How Poor Intelligence Hampers War Against Terrorism In West Africa

The West African Region has been bedeviled by protracted terrorist attacks across the sub-region despite the enormous efforts being made by the regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to curb the menace.

From Nigeria to Burkina Faso, Niger to Cote d Ivoire, Mali to Guinea, the Boko Haram, Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP) and other terror allies have wrecked unprecedented havoc on the hapless citizens of the region with massive losses in lives and property and it appears there is no end in sight to this scourge.

The Sahel region, the Lake Chad region are  replete with unending episode of bloodletting perpetrated by the terrorists and insurgents just as the Gulf of Guinea is being threatened by pirates.

The regional body and affected countries have battled this menace so hard and so desperate but the crises have exposed one fundamental flaw in the line of battle, which is the deficiency of poor intelligence or lack of its proper coordination and implementation.

This flaw was raised recently when the British Minister of Armed Forces, James Heappey visited Nigeria and the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja where he shared his experience on the insecurity in the sub region in a meeting with the President of the ECOWAS Commission Dr. Omar Alieu Touray

President Touray stressed the need for all interventions in the Region to be under the ECOWAS regional framework (The Action Plan) to build coherent coordinated efforts even as Heappey assured the ECOWAS Commission’s President of UK’s readiness to work with ECOWAS in ensuring a peaceful region.

But speaking to journalists last Tuesday at the British High Commission, Heappey had expressed concern that the intelligence cooperation has been immature, adding that the partners must see that as an opportunity to improve on the situation.

“The reality is that we have an opportunity to improve our intelligence sharing and capability in surveillance and reconnaissance, which is really important. The UK can support countries within the region to provide their own solutions to their problems. The fact that intelligence relationship is so immature is a concern, but is also an opportunity,” he said.

Heappey however, assured that his country is committed to improve intelligence sharing with Nigeria and other countries in the region to tackle terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

“We are in a constant conversation, we need to collaborate to fight the spread of violence in the Sahel, the growing instability in Burkina Faso, the continuing violence in the Lake Chad basin and the rise of ISWAP are issues of concerns,” he lamented, even as he called on ECOWAS to intensify the fight against insecurity.

In Nigeria, the most populous West African country,  the Boko Haram terrorists and  ISWAP between 2009 and 2022 have killed nearly 100, 000 people and displaced over 2.5 million people  mostly in the northern parts of the country.  Bandits have also ravaged the north west of Nigeria, killing raping and kidnapping almost without hindrance.  The crisis has also mutated into armed herdsmen moving towards the southern parts and inflicting serious harm on the inhabitants especially farmers.

The lack of actionable intelligence has been identified as the main reason the crises cannot easily be curbed. There is no virile intelligence network amid faulty collaboration, among the security agencies charged with providing intelligence.

In developed countries, investment in intelligence is the top priority of governments but that appears not to be the case in Nigeria and other West African countries and sadly, the countries in the region are grossly inadequate to invest in intelligence acquisition.

A security expert, Timothy Avele once told a media outfit that “intelligence could only be produced by trained intelligence analysts.

Sadly, the entire Nigerian police force has less than 70 trained modern analysts, the military less than 100.’’

It has therefore become incumbent on the regional security outfits such as the police, the state security service and the National Intelligence Agency, charged with the responsibility within the countries of the region to be virile and united in to address these issues.

The region can only make progress in its trade facilitation and other areas of economic cooperation and regional integration if it is free from terrorist and insurgents of all shades.