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Letter to National Security Adviser -By ’Tunji Ajibade

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TUNJI AJIBADE

Tunji Ajibade

Dear Sir,

I noticed you accompanied Mr. President in the course of his latest trip to Turkey. Over there, you were involved in the discussion of security matters. It was appropriate that you were. It affords me the opportunity to call your attention to a few of our security challenges at home. They’ve been the subject of national debate, and I’ve been wondering what the state of your mind is regarding them. Maj. Gen. Mohammed Monguno (retd.), why should any Nigerian be concerned about the state of your mind? There are several reasons, but I shall state a few.

First, as the NSA you are a powerful man. I know because the only place Mr. President will go to is where you inform him is safe. For instance, he wouldn’t have travelled to Turkey if your report had advised otherwise. Also, from what the immediate past NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), did by using his office to get the 2015 general elections postponed, we know you can influence what happens on our political turf too. Moreover, as the NSA, you are a senior aide in the cabinet of the President <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Nigeria>. You are the President’s chief adviser on national security issues. You participate in the meetings of the National Security Council and other deliberations on security matters.

Your function and leverage may vary depending on the role the current administration chooses to make you play. While I’m still trying to figure out how central you are to the running of the current administration, I have no doubt about the influence you wield regarding policy direction in security matters. Ideally, you should serve as an honest broker of policy options for the President in the field of national security, which means you really can influence where this nation goes, security-wise. You also have a lot of money to play with. Of course, we knew how Dasuki was given a lot of money (at least, we heard of $2.2bn) for the purpose of combating Boko Haram, but which he allegedly shared to politicians. We are still battling with the deadly consequences of the decision of that NSA to allegedly collude with politicians to share public funds rather than expend them on security. So, you would understand when any Nigerian takes interest in the state of your mind regarding current security issues.

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Take the case of herdsmen-farmers’ clashes, for instance. I know you know that it’s getting out of control. For instance, while you were away in Turkey, talking security, almost 30 Nigerians were shot dead by gunmen in Plateau State in what was considered a reprisal. That was the latest in a long line of incidents. This is common all the way from Southern Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, down to the south of Nigeria. Some states have made laws to ban open grazing to curb clashes and killings. Other states create uniformed groups to keep an eye on movement of cattle herders. The association of cattle breeders had been engaged in a war of words with states that tried to prevent open grazing. Debates rage over the unpalatable security consequences for us all if a permanent solution is not provided by the government to the farmer/cattle herder relationship. Your office should have a wholistic view of this national problem, dispassionately analyse it and come up with solutions. But your office has been silent, NSA. I mean the Presidency has made no firm pronouncement of note on it, which is the same thing, because it means you have not offered advice to the President on the way forward that he could work on. Don’t you think you ought to take this particular threat to national security more seriously than you do at the moment, and come out with a decisive policy initiative, before it gravitates to another level?

Why is a firm advice from you on this and other germane security issues important? I assume you take note of the chaos across our borders, across West Africa and beyond, and the implications for our internal security. Illegal arms flow with ease in the Western African region, easy for persons with a mindset to cause harm in Nigeria to acquire. I take note that you witness an agreement in Turkey which commits that country to not allowing weapons to be exported illegally to Nigeria. That’s fine, due to recent seizures of weapons imported from Turkey at our ports. But that’s one part in a jigsaw puzzle. Weapons flow into Nigeria by other means. It’s inevitable as the Islamic Caliphate is being decimated in the Middle East. Its branch in Libya has been scattered even as Libya itself remains largely unsettled. Terror groups with grander names spring up in West Africa. They have arms to sell to generate funds, and we have proved incapable of effectively manning our borders. We can’t control what happens on the other side of our borders. But we should control what crosses our borders. So what do you have in mind as to the way to effectively do this?

It’s an important question because each time uniformed outfits that have the responsibility to deal with the fallouts of our porous borders come under searchlight, they blame inadequate manpower. We know border watch these days is more of intelligence and advanced technology than humans. Yet, generations of NSAs haven’t been willing to advise our presidents with regard to the obvious need to change strategy. Past NSAs had approached a digital problem with an analogue mindset. Recent revelations also showed that many of them did get funds to implement such a strategy but they pocketed them.

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So, Dear NSA, I hope you have a different mindset. You have to, because we are on the brink, security-wise. Our people are nervous about our security situation; I believe you know this.

We are on the brink because there are more fundamental internal security-related problems than that. The current national security configuration is one of them. In order to have peace, we need to take a look at it. You know, NSA, that the current arrangement, for instance, which makes police officers fight crime in environments they don’t know intimately isn’t working. This might have worked in the past when we had fewer number of criminal-minded citizens. Things have changed. The population is more and more characters engage in anti-social behaviours. They often get away with it because police officers don’t have an intimate knowledge of the environment where they are to prevent or detect crime. They don’t know who is who. Yet, we cling to a unitary approach to policing, moving officers from Maiduguri to Lagos, and from Port Harcourt to Sokoto. Some have proffered reasons we should continue with this ineffective arrangement. But, NSA, is your mindset to advise the President that we continue with this until armed robbery, killing and kidnapping get totally out of control? I think you should do a calculation of what such a scenario presents to our economy and the willingness of foreign investors to come. Our officials proudly state that we remain the foremost investor destination on the continent. They forgot to mention that lately, South Africa announced that many investors chose to stay away from that country because of the soaring rate of crime.

NSA, you do have several avenues through which you can make your mind known and help drive the security of this nation in the right direction. For instance, lawmakers are working towards rearranging the federal structure, to make our nation work smarter. In all of this, I haven’t heard your informed opinion on the security-related aspects, such as devolving the security architecture, including policing. What one hears are the voices of politicians who say their governors will deploy state police to harass them. Yet, our security challenges and the consequences if we don’t boldly confront them with practical measures are more serious than the shenanigans of politicians. These are the same politicians who live behind high walls in the most secure parts of our cities. But because they constantly engage in rivalry regarding who gets political power and controls resources, they oppose local policing measures that should make life safer for the majority of citizens. NSA, what’s on your mind regarding what politicians are saying? I call on you to make your mind known through the various channels available to you, and work with the President on this matter until a more effective security configuration for our nation is adopted.

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