Without doubt, security concerns still dominates national discussions compelling President Muhammadu Buhari to direct service chiefs and heads of security and intelligence agencies to re-strategize and re-jig the security architecture in a move interpreted as last-ditch efforts to end insecurity across the country.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd.), while unveiling the measures recently told State House Correspondents after a National Security Council meeting at the Presidential Villa that the president is very serious about curbing further criminality in the country.
“We must bear in mind that we owe a duty to the people that elected this government and at the end of the day, without securing the nation all other things such as revamping the economy and fighting corruption cannot be addressed.
“Mr. President said ‘you are doing your best, as far as I’m concerned, but there’s still a lot more to be done. I’m more concerned about the promise we made to the larger Nigerian society and I am ordering an immediate re-engineering of the entire security apparatus’’, he said.
Attendance at the meeting had Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. TukurBuratai; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal SadiqueAbubakar; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas; Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, and the Director-General of Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi.
Others were the Director-General of National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufa’i, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola; Minister of Defence, Maj.-Gen. Bashir Magashi; Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, and Minister of State (Foreign Affairs), Ambassador ZubairuDada.
Inside Presidency sources said the president’s latest moves had again challenged the top echelon of the nation’s Armed Forces and security and intelligence organs led by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, to up their game notwithstanding their past successful operations against terrorists, bandits and other criminals in the country.
It was gathered that a recent alarm by the commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command in Africa (US AFRICOM), Maj.-Gen. Dagvin Anderson, of a threat by the Islamist terrorist organisation, Al-Qaeda, in the North-west part of Nigeria, could have brought a sharp twist into scenario while the CDS-led crack team has been working round to execute the president’s order.
Gen. Dagvin Anderson, at a digital briefing on August 4, 2020, with journalists in Africa, warned that the terrorist groups were exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic to gradually take over the West African region after losing ground in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East and that they were already deploying several strategies to silently re-establish themselves in the region towards expanding further in the entire continent without drawing attention.
“And we’re seeing them continue to move further south in the Gulf of Guinea, and also further west towards Senegal and West Africa. So that’s a concern to us as we watch them continue to move throughout the region,” General Anderson had said.
A highly-placed intelligence source at the Presidency who praised the presidency for displaying focused leadership by fencing off calls to remove the service chiefs, disclosed that shortly before the security council meeting, the service chiefs had actually developed a ‘situation report (sitrep)’ document.
The president has seized every opportunity to convey his conviction that collective determination would defeat insecurity in the country.
Shortly after the Eid el-Kabir prayers at the Presidential Villa recently, he promised to give more resources to the military, police and security agencies, remarking that considering the scary security situation in 2015, when he assumed office, much had been achieved security-wise.
“Nigerians know that we have done our best. However, what is coming out of the North West and the North Central is very disturbing. We are making available resources to them to even do better. From the reports I am getting, they could do much better. But we are keeping them on the alert all the time to do their duties,” he said.
He also spoke recently at the graduating ceremony of 107 members of the National Defence College (NDC) Course 28 in Abuja, where he was represented Defence Minister, Maj.-Gen. Bashir Salihu Magashi (retd.), restating his charge to the service chiefs and heads of intelligence agencies to develop more comprehensive measures to end insecurity in the country.
The president blamed the complex and amorphous national security challenges on what he called the interconnected world where insecurity had transcended international borders, advocating a return to the long-established principles of Jointness and Synergies among the Armed Forces, the Nigerian Police, intelligence and security agencies in order to win the fight against Nigeria’s enemies.
The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) has swiftly responded to the U.S. to ally public fears over the Al-Qaeda threat, saying that it was aware of the infiltration of the terror groups into the West African sub-region and that US AFRICOM’s warning is an endorsement of the ongoing aggressive onslaughts by the Nigerian troops against the terrorist groups.
Last week, at a press briefing, the Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj. – Gen. John Enenche, allayed public fears over the alarm, saying that it was the Nigerian military which initially raised the alarm over the movement of terrorists from the Middle East to West Africa, and that such alarm was not the first but that the military was on top of it.
He said, “When the conflict in Libya was officially declared ended- which did not end- what happened? It was we, our NIA, State Security Services and all that raised the information that these people are moving, have we not captured foreigners among the people that have been terrorising us in this country? So, it is just like a call to keep doing what we are doing. So, the general public should know that the security agencies are on top of it.”
Reliable sources have maintained that the CDS, Gen. Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin-led Armed Forces, has shown commitment to crushing enemies of the Nigerian State using the existing synergy among its organs.
Many still believe that the buck stops with the president as the commander-in-chief who has reaffirmed his confidence in the ability, tenacity and tirelessness of the service chiefs.
Spokesman of Concerned Professionals’ Congress (CPC), Mr. Emeka Nwankpa, expressed satisfaction over measures by the Gen. Olonisakin-led team against insecurity in the country. The group described Maj.-Gen. Enenche’s swift response to the Al-Qaeda threat as quick, timely and reassuring.
“The armed forces can adequately protect Nigerians. The CDS and his team of able commanders and the troops have gallantly fought the terrorists, bandits and criminals in the country, employing operational synergy, jointness, cooperation and collaboration among the organs of the armed forces.
“In the North-west, we have recorded huge successes in the ongoing Exercise Sahel Sanity in Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto states and the environs at the Super Camp 4 in Faskari, near Katsina going by independent findings and credible field reports by the acting director, Defence Media Operations, Brig-Gen. Bernard Onyeuko who is on ground.
“We particularly commend President Buhari for diligently assembling the current team led by the CDS, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin. They deserve our support and prayers,” he said.
Also, commenting, a counterterrorism expert, Mr. David Otto, has said that sporadic attacks by terrorists is not the same as controlling territories, arguing that Boko Haram/ISWAP’s spontaneous attacks, in usual fluid asymmetric warfare, do not mean actual control of such territory.
“Boko Haram-ISWAP launch guerilla-style attacks, they don’t control any Nigerian territory today- these are two different scenarios in asymmetric warfare. Our military ranks among the best fighting forces in the world today,” he said.
He said that media reports on insurgency tended to confuse conventional warfare with asymmetric warfare thereby giving undue publicity to terrorists’ attacks and sending wrong signals to the public.
“Spontaneous attacks are not entirely within the remit of the army – this is a multi-agency endeavour including the responsibility of the Borno state authorities, the adjoining states and robust intelligence-led law enforcement.”
…Audu wrote in from Abuja
