Nigeria@63: Dealing with insecurity and reinforcing Nigeria’s security architecture

Joel Oladele, Abuja

Since 1960, October 1 has remained and will continue to be a significant day in the history of Nigeria. It represents the day the most populous black nation gained independence from British colonialism.

Nigerians since then have set aside the day to celebrate the liberty of their sovereign nation, earned through selfless sacrifices of many heroes past.

Like the biblical Israelites, the country has left Egypt but seems not arrived at its promised land as it has been wandering in the wilderness full of various challenges. Top on the list of such challenges is insecurity.

Well-meaning Nigerians have been gravely concerned about the issue of insecurity in the country as they keep wondering how we arrived at this level, where no one is safe and efforts by different administrations to put a stop to the ugly trend has not yielded any significant result, rather it seems escalating and now totally out of control.

None among the six geo-political zones in the country is spared as they all contend with one form or multiple forms of insecurity.

The security challenges that cut across the nation include, cybercrime, armed robbery, kidnapping, extrajudicial killings, herder-farmer conflicts, ritual killings, banditry, secessionist agitation, attacks by unknown gunmen, militancy, Boko Haram insurgency, the Islamic State in West Africa Province, ethno-religious killings among others.

These have led to loss of thousands of lives, extensive damage and loss of property.

According to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), Nigeria (8.065) is currently the 8th most terrorised country among 163 nations in the world. Even Myanmar (7.977) and the Niger Republic (7.616) fared better than Nigeria in the GTI.

Nigeria was better than Afghanistan (8.822), Burkina Faso (8.564), Somalia (8.463), Mali (8.412), Syria (8.161), Pakistan (8.16) and Iraq (8.139).

GTI is a composite measurement made up of four indicators: incidents, fatalities, injuries and hostages. To measure the impact of terrorism, a five-year weighted average is applied.

No doubt, a more holistic approach is required to address the root causes of conflicts and agitations in the country.

In his inaugural speech, President Tinubu promised to make security a top priority because development could not take place without it.

“Security shall be the top priority of our administration because neither prosperity nor justice can prevail amidst insecurity and violence. To effectively tackle this menace, we shall reform both our security doctrine and its architecture.

“We shall invest more in our security personnel, and this means more than an increase in number. We shall provide better training, equipment, pay and firepower,” the President vowed.

As part of efforts to fulfill the promise made, President Tinubu, on June 1, ordered Service Chiefs and heads of security and intelligence agencies to crush criminals and anyone involved in oil theft, saying that his administration would not tolerate criminality.

He stated this in his maiden official meeting with Security and intelligence heads led by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Before Tinubu took over, insecurity had claimed 98,112 lives in 12 years; 27,311 persons under the watch of former President Buhari in his first term; and 35,900 persons between 2019 and May 29, 2023.

To put a stop to this, the President Tinubu said he was going to embark on a lot of reforms in terms of security architecture, and mandated the security agencies to come up with a blueprint, and redouble their efforts because, as far as he is concerned “this country should not be on its knees struggling while other countries are working and achieving greater heights.”

Although there seems to be an improvement in the war against insecurity since President Bola Tinubu took over on May 29, 2023, many parts of Nigeria are still killing fields as bandits, terrorists, gunmen, armed herders, criminals and insurgents unleash terror and mayhem on hapless citizens killing and kidnapping for ransom and rituals.

According to Nigeria Security Tracker(NST), a project of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa programme, as of August 29, no fewer than 1,406 Nigerians had been killed. These include 94 deaths recorded between May 29 and 31, 690 (June), 415 (July) and 207 (as of August 28).

The 1,406 deaths between May and August 2023 are fewer than the 2,897 recorded between June and August 2015 during the first 100 days of immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The think tank states in its latest report titled ‘Understanding and Tackling Insecurity in Nigeria,’ which was released Monday, 7th November 2022, it stated that

“To overcome the widespread and growing insecurity within Nigeria’s borders, current military engagements should be sustained.

“But the nature, pattern and trend of security challenges confronting Nigeria cannot be dealt with efficiently using military power alone.

“Addressing only the manifestations of insecurity without tackling its drivers is akin to merely cutting off the tail of a dangerous snake while keeping intact its head and the rest of its body,” the report noted.

Allowing the prevailing security challenges to fester will hasten Nigeria’s slide to the league of failed states similar to the circumstances in Iraq and Syria.

Put together by a team of security experts, including those with service experience within and outside the country, the think tank report analysed the types as well as the drivers and manifestations of insecurity in Nigeria, if the recommendations from the report is duly followed, insecurity challenges in Nigeria might become a thing of the past.

Following from this, the report made short-, medium- and long-term recommendations on how to address the growing scourge which, it says, negatively impacts not just security of life and property in the country but also national cohesion, the capacity and the credibility of the state, economic growth, commerce, food production and education.

“Insecurity in Nigeria is multi-dimensional, as such, for any attempt at addressing the growing menace to be effective and sustainable, it needs to be holistic, deftly combining ‘hard’, military solutions with ‘soft’ approaches aimed at tackling the socio-economic underpinnings of conflict and crime. Insecurity does not thrive in a vacuum. Some factors are precursory to it. These are the environmental conditions that both kindle and nurture insecurity.”

Part of the drivers of insecurity in Nigeria includes as identified by experts are: Ineffective and inadequate security architecture, ineffective and insufficient criminal justice system, easy access to small arms and light weapons, the existence of porous borders, easy access to illicit drugs, prevalence of poverty and unemployment, impact of climate change, multiplication of unaddressed socio-political and economic grievances, poor land use policies, agitations over resource control, and failure to address structural and constitutional deficiencies.

To address the socio-economic underpinnings of conflicts and crimes, the report recommends a host of interventions. These include: reviewing the Land Use Act and other extant laws, providing targeted education and skills training to youths in conflict areas, prioritising dialogue and alternative conflict resolution mechanisms, strengthening legislative and judicial responses to ensure quick dispensation of justice, embracing the use of strategic communications to win the hearts and minds of the populace, addressing abuses by the security forces, controlling access to arms and drugs, and embracing a national healing process and ensuring reparations for victims of conflicts and abuses.

“The current security architecture of Nigeria may have once been effective in tackling the challenges at their time of institution,” the report states.

“However, the challenges across the country have evolved significantly. There are new domains of security threats, while smaller and largely benign groups have evolved into well-armed transnational insurgent groups.

“This means the security and defence structures that worked in prior dispensations are currently struggling to keep up with the evolved challenges. The need for a defence and security sector reform is imperative.”

According to the report, such a reform should start with a comprehensive and consultative audit of the missions, doctrines, training and staffing of all the military, paramilitary and other security forces and agencies in the country to ensure an alignment with current and future security threats.

The result of the audit, the report adds, should provide a guide to how to better streamline, resource, staff and coordinate security agencies in the country.

The outcome of the comprehensive reform should incorporate mechanisms for significant boost in the number of security personnel, increased focus on accountability, more respect for rules of engagement and monitoring and evaluation, and greater coordination of intelligence gathering and usage.

It also recommended the mop up and control of the flow of small arms and light weapons, recruitment of more women in the security forces and introduction of more gender-sensitive policies, regulation of irregular security outfits across the country, and the introduction of a dedicated border patrol force to contain the unchecked flow of arms and terrorists/bandits across the country’s extensive borders.

“We recommend the creation of a border guard force focused on providing border security, as the  current role is being performed by the Nigerian Customs Service which considers border security a secondary priority to its primary focus of revenue generation,” the report stated.

“Nigeria can look at examples such as the Border Security Force and the Frontier Force in India, the Pakistan Rangers in Pakistan, and the Border Security Agency in Malaysia, among others.”

Part of its recommendations was the use of private security contractors but in a specified and controlled manner.

“It is a known fact that Nigeria’s security personnel are overstretched due to the persistent and widespread nature of current security challenges. This deficiency has allowed insecurity to fester.

“To relieve the security forces and to enable significant efforts to be applied to degrade the threats, the government should consider inviting private security contractors as it was done shortly before the general election in 2015 and use them to confront armed banditry in the North-west and North-central regions.

“The engagement should be handled through the security forces to assuage concerns in some quarters that the private military contractors are an indication of the non-appreciation by the political class of the security forces’ contribution and sacrifice. Clear objectives and measurement parameters should be set and monitored closely.”

As Nigeria celebrate another Independence Day, the citizens are patiently waiting to see how the approach of President Bola Tinubu could transform the security architecture of the country, such that the country can yet again enjoy those good old days where people could travel any time of the day without the fear of kidnappers, terrorists, armed rubbers among others.

Days when citizens could leave their doors open and sleep peacefully with their two eyes closed without the fear of thieves breaking into their homes.

O God of creation, direct our noble cause, guide our leaders right…