For over a decade and half, Nigeria has been battling with terrorism, banditry and other forms of violent crimes perpetrated by non-state actors against the citizens. In this interview, a veteran military officer and security strategist, Colonel Tony Nyiam, looks at the various dimensions of the crisis and tells ONWUKA NZESHI that Nigeria has become a victim of its natural resources
How would you describe the current security situation in our country?
We don’t seem to realise the precarious security situation Nigeria is facing today. We are in a war declared against us by some transnational criminals backed by elements both local and foreign that are interested in stealing our mineral resources. They are after our gold, lithium oxide, silver and other minerals. They know that right from Borno, Adamawa, Taraba down to Cross River, is a continues stretch of minerals.
Unknown to many Nigerians, this is what has been fueling all the terrorist activities. It is what led to the proliferation of terrorist organisations in our country. I mean the Boko Haram, ISWAP, Lakurawa and other organisations that have come to destabilise us. They know that when they destabilise us, they can then settle down to exploit our resources.
Let us not deceive ourselves, as a people, we are under existential threats at the moment and I am actually surprised why war hasn’t been declared. When you declare a war, then the economy and all other sectors would be mobilised towards prosecuting and winning that war. We are still playing the ostrich game, as if nothing is happening.
Every day, we hear reports of terrorists invading communities, maiming and killing our people; destroying their homes and sources of livelihoods. Many communities have been sacked and occupied by these terrorists. In Zamfara State, in the North-West, Hausas are being killed; in Plateau State, the Beroms are at the receiving end because these terrorists want to displace them and take over their land and minerals; in Benue State, the Tiv people have been under attack because these people want to take over their lush green arable lands. Surprisingly, the security forces appear to have been hijacked by the same people who are behind the plot to destabilise Nigeria.
Could you throw more light on the international dimension to the security challenges?
I mean that our natural resources; that is the minerals we have are so attractive that certain foreign interests have chosen to get involved in illegal mining in Nigeria. So, because of these resources and the corruption in our system, people want to come and mine them for free and take them away. They have found out that once they can bribe our officials, and they can keep us fighting ourselves, they can carry on with the stealing of our resources. They know that if we are destabilised, the Immigration Service is not working, Customs Service not working, then they can keep on stealing these minerals and carting them overseas. That is what has been happening in Zamfara State and that is what is happening with the Boko Haram taking over some parts of the Lake Chad region. There are elements there who are working for the multinational extractive industry who are taking a lot from us. They are equipped; they use helicopters to go to any place to cart away precious minerals such as gold, diamond or even lithium and fly away. So, what am I saying? We should not be naive. A lot of powers are so interested in these resources that they are now desperate to take it by force.
Some countries around us such as Niger Republic, Burkina Faso and Mali have chosen to take their destinies in their own hands by severing ties with some foreign interests. So we have become more vulnerable than ever before. These multinationals have found out that our country is an easy prey and they have their kind among us who are helping them in this illicit mining business. Even those Nigerians who don’t want to help them, their lives are under threat
What do you have to say about a recent proposal by the Chief of Defence Staff that we should build a wall round Nigeria’s borders?
This is what I’ve been trying to say. We’re making mistakes. When it comes to strategy at the highest level, it is not the Service Chiefs who determine it. Why? Because of conflict of interests. Secondly, they don’t have the training.
Do you mean that those who have risen to the topmost level in our military do not have the required training?
No. No. No. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying they don’t have the prescribed training. But the training they have is the training to obey the National Security leadership, which is described as the highest command. In the advanced countries, the highest command is usually backed by think tanks who think for them. But we don’t have those think tanks. The think tanks we have such as NIPSS (National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies) and NIA (National Intelligence Agency), have become somewhat corrupted and absorbed into the system. They are no more as useful as they were at the onset.
If you watch American institutions like the Centre for Foreign Policy, they think through security challenges, policies and strategies. The British have the Royal Society of Security, and the Institute for Strategic Studies. They come up with new ideas by thinking ahead.
Again, don’t get me wrong. Building a wall round the borders is not bad in itself but will not make much difference if we just award the contracts and put up the structure. There have been breaches of walls since the Chinese Wall was built. You don’t build walls and leave them on their own. Walls can’t think and because they cannot think, the person who can think can breach them easily. You build a wall as an aid to border security forces
The India and Pakistan conflict is a good case. . The Pakistanis has some terrorists or militants whom they throw to India but India blocks them.
India is very similar to us (Nigeria) because it is a large country made up of many ethnic nations but the borders of India are manned not by their military but by the local people. The regiments around their borders are all local regiments and have been effective in securing their borders. This is why I’m suggesting that our borders should also be manned by regiments from our local communities around our borders. For instance, our borders with Cameron around Taraba State should be manned by Jukun regiments.
Our main challenge is that we have a carryover of our old colonial mentality and we are not thinking through certain policies before taking action. The other key point I’m making is that the sub nationals should have powers to arm their own security forces to defend their territories.
Is that not the issue we’ve been trying to address with the agitation for state police?
No. Border security is not a police function. What does the police do? Are they fighters? No, they are not. In every country, internal security falls under the Ministry of Interior. In India, in the United States, everywhere.
The civil police is only meant to enforce law and order everywhere in the country. But when it comes to threats to internal security which are organised by people who are stronger than criminals, the police can’t cope with it. The Police are not trained to go and fight in the forest. They don’t have the tactics. They’ll be lost in the bush.
When you say the sub nationals should have their own security and should be at liberty to arm them, what exactly do you mean? Is it ethnic armies?
Let me explain by illustration. In the US, the sub nationals have their own force which is the National Guards. It is made up of civilians who are part time soldiers and they bear arms. They don’t require the Federal Government to tell them what calibre of arms to buy. What is the reason? The genesis is that America is not like Britain which is a country made up of indigenous people. In America, the indigenous people were pushed aside. They use the word National Guards which actually means the Army of the subnational. Before the confederations or coming together of the states, they felt they needed to protect their own right so that the centre cannot take their right. The Confederates or the States that came together to form the United States of America delegated their rights to the union up to a point, but they didn’t delegate their right to self defence. So, when people talk about State Police when we are discussing border security, it amazes me because the police are not for combat. They are there to enforce civil law and order. Everywhere you go, the police are local but in Nigeria, because of our colonial experience, we centralised it. In other places it is State bound or Local Government bound. In the US, universities have their own police. The Police is the only body that can arrest anybody who flouts the law. It is not the soldier (military), not the DSS because Police is the civilian arm of the law. So if the Police and the DSS have a problem, the police will go there and arrest.
In the UK, they have the equivalent of the DSS which is a special branch of the Police. But it is only the Police that can arrest or detain somebody. I’m sorry to say that everything has been so bastardized here. People are still talking about Police when we are talking about internal security.
Does it mean that we’ve gone past the issue of State Police which was a major topic during the 2014 national conferences?
No. No. The State Police is still useful in the sense that policing is local. But when we start talking about internal security where it is like you are facing militias, terrorists and bandits, it is not the role of the police. They can’t cope because they are not trained or equipped to do that.
So, I’m talking about armed forces and I’m saying that the Federal Government should not be the only tier of government that should have armed forces. The sub nationals should also have their own armed forces. like the National Guards in the US and the examples I’ve suggested to you in India where the local regiments, made up of the natives bear arms because they can defend their land better than anybody else.
Can the Amotekun that we have in the South West today, represent what you’re talking about?
Indeed, that is the closest example except that the Nigerian law does not allow them to be armed. Whatever they are doing today, they have limitations because legally, it is only the Nigeria Armed Forces, owned by the Federal Government that has what is called the End User License to procure and use arms. Amotekun cannot bear arms because if you check the Constitution, there is no provision that allows a sub-national to arm its people.
Are you therefore proposing a constitutional amendment to fill the gap?
Yes. You see, people do not know that if you have a constitution, it can be set aside if you don’t have an appropriate National Security Architecture. Can’t you see President Donald Trump trying to set aside some parts of the American Constitution using Executive Orders? Yes, he is finding it hard because the courts have been stopping him on many fronts. In the US system, those running the courts were appointed by Conservatives over time, so the courts are at times giving way to him.
But because their military is spread and not centralised, the Federal US Army is what he commands, he does not command the State National Guards. America is organised in such a way that the National Security Architecture is the foundational basis of the US Constitution. So, it is in the UK too. The UK has no written constitution but it has a sound federated National Security Architecture. Many people don’t know that a Political and Economic Restructuring without a corresponding National Security Architecture can be swept aside. The example I’ve always used is Ethiopia which has one of the best federal constitutions in the world but it lacks a corresponding National Security Architecture. So that was why, when a region wanted to exercise its right, the Centre said no and used the armed forces to force them into submission and the crisis is still on.
Is that not the same situation that we have here in Nigeria?
No. No. No. Look at the distinction: Ethiopia has one of the best federal constitutions but it is not backed by a corresponding Federal National Security Architecture. In Nigeria we don’t have any of them. It is not that we can’t have it but it is deliberate because those who controlled Nigeria for a long time were not Nigerians but outsiders who came in and seized power so they want to ensure that the natives or indigenous people don’t have their rights.
It has become a fundamental problem for us because of corruption and short-term thinking. We’re not really thinking. The recruitment into our security services is still skewed against certain people because the natives are not always in control of the process. They have determined the constitution you have and they have also determined the mentality of our media. For example, the media is still promoting the erroneous narrative of herders/farmers’ clash. Up till now, you guys write like that when indeed there are no clashes but some strangers invading the agrarian communities in the Middle Belt and other parts of the country.
In the face of all these threats, what fundamental solution can you proffer? You want us to get back to the drawing board on security?
Not just returning to the drawing board but focusing on solving the problems before it becomes too late. The answers to the national questions are there. We just need to be serious and apply them.
We’ve had so many conferences including the 2014 National Conference which ended with robust recommendations. So, all we need now is to show some sense of sincerity of purpose and political will. Enough of some people making money at the expense of our people dying every day. The first thing we need to do in order to build a true federal democracy is to establish an appropriate National Security Architecture.
I will continue to stress that the examples are there to learn from others. You have India and the US where the people consented to establishing a true federal democracy. In the case of the Americans didn’t give up their right to arm themselves. I’m not suggesting that but I’m with the Americans in spirit with the sub – nationals having the right to arm themselves, at least for self defence. I believe that President and the National Assembly can by law get that done. This is more so with the security challenges we have in different parts of the country.
The cry the Governor of Plateau and Governor of Benue are crying is because they don’t have control over the security forces in their states. The Governor of Borno State should have security forces which are under his command; so does the Governor of Zamfara State. They should all have security forces under their commands which is like the equivalent of the National Guards in the United States.
What would the new National Security Architecture entail?
My recommendation is that we should have a three- layered security forces structure. The first is to have a buffer force at the borders that is made up of indigenous people of border communities. The second line is Internal or Homeland Security Forces like the Amotekun in the South West. Then the third line made up of the Federal Government Forces namely the Nigeria Army, Nigeria Navy and Air force with their assets evenly and equitably distributed in all the six geopolitical regions.
In other words, I am saying that we need a new security architecture that can contain the kind of threats that we have today. The security threats we have are much more of asymmetric than conventional. The main threats are from non- state actors and their more due operandi is not like that of the conventional army. They use guerrilla tactics, so that is why in some other countries, they have adopted what they call Special Forces which is another name for Guerrilla Forces or the People’s Army. At the moment, we don’t have that in Nigeria. The average officer in training both at the Nigeria Defence Academy, Kaduna and the Army Depot in Zaria is trained on his to attack a place, capture the place and hold the ground. He us not trained for a scenario where soldiers within his camp are agents of the enemies. He is not trained for a scenario where someone can come and hit him and run away.
The other issue is that the personnel in the military proportional to our population is too low. I have been saying this for more than twenty years. We have less than 240,000 people for a country of over 200 million people. Just to illustrate, Egypt that has less than 108 million people has over one million military personnel. Ethiopia with about 128 million people has roughly over 800, 000 military personnel. So, you can see that we are just jokers. We are not really serious about our national security what is worse is that there are so many people who have infiltrated the military and there are many people who see military service as transactional business.
Moreover, in modern warfare, almost two third of the tools deployed is conventional weapons but the remaining one third is technology. If you look at the Pakistan/Indian crisis now, it’s gone into cybersecurity; it’s gone into drones. So, I’ve been trying to make a case that we can do same in solving the problem of insecurity in our country. It’s just that some people don’t want it to end because they are making money from it.
Our young people are very tuned towards cybersecurity. If you go and check, in terms of inclination to Cybersecurity, Artificial intelligence and all that, Russia and other Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, Belarus and so on are the first. Then you talk of China and of course India. After India, it is Nigeria. So, what am I saying? It is an area that we can build on to solve this insecurity in our country.
Our guys are very good and we could build on that foundation. Can’t you see these chaps engaging in 419 and other cybercrimes? It’s part of what I am talking about. They have the capacity to do something with the cyber space but we need to channel their energies to positive ends. This is what the Chinese, Israelis and Indians have done with the help of their governments. But, we are not ready. So, what I am suggesting is that we should go beyond the old way of handling security by leaving everything to the conventional Armed Forces as prescribed by the Constitution. No. No. No. It’s gone beyond that level. We are facing an existential threat and if we don’t do anything about it, we will all suffer the consequences.
