The much expected claim of responsibility for the attacks on offices and
installations of telecommunication companies (telecoms) in Nigeria by
Jama’at Ahlus Sunnah lid Da’awati wal Jihad – or Boko Haram as they
are popularly called – finally came yesterday. With it, it is certain
that the two elephants are logged in a fight that would leave ordinary
Nigerians at the receiving end.
The contention, I believe, is all about management of private
information received on trust, and not about terrorism per se. Last
February, Boko Haram issued a warning on possible attacks on properties
of telecoms for passing the content of communication among its members
to Nigerian security and law enforcement agencies. By attacking those
targets after six months, it is clear that, in the judgement of Boko
Haram, the alleged collaboration between the telecoms and the government
agencies has not stopped.
At this point, I think a denial by the telecoms, if the allegation is
false, is critical. Boko Haram has thrown two challenges at the
telecoms: the allegations and the attacks. Both have been replied with
silence, if not with further collaboration, by the telecoms. If the
companies are not collaborating with the security agencies by passing
over private information of their suspected Boko Haram customers,
something that contravenes the ethical and legal fundamentals of the
industry, they should say so such that further attacks by the sect can
be avoided. In fact, I expected them to put up even a “white lie” to
avoid the present catastrophe. But they have not.
Well, the grammar above is just for the purpose of understanding the
positions of both sides. On the one hand, telecoms are under pressure
from government to pass over information about locations of callers
suspected to be Boko Haram members and what they say in their calls or
text messages. One can easily see them obliging such requests either as
their ‘patriotic’ contribution in the fight against Boko Haram or in a
bid to play the ‘good boy’ before government even if it contravenes the
law. This understandably and instantly places them on the group’s hit
list.
Boko Haram, on the other hand, definitely needs the privacy of their
information to succeed in eluding the authorities. However, this is a
desire that may hardly be granted to any insurgent group anywhere under
the sun today. More than that, however, I must say that it is wishful in
the first place. Anyone using digital technology must know that he is
liable to hacking by the authorities. His location is the easiest thing
to find. Since the row between Blackberry and China, India and a number
of governments in the Middle East in 2009, it became clear that hardly
would any technology be permitted into the market today without its
“antidote” known to western governments. Technologically advanced
countries were quiet on the BB Messenger row precisely because they have
many such antidotes in their security stock. Boko Haram must understand
the simple logic in this Hausa proverb: “kowa ya sayi rariya ya san
za ta zubar da ruwa.”
For now, the Inspector General of Police has directed that security be
provided to every office and mast of telecoms in the country. This is a
good gesture though, unfortunately, a practically impossible one. I
cannot see any Nigerian police playing a martyr in defence of a telecom
installation in the bushes and villages of Northern Nigeria. He will be
offering too much for nothing in return. Families of policemen who died
in such circumstances are always complaining of neglect by the
authorities. But that is even taking the argument too far. The basic
reality is that with three to five masts in every village in the region
there are just not enough policemen to safeguard the hundreds of
thousands of such telecom masts even if all the policemen in the region
are diverted to the project. I concede that there could be a reasonable
number for their offices and, perhaps, personnel. But all masts? Kai,
Mr. IGP.
The telecoms must therefore invent a practical equation to secure their
installations, offices and staff. They must be ready to forego a scratch
on the surface of the billions they daily harvest from Nigerians in
protecting their assets with the formidable private security personnel
for the foreseeable future. But please let them not pass the cost to us
– the consumers. Let this not be an opportunity to return the cost of
calls to N50/minute wo!
As for Boko Haram, my advice is that hardly would reliance on
conventional telecommunication channels guarantee safety from
surveillance of anti-establishment group. In fact, even without the
collaboration of the telecoms, there are dozens of equipment that can
intercept digital communications available over the counter for
authorized bodies all over world. If it must survive, the group must
keep this in mind and think ahead in its communication strategy. Hitting
telecoms underlines its lack of its sophistication. More importantly, it
undeniably puts the people that the group claims to protect centuries
backward in economy, scholarship, culture, etc. Without modern
communications, the North will eventually be reduced to its colonial era
of kar ta kwana in which mails were delivered by a chain of
native pedestrian human couriers until they reach their destination,
non-stop. This is a fate that the group must work to avoid as it does
not serve its cause in any imaginable way.
Finally, let me reiterate my analysis in my previous discourse. The
whole Boko Haram insurgency and the general violence pervading Northern
Nigeria is a product of the prevailing corrupt leadership in the country
and the silence of Northern political leaders and intelligentsia over
the injustice that such corruption perpetrates. This has led everyone
outside the cliques of political and economic consortiums feel
alienated, frustrated and hopeless. In that state of social perversion,
anarchy cannot be avoided. In that state of affairs, the rich – like the
telecommunication companies – and the strong – like the law enforcement
agents and politicians – will both share in the tears of the desolate
downtrodden whose life depicts the popular dictum: aluta continua. It is
an analysis on which I remain unrepentant.
Bauchi
7 September 2012