Nigeria needs new security architecture, says Ekhomu

Ekhomu

Private security expert and Chief Executive of Transworld Security, Dr. Ona Ekhomu says that the administration of General Muhammadu Buhari needs new security architecture in Nigeria. In this interview with JULIANA FRANCIS, Ekhomu insists that whatsoever kind of security design is on ground presently, is not working, stressing that the media and populace should be incorporated into the security mainframe.  

What’s President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration greatest security achievement?

I think it’s the containment of the northeast insurgency. When the insurgency went bad, they grabbed a lot of territories. We were able to rebound and recover lost territories. Boko Haram war has not been won, but he was able to contain it.

Would you say that Boko Haram was Jonathan’s greatest challenge?

Yes! It was his biggest threat and biggest threat to this country. It claimed over 20,000 lives. It disrupted the economy, displaced population and brought the country to the level of ridicule. The idiotic manner it was handled, when they were being handled with kid gloves, gave room for it to blow into full insurgency. This Boko Haram has been on for long. It started during the Obasanjo administration; as far back as 2002. Back then, they weren’t a terrorist threat. They hadn’t taken to violence.

By 2009, they turned to violence during Yardua’s administration. The decision Yardua made in telling General Maina to go and crush Boko Haram in Maiduguri and destroy railway quarters was a very bad decision. That was what made them mad and this is where we find ourselves today.

Nigerians soldiers were being killed every day by Boko Haram and it was like nobody could stop them. Then it was time for election campaign and suddenly Jonathan did a magic? What took him so long?

I believe that the politics of the election chipped in. The type of names the political opponents started calling him was part of it. They said he was weak and clueless. It got him angry. APC succeeded in making Boko Haram a PDP problem, whereas it wasn’t. When they challenged Jonathan, he had to do something; where he had vacillated and showed cowardice, he got angry and said this was going to end.  It was however what we called, too little, too late. Ordinary, common people were told that Jonathan didn’t want to fight Boko Haram. They were scripted. This was part of the reason he lost the election in a big way. This same people forget that it was the same Jonathan that came round and rescued them from Boko Haram. The political labeling they gave him, finally forced him to act.

So you think the name calling spurned him on?

There are certain things we need to keep in mind. The lack of equipment for the military forces for many decades didn’t help the fight. We saw a situation when they attacked Giwa Barracks; a tank was positioned there and it was meant to blow away the bad guys since there was intelligence that they were coming. When the tank was fired by the military, it exploded on them. They had antiquated equipment. We had evil people importing nonsense as military hardware into this country. This people should be identified and tried for putting our soldiers at risk. Many government didn’t bother to renew military equipment and many Ministers of Defence got rich on the military. I remembered that during Obasanjo’s administration, he was the Minister of Defence. He didn’t buy anything for the military.

Which president bought equipment for the military last?

It was President Shehu Shakagari who last equipped the military. Right from Buhari to Jonathan, nobody equipped the military. They didn’t have good stuff to fight with. Meanwhile, the enemy had equipment from Libya. They were using modern terrorists’ equipment to fight. Our soldiers were using AK47 rifles, while the enemy was using ‘Double A’ equipment.  AK47 effect range is less than 100metres. ‘Double A’ can go for two miles. Once they know where the Nigerian Troops were, they would fire Double A into their midst and then came in fighting with AK47 rifles. Our soldiers were outclassed. When our soldiers were equipped and with the combination of air power, we could see them down. We went to America to ask for combo-attack aero copters, they turned their noses at us. Boko Haram is twin brothers of ISIS.

I understand that mercenaries are winning the Boko Haram war for us, not our soldiers

That’s not true! That’s a very uncharitable comment. People say all kinds of stupid things. They said it to disparage our military and Jonathan. It’s very unfortunate. I keep saying to people when they take this attitude; okay, in about five days, there would be a new president, I’ll see if you’ll go and get a new military.

That’s a good one!

Do you understand? That’s stupid! Military is the last line of defence for the whole country, including you and myself. This is called the tides of war. It’s up and down. It’s the same military people had been abusing that came back and won the war. Look, yes, they brought in some foreign guys, but they also brought in a lot of equipment. Our troops needed somebody to show them how to use the equipment. You remember the Americans came to Nigeria, but later left in anger.

Why did they get angry and leave?

They got angry because they wanted us to withdraw our troop, so that they could come and check out their equipment or something, I really don’t know, but some unholy things we just didn’t want to do. Our guys said no, we couldn’t do that. We’re fighting a war! Why should your training mission be more important than our war? If you really need to teach us, come to the frontline with us. After all, they are the ones accusing us of committing human right abuses. They didn’t come. They said it wasn’t their mandate. They carried their equipment and left. I was very proud of the Nigerian soldiers.

You mentioned lack of equipment before… (Cuts in)

The senate approved one billion of foreign loans for us to acquire the equipment. That was how they were able to pay for that stuff. Now, for the sourcing of the stuff, they had to go to Russian and China because the Americans’ bluntly refused. Even when the Israelis wanted to sell to us, the Americans directed them not to sell to us. Western world generally refused to sell to us. They wanted us to…let me not go into that. The fact is that they didn’t sell. The Americans however came out to say they refused to sell because the Human Rights Watch said that soldiers were killing people in thousands.

When you mentioned lack of equipment and soldiers and people that had died, the first thing that came to mind was the soldiers being charged for mutiny. They were like sent on suicide mission. What’s the moral justification in condemning them to death?

The Nigerian Army Act says that if you refused an order, you should be court-martialed. Yes, you’re right, we had insufficiency of equipment. Many people fought battle against Boko Haram and won. Look at the battle of Mubi. A few Boko Haram fighters, less than 100, came and drove away thousands of troops. Isn’t that stupid? I guess it was because there were some people in the army who didn’t believe in the fight and didn’t want to follow the orders of the government and saw the military high commander as an extension of the Federal Government. It’s known in military tradition all over the world, that if you lose a military objective, you could be court martial and sacked, it’s as simple as that!  Why should it be different in Nigeria? Is it because we are Nigerians? Let them shoot them! By the time they shoot a few of them, they’ll know that soldiering is not a tea party. When you go in there, you’re going there with your life in your hands. When your commander tells you to stand here and fight, you stand there and fight until you die! It’s part of it. That’s why we give them heroes celebration. If they don’t honour the tradition of soldiering, then people will not honour them as soldiers.

You mean like fallen heroes?

Yes! Fallen heroes! That’s why we stand and bow before them and do everything for them. In America, people leave queues for soldiers to go and get what they want. People stand and clap for them. They believe in what their soldiers are doing for them. They know they don’t have any other persons to fight for them except the troops.  But when we start disparaging them, we’ll soon have thugs, criminals and militants becoming soldiers. By then you would see the kind of military we would have. I’m very proud of the military high command for maintaining such high standard and insisting that if you didn’t do the right thing, you should be punished for it. And if the punishment included capital punishment, so be it! Let them take the bullets and die like heroes. Better to die like a hero.

What can Buhari administration do to better security in Nigeria?

They have to prioritise security in the country. We’ve been able to push back the Boko Haram from territories they are holding. They’ve changed their strategy from suicide bombing and all kinds of criminal explosions. They’ve gone back to guerrilla warfare. That’s going to continue for a while. It’s not a good news I’m sorry, but it’s going to continue for a while. We thank God that Jonathan has been able to push back them into Sambisa Forest. There’s a lot of progress in Sambisa, leading to rescue of over 2000 women and children, even though most of the women are pregnant for the Boko Haram fighters.

What about kidnapping and extrajudicial killings in the police?

Extrajudicial killings in police? I’m not aware of that or any incident of such. I know of cultists’ killings in Edo State and kidnapping in southeast, but I’m not aware of extrajudicial killings. Can you give me one instance?

In police force, detainees disappear from custody

We know that allegations of such abound, but are you aware of any such incident?

Of course sir!

When you said it, it’s like something that is occurring. Extrajudicial killing is when a policeman at a check point shoots a bus conductor for not giving him N20.

Yes, I know

What I’m saying is that we know what extrajudicial killing is, but this one that you’re saying is about people disappearing in police custody. Those things are mere allegations. We have to have cases. If you ask why I said Boko Haram is not going anywhere, I would tell you that in the last two weeks, almost every day, there had been one terrorist attack or the other. That establishes that there is clear and present danger. Kidnapping is still ongoing. Here in Lagos, a lot of kidnapping is going on and it’s widely unreported. I don’t know why. We need to have new security architecture. Whatever it is we are doing right now, it’s not working! We need new thinking to come into policing and security of this country, such that we can revive up the productivity of law enforcement personnel, intelligence personnel and certainly military personnel, so that the three of them can work in tandem. We also need to look at civilian security outfit. Like vigilance group, private security agencies as a complement to the national security. We also need to look at other groups like civil society organisations and the media, partnering with security agencies in terms of promoting security information and security awareness.

Media and security awareness?

Yes, if we have a security conscious populace, that’s the way to defeat terrorism, kidnapping and bombing. We need a populace that is aware. And that awareness doesn’t fall from the sky. Somebody has to get the message together and articulate and disseminate it. That’s where the media comes in. This way, our people can get security information and become part of the security architecture. Security is everybody’s business. People in police, navy and soldiers are the same, all involve in security.They just play different roles.

What is the role for the citizenry?

This is where the political leadership comes in. It’s their job to articulate that role and project it, so that it would be accepted by majority of the people. Let me tell you why your interview and questions are so important. We keep saying oil is drying, but what is likely to take the place of oil and still gives us enough money?

Tourism! But why can’t tourism thrive in Nigeria? It’s because of so many things, chief of which is insecurity. Every time one person is kidnapped, one is robbed, there is a bombing somewhere, you’re making a strong statement of insecurity. Foreigners don’t know the different between Lagos and other places.

The white man will say bomb explodes in Nigeria; they don’t know and don’t care where northeast is located. When I go to America and I’m leaving, they would start feeling sorry for me. They would say, oh you’re going to that place where they are bombing and killing people. I’m saying that tourism which is supposed to bail us out in this period of oil drop is not going to take place until and unless, security problem is solved. So that people can arrived at the Murtala Muhammed Airport and easily get a taxi. The tourist will say that he or she wants to go to Badagry to see the slave post; the driver would drive the person to Badagry without the tourist being robbed or kidnapped. A lot of these problems are as a result of poor social organisations. We are not organised in our society.  It starts right from that airport. The number of agencies, the number of thugs. And when you disembarked, all the taxi drivers in the world would be shouting, taxi! Taxi! There are some that would deep hand into your pocket and pick your wallet. It’s so terrible. Meanwhile, I go all over the world and there’s a taxi line.

If your relatives are waiting for you, they would be waiting at another place and if it’s taxi, there’s a sign where taxis are parked. You come out and take the first taxi on the line. The driver asks you where you are going; he takes you, in a civilized manner. No sea of people milling around. Can you imagine that in these days of Boko Haram and bomb blast, you see people being allowed to bring their vehicles right down to the arrival hall?