The Need to Re

The Need to Re-think National Security Strategy

Abdullah Musa

A national daily reported recently that armed robbers struck in Anambra State of South Eastern Nigeria. Numbering about a dozen, they attacked a bullion van and also some passenger buses. All in all, 30 people were killed and a dozen were injured. The police were reported to have killed 3 of the armed robbers. Of those killed by the robbers were three pregnant women. The source of the news as quoted by the newspaper was Reuters, an international news agency.

In another story related to our national security, the Minister of State in Defense Ministry was said to be pleading with visiting counterpart from the United States for the US government to come to the aid of Nigeria with regards to its security problem in the Niger Delta. The minister was trying to be a good salesman by saying that Nigeria’s engagement in the Niger Delta was hampering its efforts towards regional security. Now if you are conversant with security as the US official must be, you cannot take seriously the offer by someone who cannot safeguard his own back yard, to help you in policing a region.

A comedian by nature of his trade intends not to be taken seriously. He really succeeds when he makes people laugh. But to govern a people, to relate to others on equal or near equal terms, is not really within the ambit of comedy. It might fall more suitably in the realm of statesmanship. Armed robbery on the scale we experienced it in the last forty years or so was attributed first to the fall out of civil war. Thereafter, the world itself changed. So many countries started being arms manufacturers, and in such trade, you do not really care to know who your customers are: after all you are simply a peddler of agents of death.

In the so-called civilized world, particularly in US, children are turning into mass killers, by mowing down current or former school mates. With such trends, those that govern countries like Nigeria do not have to feel any sense of inadequacy that they cannot protect their citizens from harm’s way. A deranged killer is however really different from an organized robbery squad. I may not have data, but I do believe that by the nature of advanced societies, they are now studying all dimensions to such kind of killings in order to minimize the occurrence. Our own peculiarity is that in majority of the cases, the bandits vanish into the thin air.

We are a people with tendencies that defy rationality. Though not our creation, modern life that is dependent on technology necessitates change in our behaviors. But even though there is more than enough motivation for change, we stick to the known ways of doing business, of operating government, of even being ostentatious. Cash is always around in millions beckoning the armed robber to strike. Take for instance the existence of the parallel market. There you will find millions of naira, or even an approximation of millions of valuable, so-called hard currency. And the robbers struck again and again. In the latest incident six policemen lost their lives.

The problems of governance in Nigeria have turned many of us into paranoids. We in most cases do not see any good with our system, and we even discountenance the existence of a learning curve. Be it that way, the impression being created is that our nation is singularly, or at least amongst those that are highly insecure. There had been some efforts at police recruitment, with reported cases of bad eggs infiltrating the system. So many vehicles had been dished out by State governments, but yet we are not out of the woods.

To my mind there are key areas where we may have to focus upon in order to reduce the attractiveness of armed robbery. One such area is the way we finance our trading transactions. Cash though necessary should not be available in the quantum it now is. Even though we have more money outside than within the banking system, it will do us well to devise strategies to curtail the use of large amounts of cash in transactions where cheques or other instruments can be used.

Markets as they now stand are archaic. These include the open markets where goods are bought and sold, and specialized markets like the parallel foreign exchange market. These markets must have above normal security cover, with surveillance cameras, and highly secure bank branches located therein. We may note the excessive use of cash is a clear sign of the high level of illegal activities that take place within our economy. Why must a car worth millions of naira, or even a house worth similar amounts be paid for in cash?

Are the police really motivated to fight crime? If not what will motivate them? Do we expect them to love the country and its people when we also as ordinary citizens do all we can to bring it down? Is the policing system sophisticated enough with data bank and adequate funding? By adequate funding we mean the resources available to an officer to keep on investigating a crime long after the criminal had forgotten that he committed it.

The fact that science is yet to take roots in our society, it is not surprising that our police force might not be scientific in their approach to crime-solving. Are we ready to change this position, to make sure that the nation as a whole is earnest in its quest for the technological and scientific edge?

Another area worthy of attention is our educational system and our management of the economy. High urbanization ensures that majority of our youths end up being enrolled into schools, many even succeeding to graduate from universities. From there they meet brick wall: no job opportunities. Having grown up in the cities, they only know sedentary life; they also have a highly whetted appetite for the good if not even the fast lane life. They want the cars, the women, and the opportunity to glob-trot, just like the children of those who corner the nation’s resources. They become extremely angry for their deprivation. Then they hit back!

To be bold, to defy fear, they turn to drugs, and they learn to carry weapons, and to use them without any qualms, no iota of pity. The ill-luck is to the policeman who stands on their way. Are Nigerian leaders willing to consider the silent majority as stakeholders in the resources of this nation? Decades of theft and indifference have convinced us that they do not see the necessity of equity in the management of the commonwealth. We may thus have to live with insecurity of ever changing hue.

One last point worthy of note is political development across Africa. We easily hear of rebels being at the gates of Njdemaina, the capital of Tchad; or the rebels of DR Congo; those in Angola and so forth. These rebellions create refugees, and some become permanently displaced for life. They will have no formal schooling, nor any training in trade or craft; and many may turn to rebels themselves or become outlaws to survive. From these sources will be addition to our problems of insecurity.

Living in the current age of technology, of inhuman power politics, of changed demography, of heightened expectation about life and the desire to be comfortable by many, it will be quite perilous for Nigerians to take the issue of internal security lightly. But like so many things that require the sanction of leadership to be actualized, Nigerians cannot be more secure than they currently are unless they are able to install leaders who can govern for the interest of the people and the nation. Unfortunately such leaders seem to be very scarce. The ones that are in abundance are those whose actions and inactions contribute to our degradation and various forms of insecurity.