A diagnosis of the Nigerian Security problems cannot but begin from their social ,political and economic root causes .These, as it were, seeds of the long standing challenges to Nigerian Security , are as follows:
1) The competition for dwindling natural resources. Principally because of the effects of climatic change and global warming.
2) Consequent increasing desertification and degradation of grazing land in the Sahel region and countries to the Northern border of Nigeria. This has led to the nomadic Fulani cattle herders to migrate southwards in search of fertile land for their cattle .
3) Destabilising plots by transnational rogue elements of mining firms and other extractive industries. Destabilised Nigeria gives these transnational the cover they take advantage of stealing minerals such as gold, silver, high grade lithium oxide, and other rare earths, and , of course , oil and gas.
4) The collaboration of Nigerians with the foreign Fulani herders , or the international extractive industries’ rogues is responsible for the threats multiplier effects
5) The 4,745 kilometres Nigerian international border is one of the African countries’ most porous international borders
6) There are uncountable ungovernable spaces within Nigeria. These ungovernable spaces have provided the safe haven from which extremist, and bandit , groups have multiplied.
7) The culpability, or gullibility, or greed , of many Nigerians has led to the growth of internal colonialists and neo-colonialists amongst us, Nigerians. Such that Nigeria is yet to be an independent country.
8)The restlessness ever waiting to happen because of the fact that the Nigerian State incubates one of highest numbers of still colonised peoples in the world. Such is the history of a majority of the Hausas people ,for example .
This is obvious in the the Nigerian ruling class’ paying of lips service to the 2007 United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People. Such as their Right to Self determination.
9) The consequences of the enduring social , political and economic , order of keeping Indigenous People colonised , include :
(a) the increasing high numbers of the uneducated , and under age marriages , that have produced children who have not been given love, and thus easily indoctrinated to carry out violent actions which have, repeatedly , put many citizens in the harms way.
(b) high numbers of unemployed people arising from , amongst other reasons, unplanned population growth .
10)The recurring conflicts that have arisen , and that are still bound to happen, because of the Nigerian “National Question” .
The problem is not so much to find the answers to the National Question , it is to actually face the answers that are in plain sight , before us all. The Specific Nigerian Security Contending Issues include :
- A) The pervasiveness of institutionalisedcorruption in the Nigerian State, and the resultant lack of Sincerity of Purpose and the Political Will of those who are supposed to provide the leadership of the Nigerian Security System. The reasons include what is referred to as “The natural resources curse”. There is a lack of transparency , accountability and weak institutional capacity.
A consequences of this, is the non recognition of merit which has given rise to an enthronement of mediocrity over competence.
All these are so bad that the existing fraud engendering Nigerian State can be categorised as a classical example of the ageless wisdom teaching that: ” greed, bribery and fraud , devour a nation-state from the inside, leaving it weak”. B) The double standards in the way , the Federal Government’s (FG) agents respond to the far Northerners’ illegally armed people , in comparison to the way they violently confront Middle Beltans , and the Southern Nigerians , who for Self-defence reasons are forced to arm themselves .
- C) The neo-colonialists’ approach to the design of the present Nigerian Security Architecture , accounts , to a major extent , for its inappropriateness. What we have is contrary to a free born,and majority indigenous peoples country’s national security structure. The United Kingdom , for example, historically, and still today , has ethnic military regiments. There is the like of the Scottish Highlanders Regiment of the British Army. There is also the country of many ethnic nationalities , like Nigeria, India that has many ethnic nationalities’ military forces. To mention only two ; there are the Sikh Regiment and the Gurkha Regiment . I do not see why , for examples , we cannot have the Jukun Regiment in Taraba State ,Tivs and Idoma Regiments in Benue State, Biromand Langtan Regiments in Plateau, Kwarafa and Hausas Regiments in Kano, Ibadan and Oyo Regiments in Oyo State, the Abriba and Ngwas Regiments in Abia State, the Obosi and Nnewi Regiments in Anambra State. The Urhobo and ItsekiriRegiments in Delta State, the IzawRegiment in Bayelsa State, The NupeRegiment in Niger State, The IgalaRegiment in Kogi,the Bachama Regiment in Adamawa State, The Hausas Regiment in Zamfara State, The Kanuris Regiment in Bornu State.
- D) The low military personnel numbers to the country’s population ratio of roughly 1 to 11,000 , renders Nigerians vulnerable to psychological and physical insecurity. Particularly when considered against the background of the earlier highlighted root causes of the Nigerian insecurity . Egypt with less than half the population of Nigeria, specifically 107:77 million has 1,200,000 military personnel. Whilst Nigeria with 223 million people has only about 220,000 active duty and paramilitary forces. Ethiopia with a population of 126 million has over 500,000 active duty military personnel, and 138,000 reserves.
- E) There are often media narratives tailored to serve the neo-colonialists in our midst, agenda. Such as the phrase: “Herders- Farmers Conflict” repeatedly used for brainwashing and manipulation. Part of the Nigerian media.may have , unconsciously, become a seller of a “dominator drug par excellence”.How else are we to describe the suspected , ‘uniformity of content’ of these media productions ? Obviously, the recurring AK 47 armed , and on motorcycles , Fulani militias’ most violent invasions of indigenous people’s farming communities , should not be reported as “two communities fighting”.
- F) The FG’s monopoly of the procurement , and the distribution of arms to the security forces , needs to be urgently addressed. Especially as the FG’s monopoly has been structurally hijacked by and for the neo-colonialist Nigerians’ interest. Hence the sub-national should be Constitutionally allowed to, alongside the central government , be [what is said in the military industrial complex(MIC) parlance] “Direct End Users of Arms”. We can learn from the British example where a sub-national like Scotland is Constitutionally allowed to be end users of arms. Another example to learn from are the national guards of the different states of America that are allowed Constitutionally to be direct end users of arms.
- G) There is an unfortunate continuity of the British colonial power’s type of “forces of occupation” approach to the locating of the Nigerian military units in Nigeria . Such that belligerent forces made up in majority of strangers to the communities that they are imposed upon the people.
- H) The rational of the foregoing being that there needs to be the involvement of locals in the internal security , or the security of their homelands . This is because members of a community have more stake in their security than an outsider will , on the average , have. Hence , in terms of the universal good practice , it is the military regiments which are managed, and manned, by locals that form the first line of the national security structure of a country.
- K) What is described in the military deployment language as “defence-in-depth” has glaringly not be considered in the design of the current Nigerian Security Structure. This is indeed one of the major sources of the Nigerian Security Structure’s weaknesses . The reference here , is to the necessity of layered levels of national security structure. The Nigerian Security is , in need of, atleast, a three – tiered lines of national security network . A possible suggestion goes like this: 1st Line) The security of international borders beyond immigration service’s duties, must be the responsibility of the locals heavily made paramilitary forces .
2nd Line ) The states’, or regions’ , Internal Security ,or Homeland Security ,forces. 3rd Line) The FG’s standing military/active duty armed forces, and the military reserves
The Military Threats that have been, and , as we speak , still very active in their attacks of Nigerians .There are yet no effective defensive barriers to prevent the terrorists’ continuing massacre of Nigerians . And what is more frightening is the help these enemies of the Nigerian majority, get from our own , Nigerian military saboteurs in the following regions:
The North-East. Boko Haram, and the Islamic State’s West Africa Province(ISIS-WA) vicious militant groups. Both terrorists groups have been reported to have invaded even the Nigerian Military bases. The North West . Banditry in the form of kidnapping for huge financial ransom . These are often foreigners backed armed bandits that launch surprise attacks on the indigenous Hausas communities. Rogue elements of some international extractive industries contribute to the destabilisationof the far Northern Nigeria. As the instability of the region , gives these foreign crooks protected by soldiers of fortune , the necessary cover to illegally mine and cart away gold and other high end minerals from Nigerian territory.
The North Central . There is the ongoing intensification of AK 47 armed transnational Fulani militias recurring violent attacks on the indigenous land owners, or farmers of this essentially Middle Belt region. These foreign Fulanisinvasions are often for the purposes of land grabbing and eventual colonisation. One is reminded here of the 1992 Zangon- Kataf crises in which the Tyap speaking people of Southern Kaduna State stood up to the Fulani attempts to colonise their land.
The 3 Southern Regions . The mainly foreign Fulani militias’ raids have been extended to the Southern Nigerian regions. The kidnapping for ransome has become rampant. There is the separatist agitation of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South East.
The foregoing are the highlights of the root causes of the problems of the Nigerian security , the issues we are still contending with , and the violent threats which Nigerians are still facing . These highlights do , indeed , account for the recommendations I have made. See below
I am humbly recommending the following Constitutional provisions : .● National Security Strategy and Architecture. [In recognition of the fact that the asymmetric , and technological , ways of waging wars have overtaken the conventional tactical ways of fighting,] The Nigerian Security Structure shall be made up of :
- i) Army, Navy, and Air Force conventional armed forces.
- ii) DSS, NIA and DIA under the coordination of the of the Chief of the Nigerian Intelligence Community . iii) Homeland/Internal Security Forces, Border Security Forces and the Coastal Guards – whose modus operandi shall mainly be like those of the Special Operation Forces , or the Unconventional armed forces , or the People Army type of tactics .
- iv) Tech – Signals Intelligence(SIGINT), CyberSecurity and Drones Agency . No tier of government, whether the Federal , or Regional , or State , shall monopolise the authority of arming of Security Forces to be use for, atleast , a community of citizens’ self defence. ● There shall be the fair and equitable , territorial distribution of the Armed Forces’ , and other national security agencies’ , personnel and other military assets of the Federal Government (FG).
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