If Nigeria's SAs were doing their job and on top of it, they would know to expect that Boko Haram would strike Christian soft targets during the Christmas period. They would know that the more effective way to prevent the strikes could not be by manning every point where there are potential "security problems". The way to prevent strikes would be to penetrate the Boko Haram organization and especially its leadership. There is no question that this may not be easy but it can be done. It will take courage, diligence, imagination, persistence, and time. They have had time enough already. Penetration will cost money and we know that money has never been a problem on matters of security in Nigeria. You just see what they call security votes in government budgets over the years.
It is not surprising that Nigeria's National Security Adviser and Intelligence Chiefs have not held funding as the excuse for the glaring ineffectiveness and abysmal failures of their agencies. If money is not the problem, what do they spend their more than generous budgetary allocations on? Money is generally a powerful and veritable incentive for human cooperation and betrayal. Information is the key to intelligence operations success. It can be bought. It can be paid for. Available information suggests that the Boko Haram organization is a protest group that is unhappy with the endemic state of corruption in Nigeria, and the willful stealing and waste of public funds and underdevelopment of Nigerian as a country. For them, full islamization of Nigeria is the answer. Although the scandalous failure of fuller islamization in Zamfara and other northern Nigerian sharia states point to the contrary, this misguided and simplistic is one on which the mindless violence of the organization and its members is predicated. Money talks. Money works. Money changes hearts. Money incentivizes cooperation. What are the SAs waiting for.
Accountability is a commodity that is in abject short supply in Nigeria. Appointments are seldom made on the basis of true merit. Patronage is the norm. Appointments to positions are grace and favor acts and are informed by nepotism and welfare considerations without regard to consequences for the country. Appointments to even national security positions are informed by mundane ethnic and geographical ties. This results in appointees having secure tenure as long as their patrons are in power. When this is the case appointees can do no wrong. Accountability is compromised because ther sare no consequences for underperformance and not much was ever expected of appointees.
What about accountability for the National Security Adviser and Intelligence Chiefs? Nigeria's President should demand of Security and Intelligence Chiefs and enforce it. The National Assembly should do likewise. Intelligence Chiefs and others in their agencies should lose their jobs for underperformance. Heads should roll when defined performance expectations are not met.
Boko Haram poses a grave and imminent threat to Nigeria's peace and continued corporate existence. One only has to imagine the implications for the country of revenge attacks. All who love Nigeria should take the Boko Haram threat more seriously. The good news is that properly dealing with the threat might jump start the culture change in government that Nigerians have been hoping will happen.
oa
________________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Biodun Sowunmi [sowunmi@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 1:55 PM
To: naija politics ; omoodua
Cc: EdoGlobal ; nigeriaroundtable ; naijaelections@yahoogroups.com ; Nigerian World Forum ; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com ; TalkNigeria ; Naijaexcel ; NigeriaID ; edo nationality
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Security Agencies Can Do More
Security Agencies Can Do More
The admission by the National Security Adviser, NSA, General Andrew Azazi, that it was absolutely difficult to man every point when there are security problems in the country may not be absolutely true.
The bombing on Christmas day of St. Theresa's Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, in which over 35 people died in the twin blasts was a meticulously planned job, and intelligence should have nipped the plan in the bud.
As usual, the NSA told newsmen that they were working to ensure they are ahead of the situation, and that there was need for security awareness, a need for public participation and cooperation between security men and the society to enable them make progress. All very good, but we believe that a more proactive approach is required to stem the tide of bombings.
The approach of our security agencies, especially the police, to intelligence reports, have been quite annoying. These same terrorists had, a few months ago, killed about five people in Madalla, a report which we believe was suppressed for whatever reasons by the authorities.
For these misguided individuals to strike twice in one place in a matter of months shows that the concerned authorities are negligent in the course of their duties. It shows that they have refused to do their jobs, and that they may not even be ready to tackle the Boko Haram problem for whatever reason, a situation which may snowball into something we never thought of.
It seems the rest of the world are more concerned about the problem, considering the way they have reacted to the Boko Haram bombings. According to reliable reports, a December report by the United States Congress said Boko Haram has morphed from a group of homegrown criminals into worldly terrorists with capability to forge international links.
The danger keeps growing as countries like France, the United Kingdom and the USA are stepping up assistance to Nigeria in areas like explosives forensic and intelligence gathering, but the country's approach to the problem seems lacklustre, to say the least.
We must not forget that the problems that decimated Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and others began just like this. Our thirty-month civil war and the death of millions of Nigerians should always be at the back of our minds; and with good reason too, considering the reaction of Christian leaders and opinion leaders in southern Nigeria.
While some have urged Christians to defend themselves, others have not been so blunt but have promised reprisal attacks if churches continued to be the targets of these senseless bombings.
Our security agencies must do more than they are currently doing to stem this ugly trend before it engulfs and throws us into another senseless orgy of violence.
Tempers are rising and the atmosphere is tense, and each day the situation worsens.
Nobody really understands what the aggressors want but if it is not a problem between the poor and their northern leaders, then it is between Christians and Moslems or worst case scenario: something between the northerners and southerners -a real grave situation.
Whatever approach the security agencies have adopted, we believe they can do better and get to the root of this violence being visited on innocent Nigerians, but which many Nigerians believe is being handled with kid gloves by those in authority.
Some of the leaders of this violent group are well known but we wonder why nothing is being done to bring them to book or why those who were brought to book got just a slap on the wrist. This problem needs to be handled better before it plunges us into another senseless war.
Sent from my BlackBerry® Smartphone, from Etisalat. Enjoy high speed internet service with Etisalat easy net, available at all our experience centres
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