For more than a decade and half, Nigeria has been battling with terrorism and other forms of insecurity. In this chat, an expert in Counterterrorism and Critical Crimes, Dr Joseph Ifedimma, tells ONWUKA NZESHI that the exit of three countries from ECOWAS may compound the security situation in the country.
What are your thoughts about the resurgence of terrorism in the North-East and general insecurity in other parts of Nigeria?
It is no longer news that terrorism and allied critical crimes are on the increase in specific areas in Nigeria. They have also increased in brutality, producing even more casualties than ever in the history of violence in our country. The enormity, frequency and sheer upscale of these attacks at short intervals eclipsed anything previously seen or recorded. In the past four months, only three states mainly, Yobe, Adamawa and Borno, recorded 26 attacks with 227 deaths.
If successes in counterterrorism are measured by the rate of attacks and number of deaths, then we aren’t truly winning the war. There is an urgent need for all the stakeholders to act fast, timely and in unison.
All options aren’t exhausted yet, as there are still options that could be taken to improve the security situation and protect our people all over Nigeria. Honestly, some of these actions are already in President Bola Tinubu’s charge to our military to take proactive actions. Our military services have done creditably well but they still need to do more. Let us get this right now, that no criminal is more viciously wicked, heartless and evilly sophisticated than terrorists. Nigeria has lost thousands of her people to these criminals. Millions of our citizens are internally displaced because of terrorism and other critical crimes, while enormous resources, both human and material have gone into fighting terrorism and till date, the war still rages with alarming fire.
How do you assess President Tinubu’s handling of governance issues, especially security in the past two years?
I will be very honest with you, he has done well, regardless of the sentiments in certain quarters. Originally, I wasn’t an advocate of Tinubu’s presidency, my electoral loyalty was to Peter Obi. But President Tinubu’s appointments with consideration to competence endeared him deeply to many hearts. Look at the clusters of technocrats in his cabinet and their performances. You must be aware of the superlative strides in Aviation, Immigration, Education, Finance, CBN, Science and Technology among others. Look at how the gentleman, Hon. Tunji Ojo changed the entire architecture of immigration and correctional services under two years. He has not only eliminated touting on passport issuance, but fastened its processing and deliveries at peoples’ doorsteps, thereby performing the impossible.
In the UK, USA and other countries, Nigerians are now receiving their processed passports and other travel documents through postal mails, with our respective embassies and high commissions strictly adhering to scheduled appointments. It is in the same manner that he appointed the Service Chiefs with the mandate to secure and protect Nigerians. He has done everything visibly possible to encourage and motivate them. In his capacity as the President, I will score him 85 per cent (55%) so far because he is barely two years in office.
However, if there is anyone lacking in their official deliveries on their jobs, Nigerians should channel their questions to them for accountability, not the President. The military and other Service Chiefs have given good accounts of their respective stewardships but a lot more is still expected from them. Let us give them a little more time. But let me to say this boldly, their efforts
alone cannot do this job, as they need to be complemented or supervised by an established presidential desk, manned by a well acclaimed researched expert of international repute. The job of this desk is to provide the president with routine Presidential Weekly Briefs, PWBs, a very authentic balanced report, different from what he hears from other sources. Look at the finished products of a carpenter and upholstery, the quality and glazing look of their finished works will tell you who did the job. This is the same in terrorism and allied critical crime cases. The activities of Boko Haram and other terrorist organisations were poorly and grossly mismanaged from the onset. Nigeria’s tenants of power and governments, between 2009 to 2015 responded unfortunately to an unhealthy social challenge from these groups by deploying soldiers to fight, which was supposed to be our last strategy in counterterrorism.
On the sides of terrorists’ organizations and governments globally, wars are usually their last and terminal lethal strategies, and they are usually dispensed in different degrees and calibrations. Nigeria got it wrong from the start, hence we would need to re-assess the situation for necessary adjustments. Killing Mohammed Yusuf of Boko Haram was our greatest albatross. Terrorist organizations often take such upscale eliminations, especially their leaders to heart eternally. Revenge and bitterness are even stronger factors in terrorism than religion. But like I said, it is all in the past and there is still a way out of this quagmire in future.
Since the advent of terrorism in Nigeria, successive governments have always been under pressure to change the service chiefs but soon after. Every change of guards the challenge remains. Why?
This is a very tricky question but let me approach it very realistically. They are all generals in their respective services. To make a general in any of the services if the Nigerian Armed Forces and even the other Security Services is not a joke, and to have been qualified to be appointed a Service Chief is in the superlative. So, they are all eminently qualified and have all done very well.
The war against terrorism is full of complexities and intricacies and it is only through good and guided intelligence specificities that we can effectively manage these wars. The Service Chiefs know what to do, and I feel these currently on the saddle are already doing it by bringing intelligence to the frontline, from where the past administrations relegated it.
What advice do you have for the Tinubu administration on handling terrorism and other violent crimes?
First the Tinubu presidency must domesticate our counter terrorism policies to reflect our local realities. Appointments into such offices must be on competencies, qualifications and not zoning. It is an area of critical crimes, the best in the specialty must be approached and considered. While we very much welcome the cooperation and support we are getting from our friends abroad, it is important to make it clear that Nigeria can only move forward with home grown solutions. Africa, especially Nigeria should no longer depend on foreign trainers, books, authors in a war that is locally ours. Nigerians best in counterterrorism are highly sought after in advanced countries of the world, where they are holding faculty positions in the specialties, or playing very active advisory roles.
Are there things we are not getting right in our counterterrorism operations?
We need to bring the dormant office of the Special Adviser to the President on Counterterrorism to the frontline, as the essence of establishing that office is to coordinate, streamline and regulate the activities of our various counterterrorism cells. The original plan was for it to be the policy focal point, the audacious voice of the President and governments on all related counterterrorism and critical crime cases, and to pride itself as the foreign face of Nigeria abroad on counterterrorism and allied critical crime matters. If this office is actively operational, President Bola Tinubu does not need to be confronted directly on terrorism and allied matters, locally and internationally.
The law that established that office mandated the holder of the office to be clearly answerable to the President of the country and the world on all matters relating to terrorism. I am not second guessing on this matter, as I was in the dedicated team of invited speakers during the public hearing and professional contributions.
The UN league of Charter on counterterrorism recommended the establishment of a “Third Force” devoid of the military and police by member countries, which the SA’s office ably represents. But the appointment of this very professional is very important and will determine the effective outcome of these wars. It will also be a way for the President to start sending very clear and sound warnings to all our “unfriendly friends” that the new face of Nigeria means serious security business, and that the activities of terrorists, bandits and critical criminals must be reviewed from time to time by dedicating a critical crime agency to handle these areas of threats.
It is within the realm of both politics and governance that Mr President should navigate to extract the best out of the available professionals, technocrats within and outside Nigeria for such appointment and deployment. No nation develops beyond the capability, competence and capacity of its public service.
There is this perception that ignorance, illiteracy, poverty and lack of economic opportunities are the prime drivers of crime including terrorism. Do you agree?
To me, health and education are exclusively paramount and important and need to be urgently addressed to take off the streets our children, youths and adults who resorted to criminalities due to lack of good health, education and quality parenting.
There is certainly no substitute for good health and education. As a matter of urgent national policy, we need aggressive campaigns to educate our post incarceration youths and extend the same to our youths and adults who are above school ages. Health education reduces crime, as those who feel the cost of education and wellbeing is expensive should try to experience the consequences of illiteracy and mental illnesses.
What about kidnapping for ransom by these terrorist groups?
There should be a strong focus on terrorists’ networks. As blood is important to our bodies, so also funds are adequately needed to propel terrorism and critical crimes. We must as a matter of policy develop strict strategies to monitor their financial and operational mechanisms to incarcerate
their networks. Terrorists’ operations need to be stopped at the planning stage, and disrupting their liquidity pipelines is the most effective and practical approach.
Most of their finances come from the unorganised sectors. They operate cell behind the cell method, where the terror financial end users hardly know their benefactors. The couriers and the receivers are introduced and arranged to meet the same day; hence they are meeting for the first and last time. Till date, we have not heard of anyone or group who had been publicly listed, prosecuted and imprisoned on terrorism financing charges in Nigeria.
There is also the role of religion and the misconceptions implanted in terrorists which motivates them. How can we resolve this?
Many Nigerians are dissatisfied, not just with the situation concerning Boko Haram, ISWAP and other designated terrorists’ organizations, but with the state of our political debate regarding routing them out of Nigeria. Nigerians must build a bipartisan approach to bring a responsible conclusion to what is now a costly and lengthy war, unless we want to be living with endless deception. As one who spent his six years in the United Kingdom to study and research on these heartless criminals called terrorists, we are not winning the wars and may never.
Let us call a spade, a spade to avoid euphemism. There is apparently no end in sight and no exit date, yet the country is spending billions monthly over an enemy that has vowed to keep us fighting till eternity. We need to re-assess the herculean difficulties in fighting an enemy that cannot be distinguished from the local communities, he lives within us, but comes out to fight, kill and maim us and blend with the crowd. He lives in an amenable environment with no returnable addresses. How can you keep fighting an enemy that is ever ready to have an early appointment with death? In fact, he is already wearing a death tag, but looking for more people who will die with him since death is a prerequisite for the successes of his operations, is it even an aberration and cowardice for him to return from wars alive?
The current conflict in the Middle Belt States of Plateau and Benue have been blamed on armed herdsmen from neighbouring countries. What should Nigeria do to checkmate them?
The activities of these groups must be monitored and regulated, so also the cache of illegal arms in their possessions. Open grazing cattle ownership must be seriously reviewed and handled adroitly, as some of these nomadic Fulanis fraternise with these terrorists from Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea Conakry. We are hosting a strategic environment characterised by proliferation of weapons of minor and mass destructions, and a new breed of terrorists and criminals specially trained outside the normal profile. These groups of terrorists are specifically tutored to target strategic sectors where potency exists for mass
Suffice me to use this quote to strengthen the above, they were said to have declared that “the confrontation that we are calling for is against global regimes, faiths and dictators and does not understand debates, ideas and diplomacy, rather it knows the dialogue of bullets, blood, the ideals of assassinations, bombing and destructions, and the diplomacy of canons and machine guns, the main mission for which this world militant summit is organized is to overthrow the global godless regime leaders.” This is a frightening declaration adopted in a meeting attended by Global Militant Leaders of Al Qaeda, Taliban, Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka, ISIS, ISWAP, Boko Haram, Tuaregs and the rest.
With such a declaration, it becomes imperative that these human butchers with their weapons and means of delivery will undoubtedly constitute the greatest single threat to our countries, regions and continents, even the larger world unless a timely check is routinely conducted. There is glaringly so much blood flowing through our country, especially from the North-East, North-West, North-Central and the South-East because of endless terror attacks and clashes between the locals and these herdsmen. Few days ago, a newspaper in Nigeria reported of a seeming movement of about 200 armed motorcyclists, moving from Zamfara and heading towards Niger State of Nigeria.
In as much as I cannot firmly authenticate the genuineness of the story, there is no smoke without fire. It is not difficult for President Tinubu, who is globally acclaimed and esteemed because of his records in Lagos State, to reverse these negative trends and change the security narrative to one of a nation, where everyone feels secure and protected. He has all the human capital and physical resources in Nigeria, what is needed is the political will, sagacious audacity, doggedness, technocratic capacity and focus, which His Excellency President Tinubu possess to identify and appoint more of Hon Tunji Ojos in Nigeria to handle some of these critical sectors with epileptic services. Surprisingly, some of these wars appeared to be promoted and encouraged by some of our leaders, who were supposed to be role models to our people.
Unfortunately, there is yet no manufactured detergent that would be able to cleanse the blood of the dead from the hands of his killers. One really wonders what is in this world that will push people to kill others? Is it not time we all went home to rescale our priorities? I am deeply worried, if not disturbed by the increasingly veritable procession of energetic youths accessing various borders in our regions, which are grossly unchecked under the guise of regional ECOWAS treaty. Regional affinity no doubt is commendable in promotion of brotherhood but must not be dispensed with extreme impunity and at our detriments. Our border security and enforcement must be strengthened like never before. I therefore commend the recent census and enumeration mandate handed over by Hon. Tunji Ojo to Nigeria immigration service to clear and deport all the overstaying foreign visitors in the country. We must go outside the premix of protocols to check trans-border criminalities with extreme tenacity and seriousness. and infiltrations
