The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III has confirmed the assertions of experts who insist that Nigeria’s poor intelligence gathering processes have crippled its ability to nip crime, violence and killings in the bud as done in more advanced climes.
This is in spite of allegations that security operatives were notified about the attack but did nothing.
Raising questions over intelligence gaps and its devastating effects, apparent in the non-stop attacks on communities in different parts of the country, the Sultan while speaking in Bauchi state on Wednesday, December 27, said bandits and other criminal elements attacking Nigerians are always a step ahead of security agencies in gathering intelligence.
Urging the military and other security agencies to step up intelligence gathering, he condemned the recent attack by gunmen in Plateau State which claimed the lives of over 100 persons with several others wounded.
“We only condemned such things but after condemning such activities by these bandits and criminals what next? What are the rest of the government who are supposed to protect our lives and property doing? Why do we keep on having these deaths? The Tudun Biri incident is still fresh with us and now the recent on the Plateau.
“Why can’t you be proactive to stop such attacks before they happen? What happened to our intelligence-gathering mechanism? Are you telling me that nobody knew about such attacks? In various places whether in Sokoto, Kebbi or Kaduna or anywhere, have we lost our sense of gathering information to avert any or such key loss? We must ask our government to be up and doing because these bandits are always a step ahead.” he said
Expressing concern that insecurity had been politicized in the country, the Sultan insisted it does not have anything to do with religion but that of leadership.
“We are all in one big country where we have poverty. Yes, Muslims, Christians and even those who don’t have religion go to the same market and they buy the same foodstuff, enter the same vehicles and pay the same fares. So, it is not the issue of religion, let’s not tell ourselves that anybody is planning anything against Muslims or Christians. No; it is the issue of leadership and I have said many times that let’s have confidence in leadership that within the next few months something will change.”
In the meantime, as the outrage trailing the Christmas eve massacre of no fewer than 195 persons in Plateau State is yet to abate, with none of the perpetrators apprehended, the Middle-Belt Forum, MBF, revealed that the insurgents have written Pushit community in Mangu LGA on a fresh attack.
MBF Deputy National President, Stanley Kavwam, who disclosed this in an interview on Arise TV, said the terrorists were planning to launch the attack on the Pushit community on December 29 adding that anonymous persons dropped letters of previous attacks on Mangu LGA.
Kavwam spoke as the United Nations and Northern Caucus of the House of Representatives and Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, demanded a thorough investigation and probe of the attacks.
Nigeria has been adjudged one of most dangerous places to live with the 2020 Global Terrorism Index identifying it as the third country most affected by terrorism.
Tosin Omoniyi of Premium Times in a special report titled: ANALYSIS: Intelligence failure compounding insecurity in Nigeria threw more light on this question of insecurity and intelligence failure in Nigeria. Below are his findings.
Experts opine that Nigeria’s poor intelligence gathering processes have crippled its ability to nip crime, violence and killings in the bud as done in more advanced climes.
Many of the crimes committed and violence recorded could have been averted if Nigeria had a virile intelligence network and there is greater collaboration, not rivalry, among the government units tasked with providing intelligence and security, say some of these experts.
‘’The truth is that if the obvious lack of actionable intelligence is properly addressed among all the security, intelligence agencies and the military, then insecurity would have been solved 50%,’’ said Timothy Avele, the Chief Executive Officer of Agent-X Security Ltd. ‘’From the president down the ladder of the leadership of various security agencies and the military, all acknowledged this thorny issue of lack of actionable intelligence.’’
‘’The problem I see there is that while everyone wants intelligence, sadly, no one wants to invest in its acquisition. Imagine the military top leadership asking villagers to provide intelligence. Intelligence could only be produced by trained intelligence analysts. Sadly, the entire police force has less than 70 trained modern analysts, the military less than 100,’’ he said in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES.
‘’The intelligence network is apparently not working. The security architecture is obviously inadequate to secure the country. A centralised security architecture cannot secure a country as large as this. It is even against a federal arrangement,’’ said Azeez Olaniyan, a professor at the department of Political Science, Federal University Oye Ekiti.
Oladayo Olujuwon, an academic, described intelligence as the product resulting from the collection, collation, evaluation, analysis, integration, and interpretation of collected information.
‘’Governments try to protect three things regarding intelligence gathering: their intelligence personnel, their intelligence facilities & resources and their intelligence operations,’’ he said.
‘’Collecting intelligence to build up a detailed knowledge of threats to the country is at the heart of secret service work. Security intelligence (SI) is the information relevant to protecting an organisation (nation) from external and inside threats as well as the processes, policies and tools designed to gather and analyse that information. People tend to associate intelligence with crime prevention; meaning probably that the availability of timely intelligence can prevent the occurrence of crime.’’
Other security experts believe that if the three major outfits tasked with providing intelligence cover for security operations in the country: the Nigeria Police Force, the State Security Service and the National Intelligence Agency, were virile and united, the pervasive insecurity would be greatly curbed.
In his paper, ‘Solving Security Challenges in Nigeria Through Intelligence Gathering and Surveillance,’ an academic, Ashaolu Oluwadiya, says the dearth of intelligence gathering capabilities will continue to stall Nigeria’s search for a lasting solution to insecurity.
‘’Nigeria has not come of age. The Nigeria Police do not possess the required skill to secure a crime scene, conduct efficient evidence-gathering procedures such as lifting fingerprints from the crime scene, have no credible criminal database, cannot use forensic science in solving crime, and so on.
‘’Until recently, we could not trace a criminal using his mobile phone records. Policemen are barely literate. Their educational requirement is not high, and it has become the last resort to school drop-outs who probably had no other options in life. The kind of training they receive is abysmal.
‘’There is also a huge level of corruption within the ranks of the Force. People do not trust them, neither do they respect them. And for the other intelligence agencies such as the SSS, people deal with them with suspicions…,’’ he wrote.
An ex-military general, who asked that his name should not be used in the report, however, told PREMIUM TIMES that while the intelligence capabilities of the country could be strengthened, the challenges are much deeper than portrayed.
‘’The challenge of insecurity is beyond laying blames on the military of allied security organisations. Pensioners are owed salaries across the states and their concerns are not being addressed. It is the children of these and the readily available army of unemployed youth who have increased since the return to democratic governance that provides ready fodder for those who are behind insecurity,’’ he said.
He said the increasing number of young people who are ‘hopeless’ amidst narrowing economic opportunities needs to be addressed first to solve Nigeria’s security challenges.
‘’There is a limit to what the military can do. We need an all-society approach that involves the re-orientation of everyone, the leaders, the led and security outfits,” the retired general said.
Intelligence units
Nigeria, like other countries across the globe, does not lack relevant outfits tasked with providing intelligence. The Nigerian police have the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) and the Federal Investigations and Intelligence Bureau (FIIB).
The FCID conducts investigations and prosecutes complex crimes within and outside the nation. The FIIB carries out intelligence gathering and surveillance to aid other police units.
The SSS (also known as DSS), formed in 1986, operates under the presidency and answers directly to the National Security Adviser (NSA). It manages domestic intelligence and ensures the national security of the country is not compromised.
The SSS is also empowered to eliminate ‘national threats’ and provide security for top government officials and visiting dignitaries.
The National Intelligence Agency (NIA), also under the NSA, is charged with gathering international intelligence. Established also in 1986, it is responsible for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence. It collates external intelligence aimed at protecting Nigeria’s security interests outside its shores.
There is also the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) established in 1986 to provide an efficient system of obtaining military intelligence for the Armed Forces.
The NSA, Babagana Monguno; defence spokesperson, Nwachukwu Onyema, and Force spokesperson, Frank Mba, did not respond to calls and messages seeking reactions to the report.
‘‘It is not correct to conclude that the government and/or security agencies lack intelligence capabilities,’’ Peter Afunanya, the spokesperson of the SS said in a response to comments. ‘’Security challenges have become global without the exception of any particular country. We are committed to the safety of life and property and call on the media to play a positive role in ensuring peaceful coexistence in our country, Nigeria.’’
Additional reports by Premium Times.
