Of the series of coups in the country – thank goodness, the high frequency has melted since 1992 – Ndaguba will, most probably, recall – on a precise lane of memory – the one of 1976, in which the head of state – General Murtala Mohammed, his aide-de-camp and Colonel Ibrahim Taiwo – the governor of Kwara State – were felled. That year, he had the duty – on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Lagos – to anchor a live programme on the execution of the Buka Suka Dimka-led coup-plotters. A mournful Ndaguba – accoutered in a black shirt – had to apologise for the poor visuals of the execution – at well after sundown – at the Bar beach. That the visuals of the execution were so ‘poor’ may have been a deliberate editorial judgement by the NTA – for fear of offending the feelings of some viewers with an explicit coverage of what later became known as ‘bar beach show.’ Blend what his spouse – Carol – is doing now, as part of an informed passion, towards sustainable human development – with Ndaguba’s long-standing opposition to violence, you get a fairly representative picture of a publicity-shy duo – who is opposed to global terror. When Ndaguba intervened –at a recent, multi-sectoral skull session of Fix Nigeria, on “Global Campaign Against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in Nigeria,” at the Karu, Abuja, complex of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) – everyone was rapt in attention. If it was not for the distinguished blend of his diction and phonetic excellence, it was for his avuncular choice of words, which made his brief intervention one of the peak moments of the two-day, august gathering.

Ndaguba observed that each time a crisis erupted in the Middle East, it tended to resonate here, with a touch of unsettling the country’s security; that it had happened before – indeed, since the ’80s – and just might, again, if the security system is far from taut. He wondered whether the security agents concerned were on the alert, as to see the subtle link between the current Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, which had destroyed a greater part of South Lebanon to the tune of $6 billion in infrastructure – as to be capable of fuelling global terrorism, and register some ugly flash points in Nigeria. There should be some form of official response to the crisis in the Middle East, if any lesson had been learnt, Ndaguba counselled, to check traits of the rise of global terrorism in Nigeria. For instance, as some participants at the skull session offered, what happens at some places of worship just after midday on Friday, ought to interest the country’s security agents. What Ndaguba tended to imply was that Nigeria needed to borrow a leaf from Britain, where a law has been made – in re-defining the limits of that country’s security interest, amid the threat posed by global terror – to criminalise preaching hatred, incitement to violence – or, in an extreme case, terrorism – all in the name of freedom of speech or exercise of democratic right. Freedom yes, but as the British case counsels, it just has to be tampered with, when national security is visibly threatened.

Everyone applauded Ndaguba for his informed intervention. Besides, one had to concede – privately, though – that the complimentary remark – “You have a good understanding of the Middle East affairs” – by a member of the Israeli left-leaning Meretz Party and deputy speaker of the Knesset – Professor Naomi Chazan, when one was having an interview with her at Sheraton Hotel, Lagos, some years ago, should, unreservedly, be said of Ndaguba.

Beyond Fix Nigeria, the ex-broadcaster’s intervention calls for a more comprehensive national approach to the campaign against global terrorism. It has taken his intervention, still, to make a further case that the media has a lot to do in its coverage of global terrorism, as it affects Nigeria’s security. It’s no longer enough to report local conflicts, especially when they have some religious or political complexions, as isolated developments. It’s now imperative to see, and probe beyond the issues and actors involved in such conflicts. The threat of global terror, since September 11, 2001, has added a new dimension to the reportage of conflicts: in Nigeria, most probably because of the visible population of non-believers in the Cross – as opposed to having a Southerner, who believes in the crucified saviour at the helm of the country’s affairs.

Ndaguba’s take against global terrorism assumes that every Nigerian is a veritable agent of change – in making the country unsafe for the enemies of freedom.

If Ndaguba’s intervention calls for further analysis, it is this: the crisis in the Middle East – including the United States-led illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the conflict in the Darfur region of the Sudan, where Nigeria – in expressing concern for the safety of the oppressed blacks in that country – has a contingent amongst the African Union’s peace-keeping troops, has fuelled some boom by lobbing the price of oil as high as $76 per barrel.