more money because the whole phenomenon has become an industry for the criminals who keep prospering while fighting for a “known cause” against the rest of us. From Boko Haram to Lakurawa, Biafrans and even Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) fighters, they all have fixated on known causes not hidden to keen observers in the country. And if the collection of ransom in cash, motorcycles, foodstuffs and many other mundane food items like biscuits and chewing gum must stop, an extra amount of trained intelligence manpower must be injected into the security services as a beef-up. Where the Federal Police can afford only 10,000 personnel for a state, the state may be able to recruit twice that amount of personnel to serve its regional interests. A rich state like Lagos can afford up to 50,000 personnel in its state police kitty, with almost half of that figure embedded in the intelligence update arena. That is why we need more police presence and dominance in our internal security networks. And with the latest appointment of Major General Adeyinka Famadewa, retired as special adviser on homeland security to oversee and coordinate internal security and intelligence integration across the country, the stage should be set for a better and real-time liaison of intel between the sub-nationals and some of the lackadaisical federalists who still believe in doing things the same old ways they were taught 50 years ago at the NDA or intel training schools.
How to stop these criminals from prospering from the blood of Nigerians
Security managers have to stop doing things the same way they are used to doing them after the civil war and move to the next known level of sophistry. The key intelligence people must move from manual to the highest form of digital sophistication and collaborate with the big players in the world to get results. The military intelligence and the cyber tech squad must increase their romance with each other. Above all, the military boots on the ground have to be hurriedly increased to at least 500,000 men in the army alone so they can dominate our porous borders where these criminals walk in to destabilise the country. The Nigerian Air Force and navy can share the remaining boots earmarked for 250,000 men each, ready to protect a population of at least 250 million people before the end of 2036. The federal and state police put together should never be less than a million boots on the ground so that the smallest hamlet of 200 people will have a police post looking after their security.
Again, the trainers in the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), for instance, should go beyond the conventional ways they are used to doing things and incorporate asymmetric formations into their curriculum the way institutions like West Point and Sandhurst have done even before the commencement of the rebellion against organised governments by extremists in many parts of the world. The earlier the better for our security network, which is heavily appropriated in trillions of naira yet grossly underfunded each fiscal year. This gives rise to the inability of defence managers most times to buy the basic and advanced intel equipment for utilisation to fight back. Nothing stops the aviation corps of the army from having in their possessions hundreds of sophisticated helicopters which will do justice to commanders whenever they need them to take out bandits in the bush. Their funding should be done specifically by trust funds meant to support the intelligence services in the security services.
Even when the British and American troops on the ground have been enabling our personnel with some of this rare equipment within the last decade, the effect in terms of optics is minimal compared to a situation where our men will own and operate theirs. For us residents who live and work in the “Hadin Kai” war theatre, we know that the British have been doing their best with this intel support, but it has never been enough to cover even 10 per cent of the vast forests which stretch from Sambisa up to the Tumbus Islands of Lake Chad or way beyond the Mandara Mountains down to the Central African region. Most commanders on the front line have operated on a trial and error basis when it comes to discerning critical actionable intel. But thank God, the collaboration with the Americans has started yielding tangible fruits beyond some reasonable doubts.
Key intelligence agencies have to start acting in real time to save more lives if they are supported with this expensive equipment to respond to assist the ten agencies now dishing out intel to the national security adviser. This is because responding in real time is key to stop these criminals from their lingering operations in the country. There is no time for lingering interagency rivalry for now.
Consequently, it is only the right intelligence that can take out the estimated 30,000 criminals the Americans alerted the nation about and not necessarily brute force known to the military. These people use asymmetric tactics, meaning that they operate against known conventional warfare created verbally or through fixated policies.
Our dedicated operatives also have to stop clamouring for half-bread by ensuring that our political servants in government, like the state service boys and service chiefs, go after and take out all 30,000 of the bandit criminals as has been revealed by those who have the right equipment to see them as they roam about our bushes with impunity. Mark my words: if the security operatives do not move to the next level in terms of intel sharing and management, many more will have to be abducted. Hundreds more will suffer in the process and die before the next June 12 democracy day. And please don’t ever ask me why. Nigeria has a lot of fixing to do in the security sector for residents to sleep with both eyes closed
