Henry Umahi
Renowned security expert, Dr Ona Ekhomu, has urged the Federal Government to stop denying the reality of Nigeria’s security problems, but to seek profound solutions to them. He pointed out that the country is currently under invasion by hoodlums.
How would you describe the state of the nation in terms of insecurity?
The insecurity in the country is quite troubling. The threats are grave, the threats are wide spread. Sometime ago, we had threats only in the Northeast. We had threats localized in the Niger Delta, but now it’s everywhere even in places where we never saw such threats. Bandits kidnap people, rape and sodomised them, kill some and do all manner of things to them on a national scale. That is the difference. It is not that it hadn’t been happening. We’ve had kidnappings in the Southeast and South-south. They attempted to kidnap me in Edo, my own state, and I got shot, but those were localized incidences. We know that from the presence of military/police (JTF) operations in 34 states of the country, it means that security is bad. When the soldiers go back to their barracks, that means security is good. So, the state of security or insecurity in the country is quite grave. The threats are broad; they are everywhere. Frankly, this country does not look good right now.
I just returned from the United States few weeks ago, but for the three months I was there, all the people or groups that I spoke with had only one thing in mind – insecurity. People are afraid of being kidnapped if they come back home. A lot of Nigerians, who want to come to this country and spend their money here, are afraid of coming home. People are missing home, but they can’t come. There is Nigerianness in the blood; Nigeria has a way it pulls you. Our isi ewu, nkwobi and the rest of them have a way they tie you to this land. When you are away, it’s like you are suffering. People want to come back; they want to invest. They want to be part of this system, but insecurity is keeping them. It is that bad. Even if they are suffering abroad, they prefer to remain there because at least they won’t be killed. That’s the difference.
How did we get to this ugly pass?
If I just reflect on what is happening now, I will say we got to this sorry pass because of denial. There is huge problem of insecurity in the land, there is rising spate in violent, targeted attacks, there is killing everywhere, blood is running on the streets, but we are being told that nothing is wrong after all we’ve always had crime in Nigeria. Of course, we’ve always had crime in Nigeria, but the difference now is that it is everywhere in the country. No place is safe; there is no place to hide, so to say. After awhile, it will overwhelm the authorities and they won’t be able to cope any more. That’s the fear. The way we got to this sorry pass is that we have been in denial. President Goodluck Jonathan was in denial when Boko Haram was raging. It was later that he discovered that it was existential threat. Meanwhile, as far back as 2010, when I saw a few attacks, at a lecture at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos, I gave an assessment that this is a problem that will not go away in five years unless we tackle it immediately. I still have the paper I delivered at that conference organized by Prof Akinteriwa. NIIA is an agency of the Federal Government, so when you finish the conferences they pass the papers to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is assumed that the ministry will send it to the presidency. If they had looked into that my intelligence assessment then and reacted appropriately, I would have told them what we should do. But instead, Jonathan was in denial. They said that Boko Haram were little boys and all that. And that is what I see even in President Muhammadu Buhari. He is in great denial. I will call it leadership dishonesty. What I mean by that is that a situation where people are being killed and we carry on as if nothing is happening. In some countries, if one person dies in an act of violence, the whole world will join to mourn. I remember the attack in Paris in January 2015. That same day, Boko Haram killed 2000 people in Baga, Jonathan sent condolence message to Hollande in France, but denied that 2000 Nigerians died. They formed a carped of dead bodies that people were trudging over in Baga 2. France did not send any condolence to us on account of the death of 2000 of our citizens. America did not send us any condolence. Nobody sent us a condolence because we were denying that it happened. We did not even admit to the fact that we had a mass casualty situation here. Hundreds of troops died in that attack, but we didn’t acknowledge it. Yet, it is documented history. It is there that all those people were killed needlessly. When you have a situation whereby every day they kill so many people in Katsina and Zamfara and elsewhere, and we say it’s just bandits. We are under invasion. We’ve been invaded by the jihadists, the Malians, matching our way. They’ve been matching South and East ward direction. They are following the Sahelien route or zone. It’s not their fault; they have to survive. They have a story. They have no house, no land. Now, they have found abode in Nigerian forests. That is why it has become so bad; it has become so violent. These are hardened fighters.
Do you think that this government can handle the situation?
Of course, they can handle it. The Nigerian military is not rivaled anywhere on this continent. Our law enforcement is weak, but the military is very virile. But they are told to fight a battle with their hands tied behind their back. The other day I said that the Immigration is a primary security agency; it is not just about visa and issuing work permit. It is about border patrol, the front line because of the threat. The threat to Nigeria now is not people coming to take executive jobs from us. The threat is the frontline; Jihadists are marching into the country and what are we doing about it? We are under funding the Immigration. We are focusing on things that are not important. We have to have a focus on the existential threats of killing Nigerians right now. Our national budget is shrinking in dollars or constant monies terms compared to smaller countries. Investments are flying away from the land. Even our own people are not coming to invest because of fear of getting killed, robbed or raped. I know a family from Edo State that came here in 2017 and were very excited about the homecoming. But their father was kidnapped and they swore that they would never set foot on the African continent again, not to talk of Nigeria because of what they went through. It is the same herdsmen militia from the forests that did it. It is the same people terrorizing the country.
The earlier we stop denying the reality of our security problem and start seeking profound solution, the better for us. When you get to election time do politics. After election, do governance. That is it. We cannot be doing politics with governance. Governance is providing service to the people and the number one service as provided in our constitution is security and welfare. Let them give us security.