There is a consensus on the need to rejig the country’s security architecture. Participants at the Security Summit organised by the National Assembly suggest how best to secure lives and properties, ONYEDI OJIABOR reports.
The curtain may have been drawn on the two-day national security summit organised by the senate in collaboration with the executive arm of government, it will for a very long time remain a watershed in the battle to save the country from the stranglehold of insecurity.
The tactical fact-finding summit ended in Abuja on Monday.
It was a strategic session convoked as a matter of urgent national importance to rescue the country from mounting security challenges that are threatening the peace of the land.
Besides the Boko Haram insurgency the Northeast states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, the various security units have been finding it daunting to curtail armed robbery, kidnapping and herdsmen raids on farmlands.
The summit was also scuttled by ego, but at the end of the day, common sense prevailed and senators brushed aside every unnecessary squabble over the choice of venue, which unknown to many, was a serious issue.
Some of the senators kicked and shoved and others vowed and swore to boycott the summit should it be held in the Villa as suggested by those tagged: “Villa Senators”.
Opinions were sharply divided as the upper chamber grappled and toyed with the issue of venue.
Disagreement over the venue almost scuttled the summit. Dates were chosen and changed. The programme of activities were released and withdrawn. It took a lot of behind-the-door-sessions to pull out the summit from Presidential Banquet Hall, where it was originally scheduled.
Promoters of the Presidential Villa as venue argued that President Muhammadu Buhari, as the chief security officer, should host such an important summit.
But, some senators kicked against the State House venue argued that the Presidency would steal the show and take the glory for conceiving and stating the summit.
Yet, others said their visits to the Villa ended the day they were allegedly barred from entering the Villa for a dinner believed to have been organised by the President.
The disagreement over the venue was part of a festering friction and suspicion between the two arms of government.
It was learnt that the pro-Villa venue senators could not convince their colleagues to give the Presidency the benefit of the doubt. The suspicion grew larger when news filtered that some powerful elements in the Villa were not particularly keen on the summit because the motive behind it was unclear.
However, Senate President Bukola Saraki cleared the air on what brought about the summit. Disabusing the minds of those who saw the summit as a jamboree and an attention-seeking venture by the Red Chamber in his opening remarks, Saraki said the assembly was not a show. “The country is on fire”, the Senate President said.
To Saraki, the summit was not organised to trade blames. Neither was it convened for any person or entity to take credit. It was a national service created to defuse a looming danger.
The participation of the Presidency, security chiefs, heads of federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), governors, royal fathers and civil society organisations at the summit underscored its importance.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who stood in for President Muhammadu Buhari as the chief Host, at the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) Conference Center venue of the summit in Abuja, opened the summit.
Alarmed by the rising wave of killings and destruction of property across the land, the Senate, at its sitting on 22nd November 2017, debated a motion of urgent public importance on the failure of the country’s security infrastructure.
The resolution at the end of the debate led to the composition of an ad-hoc committee to review the sapping security situation in consultation with the security agencies.
The committee was mandated, to among other things, review the deteriorating security situation and suggest the appropriate way forward (short and long-term measures) to arrest the situation.
Senate Leader Ahmed Lawan led the 13-member committee. The membership of the committee reflected the six geo-political zones.
Before the committee could launch into action, the January 1st 2018 massacre of 73 farmers by suspected herdsmen in Logo and Guma communities of Benue State, further spurred the committee into immediate action.
With the Benue conundrum fresh at hand, Saraki directed the committee to cut short its Christmas and New Year break to undertake an assessment visit to the troubled communities and report its findings to the Senate in plenary on January 16.
The findings, observations and recommendations of the committee as presented to the Senate were as stunning as revealing. The committee recommended that the issue be placed on the table for a no-hold-barred discussion by stakeholders. The chamber bought into the recommendation and agreed that time was of essence.
Saraki said there was no denying the horrific reality in many parts of the country where people who should be neighbours were turning on one another and taking up arms.
“Attacks and reprisal attacks are an intolerable cycle of hell that must be broken”, the Senate President said.
Insisting that killings, kidnappings, mayhem and general lawlessness cannot become the norms, Saraki said efforts must be made to take the country back from marauders to restore law and order.
He noted that Nigerians have the capacity to change the narrative, to end the violence and bring succour to the country but doubted the political will to confront issues at stake headlong.
Saraki said: “The coming together of the executive and legislative arms of government for this discussion about security is a pointer to the seriousness of the situation, and our determination to tackle the problem. The Summit is also unique, because never before have we had such an inclusive platform for appraising security-related matters in this country.
“The spike in the bloodletting over the New Year period injected another note of urgency into the matter, and further served to augment the mandate of the committee, whose members suspended their recess to conduct a fact-finding visit to Benue State, scene of one of the recent killings.
“It was envisaged that the summit would provide a platform for critically examining the problem of insecurity, to help collate views and ideas in aid of the search for solutions.
“It is most reassuring to see us all here, coming together to come up with a national response to a grave problem confronting our nation.
“To the executive, I say this: you cannot do it alone – and this is why we are all here to join efforts. It is all hands on deck. No one person, organisation or arm of government can single-handedly tackle the hydra-headed monster of insecurity.
“The Constitution makes it clear that the safety of lives and property of citizens is the responsibility of government. We in government must therefore do everything in our power to ensure that Nigerians are safe from harm, and their livelihoods and belongings protected.
“Permit me to observe that those who are in this room have the capacity to bring about a change in this situation, to end the violence and bring succour. We have the capacity. But, do we have the political will? I daresay political will is what is required; and it is my hope that we shall marshal it as a legitimate instrument against this problem.
“Indeed, there is no reason why that should not be the case. This is not a summit to trade blames – in no way is this blame-trading game. Neither is it convened so that any person or entity can take credit. We just want solutions. That is all Nigerians require of us.
“What our country needs at this time is leadership that will work to douse the flames and reduce tension in the land while steps should be taken to lower the barriers in Our actions and rhetoric, and refrain from playing politics with a crisis situation in which Nigerian lives are being lost tragically and needlessly, on a regular basis.”
On the consequences of failing to come up with enduring solutions, Saraki said: “We would have failed in our responsibility if by the end of this summit; we didn’t succeed in triggering higher levels of collaboration and cooperation among all stakeholders, of a character that can be sustained and placed at the service of the nation.”
Prof Osinbajo presented a scorecard of the steps and measures taken so far by the Federal Government to address the emerging trend.
The vice president outlined some policy objectives the country must further work on, some of which he said, will benefit from legislative and judiciary cooperation.
Osinbajo said: “The first is that the nature of our security challenges are complex and nuanced; securing Nigeria’s over 923,768 square kilometers and its 180 million people, requires far more men and materials than we have at the moment. It also requires a continual re-engineering of our security architecture and strategies. This has to be a dynamic process.
“For a country our size to meet the one policeman to 400 persons United Nations (UN) prescribed ratio, would require nearly tripling our current police force, far more funding of the police, military and security agencies is required.
“Secondly, we cannot realistically police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja. State Police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go.
“Thirdly, we must intensify the existing collaboration with our neighbours in the Chad Basin, especially border communities, to prevent the movement of small arms, and disarming armed pastoralists and bandits who go through our borders day after day.
“Lastly, we must avoid the dangers of allowing these conflicts to harden to religious or ethnic conflicts. This is the responsibility of political, religious and all other parts our leadership elite in Nigeria.”
Osinbajo’s pronouncement on state police got spontaneous applause from participants who shared the view that the establishment State Police was long overdue.
He seized the opportunity to disabuse the minds of Nigerians on the trending topical issues – grazing reserve, ranching and cattle colony.
Osinbajo declared that on no account will any land be seized or forcefully taken to create the ranches or grazing areas.
All insinuations to that effect, he said, should be disregarded “because no one is giving land to herdsmen, as is being falsely alleged.”
The pronouncement again, saw most participants heave a sigh of relief.
To underscore the fact that land matters are entirely state matters, Osinbajo further stated that a clear sense that must be appreciated, “is that the Federal Government cannot dictate to states what to do with their land.”
He said: “This is so because the Land Use Act of 1978 puts land under the control of governors on behalf of their states. Also, the Supreme Court in the case of Attorney-General of Lagos State versus the Attorney General of the Federation in 2004, held that use of land resources and permits for such use, lie firmly in the hands of state governments.
“Even for use of Federal lands in the states according to the Supreme Court, building or development control permit must be sought from the governors of the states.”
On the Benue killings, Osinbajo told participants that since the beginning of the year following the massacre in Guma, Gwer and Logo local government areas of Benue State, the issue of herdsmen and farmers clashes have dominated the public space.
He emphasized the fact that every Nigerian is entitled to adequate security of their livelihood from the government.
“The government fails in that responsibility often but I must say, never deliberately. Every killing diminishes us as people; every killing undermines the authority of the state.
“This is why the saying sometimes that because the President is Fulani he has ignored the killings by herdsmen is both untrue and unfair.
“In any event, the herdsmen and farmer clashes resulting in deaths has been with us for at least two decades and I have been working with him for three years now and I do not know any other issue that has given him more concern or on which he has spent more time than this particular issue?
“What then is being done? The approach of the government has been to deploy more mobile police force to flash points and also, both the Army and Air Force.
“The Nigeria Army units in Benue State for example, have consistently maintained Forward Operating Bases at the flash areas in Guma, Logo, Katsina Alla and Agatu local government areas.”
The Senate Leader, whose committee packaged the summit, declared it a huge success.
In a statement at the end of the summit, Lawan said: “The just completed national security summit sponsored by the Nigerian senate was a strategic collaboration amongst all arms of government. The summit was attended by the Presidency, security chiefs and heads of federal ministries, departments and agencies.
“The successful two-day event served as an opportunity to survey the nation’s current security situation and to place all issues on the table in an effort to find short and long term solutions to the nation’s security challenges. Important assessment briefings were provided by the heads of security and intelligence agencies.
“Summit presenters and attendees focused on the areas of weakness that should be strengthened and the various assets at the Federal Government’s disposal, particularly, ways to strengthen security through the deployment of assets.
“The primary purpose of the summit is to reassure citizens that all arms of government are serious about addressing insecurity and are working collaboratively to find solutions.
“Out of the whole-of-government effort, Nigerians can expect a higher level of security to protect lives and property.
“The summit wishes to express its appreciation to all participants for their valuable contributions to the summit’s success. Nigerians can expect more positive collaboration of this kind between the executive and legislative arms of government.
“Further, the Senate looks to use the data and information from the proceedings to improve the security sector through legislative interventions and advocacy.”
On the envisaged collaboration between the executive and the Senate to bring the needed relief, the questions that are begging for answers are: Can two work together unless they agree? Is the aim of the summit a mission impossible, a mere window dressing? Can the situation be redeemed with the killings, maiming and destruction of property spreading with reckless abandon as if nobody is in charge? At what point will the harbingers of death cross the red line for a decisive action to be taken to save Nigerians from themselves?
Time is ticking and any further delay in doing what should be done may be of costly consequences.
