Boko Haram has claimed its most important victim yet last weekend: The
National Security Adviser, A. O. Azazi. For an avowed enemy of the
nation’s security apparatus and political system, only the ultimate the
target remains: the President. If it can manufacture his downfall or the
end of his regime, the group would boast that it has proved its mettle.
The fall of Azazi must have surprised many Nigerians. Ah, so the
‘clueless’ and ‘weak’ Jonathan can also bite, they would exclaim. Beyond
that, biting his Ijaw brother was least expected. Many people think
Azazi did not expect his sudden fall. He has since his resumption as NSA
walked firmly on the presidential turf with a mien that was informed by
the confidence of an insider and the assurance of a kinsman.
As the weakness in the President became clearer, the arrogance of Azazi
as his untouchable protector and indispensable ally was increasing by
the day. His display of power reached its peak last week when his
contempt for the president was reported online. Somewhere the idea of
declaring the state of emergency in Kaduna State was discussed and it
was agreed that it was a good idea. To seal its fate however, the former
NSA employed a sarcasm that portrayed his level of disdain for his boss,
the President. “Where is the president to declare it”, was his reported
remark, as if Jonathan was missing in Bermuda Triangle or he has
abandoned the hot seat for a mere trivial summit in Brazil.
Azazi left office with the same demeaning impression for the President.
After receiving the news of his sacking, his spokesman issued some
statements that did not hide his long-standing poor rating of Jonathan’s
courage to face challenges squarely. The spokesman said when Azazi
suggested that Buhari and some top northerners be invited for
‘questioning’, Jonathan refused and accused the NSA of trying to
“scuttle his government.”
As a tribute, I feel compelled to attest that Azazi was different from
former NSAs in his relationship with the Nigerian public. Two months
ago, he declared the ruling party and the northern presidential
aspirants guilty of precipitating the present security crisis in the
country. Right or wrong, the public felt that such statements should not
have come from a person so close to the President and his NSA for that
matter - a Freudian slip, you can say.
The tradition of the NSA in Nigeria as cut by his predecessors is
complete silence. They understood that the strength of any security
apparatus lies in its secrecy, through leaving the public guessing about
its opinion and what it onows about any security issue. Even if Azazi
shared that philosophy, the politician in him was not comfortable with
it. He preferred activism to mystery. Under him, even the secretive SSS
went public, appointing a spokesperson, issuing press statements,
parading suspects and holding press conferences. The public could easily
discern from these development that there was a competition for its
recognition between the SSS and the police in any success, no matter how
small, which was recorded in the fight against Boko Haram.
Azazi might have usurped the functions of the police and demystified the
office of the NSA. But if it were not for his approach, we would not
have been able to read the mind of the administration regarding crucial
issues like its perception of the causes of the Boko Haram insurgency.
To the delight of journalists, commentators and the opposition, Azazi
was always there to let the cat out of the bag.
Well he is gone, for whatever reason and for whatever sin he committed.
He is the latest victim of Boko Haram. He is familiar with sackings
though, having suffered one as the Chief of Defence Staff under Yar’adua
when he was indicted by an army security report on the theft of weapons
from his 1 DIV by a Niger Delta militant syndicate. Perhaps, that was
the first time he established relationship with Jonathan, who the report
fell short of naming as one of the financiers of the gun running
activities of the syndicate.
Azazi's return as NSA might be a reward for his ethnic chauvinism. Our
own, an Ijaw, possibly, my partner in the illegal arms deal is now the
President, Azazi must have calculated rightly when Jonathan became the
President. Jonathan too might have wondered if he could trust anyone
better than the devil he knows. And on the NSA seat, we saw all sorts of
sumptuous security contracts awarded to Niger Deta militants, the latest
being the concession of our maritime security to them by the Jonathan
administration. We also witnessed the largest allocation of our budget
to national security in our history.
Azazi may now be bitter for losing the top security job but he can still
keep himself busy by paying full attention to the execution of those
security contracts that were fronted for him by Tampolo and other Niger
Delta militants. With his departure, the dream of Niger Delta republic
has suffered a serious setback. It is clear that Nigeria is bigger than
his dream. Safe journey, sir.
At his heels comes Sambo Dasuki, a lesser known person from the Sokoto
royal family. Compared to General Azazi, Sambo is a dwarf: a junior
officer who retired almost two decades ago as a colonel. Politically,
the highest position he held in the army was the ADC to President
Babangida. He was nowhere close to commanding a division or becoming
Nigeria’s chief of defence staff. Likewise, I doubt if he ever dreamt of
becoming the NSA.
Now, if the NSA job has put his predecessor general to shame during
these trying times, how did the President got convinced that Sambo would
succeed in disabling the bombs of Boko Haram and silencing their guns?
Look at the gamble: apart from his political appointment as the Managing
Director of Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Cooperation, the new
NSA has nothing in hand to prove that he is competent in heading the
security apparatus of country as it is today. At its face value, one is
tempted to think that the appointment of Sambo is one of the most stupid
things that Jonathan ever did as the President. So are we heading for
the rocks, again?
Hold your breath. we are not. The President is not stupid. Come with me.
The reason is simple. Some things we get by birth. Many others we get by
hard work. Few we get by association. Sambo Dasuki, I am tempted to
believe, got this appointment by his marital link to the longest serving
NSA, General Aliyu Gusau (rtd). Gusau is married to Sambo’s sister, the
wife of late Aliyu Dasuki, may God have mercy on him.
In the past few months, there have been reports that Gusau was resisting
the pressure to return to the NSA office. Gusau might have calculated
the cool reception that Nigerians would accord him if he were to return
for the simple fact that he has been there three times before. Man is
hardly excited with the familiar. Also, he might have been hindered
morally by his contest for the PDP presidential ticket against Jonathan
under whom he last served as NSA. The idea of a proxy is therefore apt.
Sambo would sit in as the figurehead NSA, definitely, while Gusau would
ably determine the security operations of the country.
From his position at the top, Jonathan must have perceived that Boko
Haram is inching closer and closer to him. It has caused the sacking of
all categories of police and security chiefs. With some clerics warning
him of an impending war, the President must have realized that he could
be the next victim. The nation has, with distinctions, fulfilled all the
requirements for a coup d’etat. The condition is so critical that he
will not hesitate to call for the assistance of anyone perceived to be
capable of making a difference between democracy and military rule.
It is easy to see the idea of involving Gusau as based purely on the
merit of the former NSA. However, it surely goes beyond that. I do not
also believe that it is a gesture made to appeal Northerners to dismiss
the notion that the inability of the government to handle the situation
is not a conspiracy to destroy the North.
In my humble opinion that the return of Gusau was due to two reasons.
One, from what Azazi said two months ago – that violating the principle
of zoning in PDP was responsible for the present security challenges in
the country and that no one expects that those aggrieved would fail to
respond by creating difficulties for the Jonathan administration – it is
clear that he meant that Boko Haram is recruited by those who lost the
ticket to Jonathan. So they must know the secret behind it.
Nobody expects that Azazi will make such serious accusations without any
support from the hundreds of files he has treated on the matter.
Jonathan, according Azazi’s spokesman yesterday, has resisted the fomer
NSA’s advice that such people be called for questioning. Gusau, being
one of those aspirants, must have made it to Azazi’s list conspirators.
Jonathan here took a directly opposite route. If he cannot invite Gusau
for questioning, it would not be a bad idea to saddle him with the
challenge of restoring security to the country.
The second reason is that possibly few people, if any, in our security
domain would know about Boko Haram than Gusau. It was under the tenure
of Obasanjo that Boko Haram was conceived, hatched and nourished to full
growth. The first we heard about the group was when it called itself the
“Nigerian Taliban” after it clashed with the police in Yobe in the early
2000s. Many of the arrests made then turned out to be sons of
influential people in the old Borno State. The suspects were eventually
released. From there, the group moved its headquarters to Maiduguri and
enjoyed the support of people like Governor Sheriff. Perhaps few people
knew that it would turn so dangerous. But the SSS director then, Gadzama,
has raised sufficient alarms which, for unknown reasons, were not heeded
to. It took the vacation of Obasanjo from that office, along with NSA
Gusau, before the authorities could provoke a violent engagement with
the group resulting in the present crisis.
Why was the group not stopped from blooming and fruition during Obasanjo
still remains a mystery to many of us. But it will not be a mistake to
assume that the person at the helm of our security structure during the
formative years of the group clearly knows its dynamics and the forces
behind it. Who else is then best qualified for the job than him?
So from whichever angle one looks at it, appointing a proxy to Gusau
would make a lot of sense for a scared Jonathan who is presently
confined by the terror to the Villa. By appointing Sambo Dasuki,
Jonathan might have bought some time, but only a little. How far he can
run before the monster that caught up with those immediately below him
also catches up with him is a distance known only to his destiny.
Finally, I would like to put this question to my readers. Should the new
NSA fail to meet the expectations of Jonathan and Nigeria precariously
attains a tipping point, would the country be ready to sacrifice
Jonathan in order to avert the impending disaster or would it prefer to
go into an indefinable civil war and dismemberment simply to maintain
him as the President of a democratic Nigeria?
Jonathan would be keen to know your answers. But he must be under no
illusions as to what they would be. Nigerians have answered such
questions each time the country reaches the brink in the past. And
consistently, the answers have never been in favour of the presidents.
This one too will not be different, I suppose.