Boko Haram, world’s deadliest, says Arthur-Worrey

• ‘Negotiation is a one step solution to terrorism’

The Executive Director of the Lagos State Trust Fund, Mr. Fola Arthur-Worrey, is one of the most intelligent minds in Nigeria today. It was under him that the Lagos State Security Trust fund flourished, leading to many police formations becoming equipped.
 Arthur-Worrey was recently the guest speaker at the Crime Reporters Association of Nigeria’s (CRAN) annual lecture/award series, held at the Police Officers’ Wives Association (POWA) Multi-Purpose Hall, Oduduwa Police Station, Ikeja, Lagos State. Delivering a paper titled: ‘Practical steps to combatting Terrorism in Nigeria,’ Arthur-Worrey said that terrorism in Nigeria is the world’s deadliest.

According to him, the Nigerian military cannot win the war on terrorism without the help of the police and the Department of State Services (DSS). Arthur-Worrey, who advised the Federal Government to save money in fighting terrorism by dissolving all non-essential ministries, added that the duplication of similar security agencies in the country was counterproductive. His words: “We must strengthen the bond among the security agencies to win this war on terrorism.
Nigeria must never dialogue with terrorists as the United States of America never negotiated, but apprehended Osama Bin-laden. Our intelligence gathering must be so sophisticated that we should know what Abubakar Shekau and his men are doing at their camp in Sambisa forest. Terror war should be a collective responsibility, involving even the religious groups.
Hence, there should be an inter-community collaboration among the citizens.” Arthur-Worrey who strongly believed the Federal Government has not done enough in the ongoing war against terrorism, argued that the Petroleum Trust Fund should be directed towards fighting insurgency.
Explaining his reason for stating Boko Haram is the world’s deadliest, Arthur Worrey said: “According to a report by Maplecraft, a British risk consultancy, over the past 12 months, global deaths from terrorism has risen 30 percent compared to the previous five year average. Significantly, while Iraq had endured the highest number of attacks in the last year with 3, 158 incidents, terrorism in Nigeria is the world’s deadliest, recording the highest number of deaths per attack, with an average of 24. And this does not include deaths of soldiers on the battlefield.”
He said that in the report cited by Reuters news agency, the number of people killed in insurgent attacks worldwide, jumped more than 60 percent last year to a record high of nearly 18,000 and the figure could rise, due to an escalation of conflict in the Middle East and Nigeria. “According to the report by the Australian-US based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEC), the four most active militant groups are Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, now named Islamic State, Nigeria’s Boko Haram, the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and transnational Al-Qaeda networks,” said Arthur-Worrey.
“This is no doubt, a growing problem and though the causes are complex, these four groups responsible for most of the deaths have their roots in fundamentalist Islam. Increased targeting of police and the army by the militants groups makes managing the problem, even harder, sometimes fuelling rights abuses that compound existing grievances.”
Arthur-Worrey, who said there are no practical solutions to terrorism in Nigeria, said he would rather prefer to look at practical steps to combatting terrorism in Nigeria. He noted that militant groups which ceased their activity since 2000, did so following negotiations, adding that only 10 percent achieved their goals, while only 7 percent were eliminated by military action.
He said: “My views on negotiation with groups such as we have in the North West, is that negotiation will only work when the Nigerian Security forces have degraded the enemy enough to force them to the negotiating table.” He urged the Nigerian forces not to give the insurgents the impression that, “we are negotiating because we’re tired of the fight or to score political points.”
He advised that the Nigerian Government should be very deliberate in its approach and properly set out a definable strategy and resources that strategise with everything it has. He said that any other approach to stem terrorism aside from negotiation might be a sheer waste of time. His words: “Any other approach is like fighting a serious battle on a wing and prayer.” Arthur-Worrey further noted that the military today, is not the national unit of the past. He said that military rule destroyed its ethics and its professionalism. According to him, emphasis on regime security, meant that any branch of the armed forces considered a potential coup enabler was weakened, denied support and left to fall into decline.
He added: “That’s what happened after the alleged Vatsa/Martin Luther coup when the air force was implicated in a plot to bomb Dodan barracks. Indeed, the last major retooling of the armed forces occurred under Shagari. Under the military, mechanized and armoured divisions were considered threats and were not maintained or strengthened. Only the president’s personal battalion was supported so that it could resist attempted coups.
“The police and the intelligence services were stripped of their intelligence capability and their communication systems were dismantled. I can say with knowledge that no attempt has ever been made since then to build a modern nationwide police communication network. If not for the efforts of states, we wouldn’t even have a functioning police force.”
He said: “I want to stress that the cutting edge of any real attempt to fight terrorism is the police, and the intelligence services, in our case is the DSS. Their orientation, training and spread make them eminently suited to the intelligence gathering aspect of the war, and it is essentially an intelligence war.
“Remember that we are fighting two strands in this battle; the suicide bomber who strikes in urban centres far away from battle fields and the insurgent who faces the military directly. Both strands are important because one strikes fear and the other undermine the nation’s territorial integrity. Intelligence will narrow the window of opportunity for suicide bombers and allow the army to be more proactive than reactive.”
Chairman of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, who was also the special guest at the event, urged Nigerians to show patriotism, adding that the Federal Government should bring the spate of terrorism ravaging the country under control.
The Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, who was represented by Mrs. Idowu Alakija, advised Nigerians to always be security conscious. CRAN President, Comrade Christopher Oji, said the event would afford heads of security agencies in the country, an opportunity to proffer solutions to the current security challenges, especially the ones posed by insurgents. Other dignitaries at the lecture included the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2, Umar Manko and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Cornelius Aderanti.