The presidential lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 forced Nigerians to indulge in many hobbies. As for this writer, it afforded me ample opportunity to watch documentary films, especially investigative  videos, war films and animal world. The one that fascinated me most was the character and skillful strategies of predators. I took more time to watch and study the lion, known as the king of the jungle. After all, God admonished us in the Bible to learn and draw inspiration from the ants (Proverbs 6:6 ), “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” In other words, if  just by studying the ant one would be wise, then by studying a bigger animal one would be much more wiser.

Indeed, the lion is the epitome of age-long experience equipped with  strategic wisdom. The lion is a typical example of an animal that is intolerant of parasitic neighbours. Such parasitic neighbours abound in and around Nigeria. To curb the excesses of some western neighbours, the Nigerian government shut down our borders. Some other northern neighbours that provided safe heaven to a nagging enemy were Niger Republic and Chad. Over the years, the Boko Haram sect, after being rooted out of their headquarters in Sambisa, which is popularly known as “Ground Zero,” took refuge in Chad and Niger Republic and were carrying out attacks from those hideouts on Nigeria. This strategic style helped them to often destabilize Nigerian troops, making it impossible for a total showdown. This many a time resulted in painful casualties on both sides. In fact, their affiliation with the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorist group further exacerbated the war situation, with their abduction of several dozens of college students.

What fascinates me most is how the lion articulates and strategically plans and executes his plan decisively, with a photo-finish attack, by pouncing on its prey and finally goes for the jugular of its prey and ensures that life is completely snuffed out of it. That theory is today being replicated by the Nigerian Army, under the leadership of General Tukur Buratai. So, on April 11, 2020, the army chief resolved to relocate to Sector 4 of the war zone, which is the operational headquarters of 159 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, where Operation Lafia Dole is headquartered. This move was to further consolidate the achievements of the Joint Task Force based in Sector 2, along the Chadian and Lake Chad basin axis, after the morale-boosting visit of Chadian President ldriss Deby, who, being a former military man, encouraged the MNJTF troops into action that gave rise to a commendable victory over the Boko Haram fighters.

The sweetness and joy that followed made the Governor of Borno, Alhaji Babagana Zulum, and the Shehu of Borno to rush down to Aso  Rock, Abuja, despite the lockdown, flouting the president’s order, just to announce the joyous news about the new onslaught on the enemy by the newly improved Nigerian troops to Mr. President. Governor Zulum, who later spoke to State House correspondents, said the President promised to sustain the military tempo by ensuring that Boko Haram is totally eliminated for sustainable peace and development. Said the excited Governor, “After critically analyzing the situation, we both expressed the belief that time has come to once and for all put an end to the senseless acts of terror by Boko Haram and other criminal elements operating in the region.”

An excited President told the happy visitors, “This is the right time that the government of Nigeria and its leadership should do everything possible to support the MNJTF to be proactive enough to contain the situation, to deal with them decisively and see the end of the crisis so that they don’t occupy some other areas in the northern states.”

Such reassuring gesture is a double morale booster both to the soldiers and their commanders, including the Chief of Army Staff. The lion does not go back from hunting except it crowns its effort by dragging home  its exploits. One can, therefore, understand why Buratai insisted that he would not come back to Abuja until he sees the end of the war.  Many determinant factors help in ensuring the foreclosure of an asymmetrical war like the Boko Haram war. Each time the lion is out hunting, it watches and targets its prey. This is a strategy known today as intelligence gathering.

The Boko Haram war has tested various intelligence gathering methods, some have succeeded and some have failed woefully. Accurate intelligence gathering was responsible for the strategic elimination of Osama bin Laden, the  founder of the pan-Islamic militant organization al-Qaeda, on May 2, 2011, in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The same intelligence was responsible for the swift elimination of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and, recently, October 26-27, 2019, the United States conducted Operation Kayla Mueller, a military operation named after Kayla Mueller, that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the then leader and self-proclaimed “caliph” of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terror organisation.  Intelligence is key to many successful security operations.

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Simply explained, according to security understanding, “An intelligence gathering network is a system through which information about a particular entity is collected for the benefit of another through the use of more than one, inter-related source. Such information may be gathered by a military intelligence, government intelligence, or commercial intelligence network.” This informations is then analyzed for effective operational purpose.

In the early 1980s and ’90s, Nigeria Police officers like Simeon Midenda and Sam Okaula were still in Special Anti-Robbery Squad. It was intelligence that they deployed to arrest such notorious armed robbers like Shina Rambo, Tony Montana, and gruesome killers of Navy commodore Elegbede and the killer of Captain Lantana Oboh, first Nigerian female pilot. It was raw intelligence that helped Parry Osayande and CSP Kayode Unaroro to arrest most wanted armed robber Lawrence Anini.

The same intelligence helped the police to recover a Wema Bank bullion van full of money snatched by robbers. Also, when a cross-border armed robber Hannani Tijanni was terrorising  Nigerians, Tafa Balogun used a crack detective CP Amusa Bello to cage him.

Apart from intelligence gathering, there are  other tools needed to help enhance the operational effectiveness. It is unfortunate that the government is now arranging how to get more surveillance devices, cameras and other vital security gadgets that will be able to see distant attackers coming to the position of the Nigerian troops.

(To be continued)

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SECURITY FILE  commiserates with one of our ardent readers, the media officer of the EFCC, Mr. Tony Orilade, over the death of his beloved father, Chief. Francis Abiodun Bola Orilade, from Imoga village of Edo State, aged 85 years. He died on March 9, 2020. We pray that his soul rests in peace.