From Sokoto to Calabar and Lagos to Maiduguri, the story is the same. Insecurity is starring all in the face. From Boko Haram insurgency to bandit attacks, kidnaping for ransome and armed robbery, the nation has been held by the jugular by criminal elements. Two years after holding a national security summit whose recommendation is currently gathering dust in the shelves, the House of Representatives is planning another National Legislative Summit to find lasting solution to the problem. TONY AKOWE examines the recommendations of the last summit and the plan by the parliament.
When bandits started invading, killing and burning down communities in Southern Kaduna in the early part of the last decade, many leaders of the North looked away. Those who found their voice to speak tried to justify those attacks, describing them as reprisal attacks. Nothing concrete was done to halt these attacks and ensure the act of criminality is punished. Also, across the South, several such attacks and kidnaping for ransome and bloodletting was seen by leaders in the region as call for freedom.
The Boko Haram crisis was also seen as a Borno or North East problem until the group started bombing places in Kaduna, Kano and Abuja. Then came the herders/farmer clashes and the nation kept silent while the criminal elements build their nest around the country in different style and operation. Today, no community in the country is spared of the monster that would have been tamed early enough. Unfortunately, nobody has been punished for these acts of criminalities.
Even though several arrests have been made or so it seems, nobody has been convicted for these crimes, while several Nigerians have either died or maimed for life. School children in some states of the federation were kidnapped while some are killed even after ransome have been paid on them. In some cases, millions of naira are transferred into bank accounts as ransome, yet none of the owners of those accounts have been traced even with the introduction of the Bank Verification Number. Telephone numbers are used indiscriminately to contact families of kidnapped victims, yet none of the owners of those numbers has been traced even after the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) directed that all phone line must be linked with the National Identity Numbers. Unfortunately, several pre-registered phone numbers are being sold across the country today. In some cases, old telephone lines which the first owners stopped using several years ago are sold to others with the name of the original owner on it. The criminal elements are aware this and may have resorted to buying these new lines for use so as not to be traced easily.
In March 2019, former President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the N1.2 billion surveillance and monitoring system at the Command-and-Control Centre built by the Kaduna State. The system was aimed at tackling the security challenges in the state. It involved the use of technology in tackling the security architecture in Kaduna state. several months after the commissioning, residents of the state could not go to sleep with their eyes closed due to the activities of bandits that kidnapped at will and terrorized the state. From Zaria to Birnin Gwari and to the southern part of the state, the story was the same. Inspite of the aerial surveillance and monitoring system which included a combination of fixed wind drones and higher resolution cameras that are put in several locations across the state, it appeared the system could not achieve the aim it was meant for.
At one of the sittings of the House of Representatives during the 9th Assembly, the then Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase came close to tears narrating how bandits, kidnappers and their collaborators arrested by Soldiers and local Vigilantes and handed over to the police released by the Police. Wase told his colleagues that even his personal intervention was not given the required attention by the police as those who kidnapped his village head and were arrested in Taraba by Vigilante groups were released by the police immediately, they were handed over to them. He said: “I want to say with lots of pain that the security is not helping the situation. while the citizens are doing their best, making efforts to resolve the matter through their vigilante and other operations to protect their communities, the security is not helping out. For example, my district head’s wife was kidnapped. The vigilante went as far as Taraba to get those bandits and release the woman. As I speak with you, those bandits have been released by the police.
Recently, there was another arrest made of someone who was found to be conspiring with bandits. He made a statement on video which went viral. As I speak, that person has been released. The soldiers and Vigilante in my village made arrest and those people have also been released. I am worried that if those arrested are given to the police, they will also be released. This does not stop in Plateau. My nephew working in Kaduna was kidnapped and the security traced him to Birnin Gwari and arrest was made and he was rescued. Among those arrested was one of his house helps. All those arrested have been released. My nephew was later called and told that the case is spoilt because the first information report has been removed from the file. I saw a video trending of two policemen who were dismissed from the Service. They came to Nasarawa to arrest some armed robbers. they were offered N8 million to release the robbers, but they refused. The two of them were dismissed for not cooperating. I am concerned about the activities of some of our men in the field. We may never solve this problem until a drastic action is taken. I cannot imagine the DPO who sets those people free sitting back there. Security is everybody’s business and we are all contributing to secure what God has given us, but some people are taking us back. The House need to go after those officers who are not willing to allow peace to reign in our country, but bring us bad names. We can only give directives and there will be arrest, yet you don’t hear of any conviction even when there has been parade of those criminals. What happened to them? There is even no attempt to take them to the court of law. So, I think we end to do something and make Nigeria a peaceful place to live in”.
It is an irony that despite several arrest that have been made in the past, no one has been convicted for any of these criminal activities. Rather, community leaders have often honoured some of the leaders of the bandits, while those directly involved in the activities still live in penury. Cases abound where unnamed highly placed individuals put so much pressure on the police to release those arrested. Some of those so released have often gone to show themselves to those they believed reported them, boasting that they are out because of their connections.
With these issues in mind, the 9th House of Representatives organized a national security summit which brought together experts and other stakeholders to find lasting solutions to the insecurity in the country. The outcome of the summit was presented to former President Muhammadu Buhari by the leadership of the House at a brief ceremony attended by the Service Chiefs. The then Speaker and current Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila told the world then that the President commit to full implementation of the executive component of the recommendations. Gbajabiamila said in his forward to the 146 paged report of the National Security Summit with the many security challenges facing the country, all hands have to be on deck and all arms of government have to do all that is possible to contribute ideas and actions that will birth the solutions needed to secure the lives and properties of Nigerians as envisaged in Section 14 (2)(b) of our Constitution which states that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”.
Gbajabiamila said while the causes of insecurity in the country are diverse and multifaceted, the summit report encompasses the wide spectrum of causations of insecurity and provides dozens of recommendations for both Legislative and Executive actions. He assured then that the House of Representatives will take its responsibilities seriously and work to deliver a legislative agenda and program that will seek to deliver on its own elements of the recommendations. He told the House after presenting the recommendations to the then President that the government has committed to implementing the report. While the report has become one of the documents on the shelves of policy implementors in the country, the nation bleed as a result of rising insecurity. In Abuja, the nation’s capital, the situation as degenerated from one chance to neigbourhood kidnap with informants to bandits abounding everywhere.
Gbajabiamila had admitted during the summit that “at this time of our national history, when insecurity threatens the authority of the state and the foundations of our nationhood with the activities of insurgents, bandits, and criminals of every stripe impede our efforts at progress and prosperity, we must confront the realisation that our previous and current approaches to addressing the challenges of insecurity have not yielded desired result.” Even though the document was not implemented by the Buhari administration, it is expected that as Chief of Staff to the President, the former Speaker should bring the document and the recommendations contained in it to the attention of the current President.
Part of the recommendations of the summit contained in its 146 paged report was the need to immediately enhanced the training for the Police Mobile Unit to improve their capacity to deal with insecurity. It said “while a special team of 40,000 Police Mobile Unite officers should undergo this special training, 1,000 should then be deployed to every state for immediate operations, while the North East, South West, South East can receive the officers remaining out of the 40,000”. The Gbajabiamila summit also recommended the creation of “a new team under the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to train and work with the guards of Nigeria’s forest. This unit will collaborate with the current Forest Guards who will remain under the control of States”. The summit also recommended that the security agencies be encouraged to initiate a screening and vetting program of all frontline officers of the Nigerian military to fish out moles and double-agents who have so far compromised most efforts at combating insecurity and win the war against insurgents and terrorists”. The Executive was required to initiate a Presidential Police Reform initiative that will be resident within the Presidency, while an operational specialised unit should be established within the Police Force to champion and drive all the change initiatives based on a Presidential Policing Reform Roadmap from within the institution.
Other recommendations include to “Give immediate consideration to the use of Private Defence Contractors for targeted security operations to combat insurgency and terrorism especially and use all means at its disposal to require the creation of a protocol that will compel intelligence (as a matter of necessity) sharing amongst all security agencies; deploy Early Warning Systems nationwide including installation of CCTV cameras and other surveillance, satellite and electronic equipment along major highways, public places, and major cities and our borders; establish and strengthen a National Crisis Centre (NCC) within the Nigerian Police which will be the national coordinating centre for all civil security response actions and monitoring of resolutions of such with monthly reporting on all incidents as well as serving as a central place for any Nigerian to report major security incidents”. Also recommended was “the creation of Local Security Committees in all 774 Local Government Areas. This panel should include Traditional Rulers, Religious institutions, and local opinion leaders. This should be managed by the NPF as part of its Community Policing mandate; the NSA in collaboration with civil security agencies should identify, map, and arrest cult group leaders, violent agitators, and networks of criminal groups at tertiary education level as well as society at large; target poverty as a must; as poverty is the main driver for all the insecurity issues currently prevalent across the nation. This can be done through a focus on infrastructure and a new jobs’ creation drive and initiative by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Executive is also urged to consider doing even more by declaring a state of emergency on job creation considering the high rate of unemployment.
“In the next step, Nigeria should reach out to overseas arms dealers to enlist their cooperation against the sales of arms to non-state actors. A third step should be a major diplomatic initiative with the governments of countries known to have companies engaged in selling arms to non-state actors. Continuous Arms-Collection and Depository scheme should be established national to encourage disposal and collection of illegal firearms”.
Two and half years after the House of Representatives held a well-attended security which made wide range suggestions on how to tackle the security challenges in the country, the House again is planning another round of security summit. This is even as the recommendations of the last summit which had both legislative and executive component have not been implemented. While the National Assembly is yet to pass the laws presented to the House as a result of suggestions from the summit are yet to be passed, the Executive has also not implemented components of the recommendations that required executive actions.
Speaker Abbas Tajudeen said the summit termed National Legislative Security Summit will serve as a crucible for ideas, where stakeholders from diverse sectors – security, traditional and religious institutions, academia, civil society, and more – will forge enduring solutions to the security woes.
He said: “It is time to harness our collective expertise, to break the silos that have hindered our progress, and to chart a new course towards peace and stability.”
He said “for too long, our nation has been caught in the vicious grip of insecurity, a malaise that spreads its tentacles far and wide, sparing no one in its wake. Despite numerous security measures, this menace continues to thrive, mocking our efforts and challenging our resolve to build a cohesive, peaceful and prosperous nation. It is a stark reminder that the conventional approaches to security we have espoused for so long are no longer sufficient. The time has come to think out of the box and adopt new and contemporary strategies that better respond to the complexities of our current challenges. To our patriotic and brave security forces, while commending your heroism and sacrifice, the time has come for you to review your approaches and strategies, innovate and adapt. The enemy evolves, and so must we. I challenge you to rise to this occasion, to demonstrate the indomitable spirit for which you are known, and to do more in safeguarding the lives and properties of our people. In these trying times, President Bola Ahmad Tinubu, GCFR, has exhibited exemplary leadership and a proactive approach. His recent interventions and directives for more action by security agencies are timely and reflective of his deep-seated resolve to restore peace and order. Indeed, the time has come for the President to demand greater performance and accountability from our service chiefs and all security and enforcement agencies. I implore the President not to shy away from making the tough decisions. If necessary, we must not hesitate to enact changes within our security apparatus, for the cost of inaction is far too great to bear”. At his first media briefing as Speaker of the House, Abbas justified the decision to hold another summit, saying the House was not unaware of complaint by Nigerians that the recommendations of the last summit has not been implemented. He said the parliament will work in collaboration with the Executive in organizing the summit so that the recommendations will come from both the Executive and the Legislature, expressing confidence that the outcome will be implemented without delay.
Interestingly, security form part of the legislative agenda of the House. Captured as the second on its agenda, it House recognizes the fact that the security challenges in Nigeria have had a multifaceted impact on the Nigerian economy. In its preamble, it said that the security challenges has reduced investor confidence in the country, decreased productivity in vital sectors like agriculture and oil, increased costs associated with security, and the displacement of large populations all strain Nigeria’s economic potential. It also said that the nation’s reputation on the global stage is affected, making foreign direct investment more sporadic and cautious.
The House, in its legislative agenda promises to promote accountability in the security sector funding because budgeting is essential to ensuring the efficient utilisation of resources, prevent corruption, and enhance public trust in security institutions. This the House said is necessary because legislative measures can play a crucial role in achieving these objectives in Nigeria. It also promised to enact legislation that mandates a more detailed and itemised budgetary disclosure for security agencies, while expediting the passage of amendments specifying the primary areas of operation, responsibility, and coordination where multiple agencies share coordinate jurisdiction. Some of the laws targeted for amendment are the Armed Forces Act (Amendment) Bill, Police Act (Amendment) Bill, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act (Amendment) Bill, Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act (Amendment) Bill, National Security and Civil Defence Corps Act (Amendment) Bill and Customs and Excise Management Act (Amendment) Bill. They also planned to amend the National Security Agencies Act (NSA) to enhance their capacity, collaboration and efficiency.
The House also plan a review the current system of policing in Nigeria to strengthen the framework for ‘community policing’ to decentralise the police structure and allow zonal commands to take prompt action on police issues, open up national discussion on the merits of State Police to aggregate citizen’s views and perspectives and adopt legislative measures to reform the Nigerian Police Force and position them as the primary agency responsible for internal security. But the question is, how far can the House go in this regard, especially considering the seeming rivalry existing between the House of the Senate that has seen most House bills truncated in the Senate over the years.
Interestingly, the 2021 security summit identified the fact that the security and maintenance of law and order are not the responsibility of the state alone, stressing the need for community policing which it said should embrace community stakeholders such as vigilantes, hunters, and key stakeholders in the community such as security professionals, trade unions, under one umbrella of community security governance. It said “to legitimise this arrangement, there is the need for state and local government enactments. This effort should include security enforcement, local justice system, and conflict management. A return to the local community system where the component of security, local justice system, peacebuilding and conflict management takes hold”.
Part of the recommendation was the need the need to improve local government authority to enable it perform its functions effectively, grant autonomy to the local government and involve traditional institutions in local security governance and set up structures for observing and reporting the behaviour of security military personnel from community to national levels
It advocate hiring what it called private security contractors otherwise known as mercenaries to help curb the rising security challenges. According to the report, “the advantage of this is that the mercenaries do not have the sentiments that home-grown soldiers will have. The point is that mercenaries will prosecute a more efficient combat on insurgents. The caveat here is that this is a short term and targeted solution. Therefore, it is imperative that the Nigerian military are then able to consolidate the gains made by mercenaries thereafter”. This it said should be followed proactive intelligence gathering agents working with the security agencies was also stressed by the summit report. It said “If people are assured of their safety, they will not be afraid to work with security agents, if the safety of their lives and property are guaranteed.
Whether perceived or not, there is a general belief; and this the summit agreed to, that part of the causes of insecurity in Nigeria today are hunger, unemployment, and poverty, saying “it is therefore imperative for the Nigerian State to embark on policies and programmes that ensure food security, employment, and infrastructure development. It spoke of eradicating the overlapping mandate of security agencies, while outlining specific functions need to be outlined for each of the security units which should all collaborate with one another as independent units, that is, from the civil defence, to police, to the military. According to the summit, this takes away the ad-hoc functions of policing imposed on the army, which inevitably strips the populace of confidence in the military. In all, it identifies about 2q different agencies handling security issues in the country. It called for the introduction of Forest Guards, to curb the settlement of miscreants and bandits from using these spaces as covering ground, adding that this can be done under the leadership of the NPF but the control of the Forest Guards should be with State Governors.
According to the report of the Summit, the National Security Strategy initiated by the Jonathan administration in 2014 and updated by the Buhari administration in 2019 contained ways insecurity can be addressed proactively and dynamically by the Nigerian state. Emphasizing the importance of the and preservation of Nigeria’s sovereignty, and the protection of its national interests and territorial integrity, the document is said to provides specific action plans for combating terrorism and countering violent extremism; preventing and tacking kidnapping, crushing armed banditry and militia activities; and combating transnational organized crime. The document, according to the report also outlined the ways existing state resources and security infrastructure can be efficiently deployed to maintain the integrity of critical national assets and infrastructure; to advance maritime security; airspace and aviation security; and land transportation security.
The report also spoke of the National Cybersecurity Strategy which is a policy document developed from the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Illegal Online Activities. It is said to identifies the major threats to national security, including cybercrime, cyber-espionage, cyber conflict, cyber-Terrorism, and child Online Abuse & exploitation. It is said define critical areas of focus for policy actions towards a coordinated cybersecurity engagement, aimed at protecting and defending national interests and the sovereignty of Nigeria
The National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) is another document referred to by the House summit report and is said to have been derived from research findings, global leading practices, and knowledge of the root causes of violent extremism, it seeks to build capacity, improve coordination, strengthen the justice system, by integrating strategic communication methods, and providing alternative narratives to violent extremism.
The summit identified poverty and unemployment as one of the issues shaping insecurity in the country. It said “the continuing poverty of 40 percent of the Nigerian population, challenges of high levels of unemployment and illiteracy particularly amongst the youth, and persistent inequitable distribution of wealth compromises the country’s welfare and adversely renders youth vulnerable to organised crime, violent extremism, and terrorist recruitment”.
Another factor identified is ethnicism and religious crisis which it said has hinder national integration and have been elevated to stumbling blocks to an atmosphere of peace and harmony, security of lives and property, and freedom of thought and speech. It said “simmering discontent across ethnic groups and religious factions continue to grow and high levels of resentment and grievances have caused a lack of cordiality, suspicion, fear, and violent confrontations within and between communities characterised by the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Fulani herdsmen attacks”.
The porous Nigerian borders where movement of individuals are largely untracked resulting in a continuing proliferation of small arms and light weapons as well as drug and human trafficking is another factor. It noted that “smuggled weapons become available to militant and criminal groups and the porosity of Nigerian borders allow an influx of immigrants from neighbouring countries, including the Republic of Niger, Republic of Benin and Chad who are sometimes indoctrinated in terrorism and extremist ideologies”.
It also said that the failure of the government to offer adequate economic and social interventions and deploy decisive security strategies to curb growing threats to economic stability, peace, and prosperity has caused insecurity to thrive. According to the document, in the absence of sufficient government control, crime rates continue to grow causing chaos and myriad disruptions to economic activities and daily life.
One of the issues identified during the summit as responsible for the rising insecurity in the country is the attitude of the political class. Participants at the summit which included high placed traditional rulers, retired and serving security personnel among others said “It is clear that politicians have played a role in enabling the current insecurity in Nigeria and leadership needs to address the conduct of these politicians who many a times have a huge following and inadvertently stoke up the heat in communities. Nigerian politicians have had a long history of being at the root of corrupt practices, bribery and embezzlement. This has led to the poor state of infrastructure and social development, as monies are diverted for selfish and personal interest. This has led to poverty, moral decadence, human capital deficit and also a lack of appropriate security equipment thus compounding the state of insecurity in the nation. In bid to gain or stay in power, some of government officials fund terrorist groups evidenced by the political undertone of activities of major terrorist groups. Gubernatorial candidates mostly, have been known to recruit armies of political thugs and engage in clandestine and illegal efforts during election periods to facilitate election violence and shape election outcomes. Since 1999, there has been several reports and cases of politicians arming thugs and unemployed youth for election purposes. The sad pattern is that after elections, these thugs are left with the weapons given to them to prosecute electoral victory. Many took to criminality all across the country. These youth and thugs are now largely outside the control of the politician who created them and have become a menace to society”.
Imbalance in Development is another area identified as one of the courses of insecurity in the country. It also said that “the disparity in development of regions of the country is one of the major causes of insecurity in Nigeria. There is a feeling of partiality and marginalization amongst some ethnic groups in Nigeria due to the imbalance in development across geopolitical zones. This causes dissatisfaction and grievance in the people occupying such regions and triggers the employment of violence to get the attention of the government”. This is in addition to the loss of communal values and national identity. It said that the collapse in national security “has revealed structural weaknesses in the national security institutions and have created an enabling environment for insecurity to thrive. Nigeria has the largest security institution in Africa comprising of twenty-one (21) security agencies in charge of policing and security. Several agencies have duplicated roles with jurisdiction over the same security matters, contravening the purpose they are established to serve and rendering them largely ineffective at best and inactive at worst. These vast silos have created a crisis making it difficult to claim ownership… It is this jurisdictional encroachment that prompted the NSCDC, few years ago to sue the NPF on the grounds that they impinged on their authority to carry out their legitimate duties to protect national oil pipelines. To resolve this, a proactive measure in rationalizing agencies should be desperately considered in Nigeria. It is suggested that rather than creating more agencies that continue to duplicate and perform the functions of the existing security arms, the focus should turn to securing the internal and external integrity and security of existing security institutions in Nigeria”.
This seeming overlapping mandate has led to lack of synergy among the security agencies, thereby compounding the security challenges in the country. “The obvious lack of synergy in operations and intelligence sharing among security agencies has fueled insecurity nationwide. Poor cooperation between the Executive and Legislative arms undermines good governance and service delivery leading to a lack of cooperation between security agencies. The absence of harmonised operations between the Police, Military, Department of State Security and National Intelligence Agency has made it difficult to effectively check banditry, terrorism, and other forms of criminality, enabling the growing trajectory of insecurity in the country”.
According to the summit report, terrorist groups have infiltrated national security institutions and the government. It said “members of the Nigerian Armed Forces and wider security and public sector structures have been found to sell information to Boko Haram or their collaborators, including sharing advance notice of raids, withholding key intelligence information, and influencing operational practices to delay military action”. As part of ways of addressing overlapping mandate of security agencies, stakeholders who attended the summit suggested that Federal Road Safety, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp should all be collapsed into the Nigerian police with the specialised unit created for such purposes. They also want the Nigerian state to embark upon more people centred security than state’ centric security, while also considering the use of retired police officers and soldiers to complement military operations either through a reserved system, or the establishment of private military companies.
Also, one of the suggested areas for action by the summit which has also not been implemented is the need to apply modern technology in warfare. Justifying this, it said “Such modern technologies include the use of drones for surveillance and locating positions. It includes attack drones and satellite imagery. This modern technology may need to come under a command which may be referred to as space command. This could be created under the supervision of the Air Force”. Interestingly, it drew experiences from other climes within and outside the continent in putting forward its suggestions. Other areas include building a modern intelligence architecture, improvements in strong border security and strengthening the Nigerian Immigration Service, control of proliferation of arms through the establishment of a small and light weapons commission as recommended by ECOWAS, the use of technology to protect the Nigerian porous borders, partnering neighbouring countries, development partners and international countries such as the US and France, which already have strong military presence in the sub-region should be strengthened as well as the implementation of the ECOWAS protocols on transhuman and the National Livestock Transformation Plan.
