2nd July, 2012
Tony Nyiam, a retired army colonel and one of the brains behind the 1990 coup against the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, speaks about the wrong notions about the office of the National Security Adviser, why its new occupant will have it tough and how to handle the Boko Haram menace
Would it be right to expect a lot from the new National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki?
I must begin by congratulating the new NSA, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, for taking up this job. However, I don’t envy him because expectations of him are really high. But then, there are misconceptions about what the NSA’s job is. To start with, the NSA is not the chief security officer of the nation; it is the President, who is the commander-in-chief and head of the nation’s security network. The NSA is neither the chief of the intelligence community nor is he the nation’s spymaster, as many have presumed. The misconception arose because of the long reign of Aliyu Gusau, a veteran intelligence officer, as NSA. There is also the misconception that the person holding the office shouldn’t be too visible or heard at all. That is wrong. The NSA isn’t the chief of operations of our national security network, however important the office is. A situation whereby a policymaker is involved in operation breeds corruption and compromise, because a policy formulator is only expected to monitor the implementation of the policies being made. A policymaker represents the elected civil authority.
Having said that, what then is the function of the NSA? As is obvious from the self-explicit appellation, the NSA’s role is principally advisory. The NSA is in charge of personal security strategy and policy; monitors and ensures the implementation of security policies; advises the President on matters relating to the co-ordination of the entire external and internal security and defence management and the impact of international policy on the nation; presents routine security reports, called executive summary in business, to the president; and promotes a sense of national security that underpins a cohesive national security culture and improved security direction.
The NSA is the interface between the elected civilian authority and national security agencies. He must, therefore, be learned in national security studies so as to be able to translate the technical language of security experts to both the elected civilian authority and security agencies. In other words, he must be one who understands the language of politicians in order to function effectively as an interface. Who then is qualified to be the country’s NSA? I must state that someone like Dr. Kayode Fayemi is fit for the position, because he is trained in that field and has a PhD in Strategic Studies. We also have the likes of Dr. Tom Imobighe, who is the Director of Strategic Studies at the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies; and, of course, a veteran like Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, former Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs. We also have Mrs. Margaret Vogt, who is in the United States now. There is also Professor Atte and General Ajibade, who was once at the Directorate of Military Intelligence, and to be fair, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, who equally has training in Security Studies from the George Westown University, USA
The NSA must have a strong Applied Social Science background. Those who have occupied the position before in the US are Dr. Henry Kissinger, a historian, 1969-1975; Professor Zbiegniew Brezinski, 1977-1981; General Colin Powell, 1987-1989; and this woman that has a strong academic with security background, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, 2001-2005.
Whoever occupies the office is supported by think-tanks. In the US, there are agencies which collaborate with the office. In the United Kingdom, they have what they call the United Service History, where retired military officers function as advisers to the office. We should also have defence centres that would be given grants and funded by the NSA’s office to carry out research studies. We should, like America did post- 9/11, create the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, whose duty will be the coordination of the activities of all the security networks.
The NSA doesn’t have the office equipped with the facilities required to do all of what we erroneously think he should do. For that to be achieved, you need to have a command centre, a national data base, etc.
The NSA once claimed that his office was being fed information by the State Security Service, Directorate of Military Intelligence, Joint Task Force, etc. ….
If they feed him at all, then it should be information to improve policy formulation and monitoring and sourcing of information. But when it comes to operations, it is the Directorate of Military Intelligence, like it is done in the US, that should take charge. It is the duty of the DMI to coordinate and manage information-gathering in the various departments. An NSA would be over-burdened if he has to attend the NEC meetings weekly, as well as do other things, and still has to face the task of coordinating national intelligence. Secondly, it also interferes with funding because if he is the one given the money to fund the operations of the agency, he may decide not to.
The misconception of what the roles of the NSA should be is responsible for the too many expectations people have. The implication of this is evidenced in the belief that the operation to rein in the Boko Haram insurgency must be combative without intellectual input. I align with Reverend Father Matthew Kukah’s statement that the handwriting was on the wall, but people weren’t able to read it. And the handwriting in this sense is that it’s more pragmatic to deal with the issue politically. It is important that government heed the yearning of the Boko Haram sect, which is simply self-determination and their right in a federalism. Though I don’t support the way and manner the Boko Haram has carried on, I believe that we should address their demands. Because all other venues of venting their grievances had been blocked, they consequently resorted to violence. Their leader was captured and killed extra-judiciously and so also were many of their members. Shehu Sani said that people pretend as though they didn’t know what the sect is fighting for. But I think what they are fighting for isn’t different from that of the Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, though the latter is more civilised in its approach, or the agitation of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Biafra, MASSOB, or the Niger Delta militants. But perhaps because of the temperament of the sect, they have demonstrated their own grievance against the state in the most uncivilised manner. It is a distortion of their professed ideals and basis for agitation. If I were them, I would rather go after people like those who looted the Pension funds, those involved in the fuel subsidy scam and those stealing the people’s money, rather than harmless Christians or Muslims. I was surprised to hear the Senate President David Mark condemn the sect without realising that the National Assembly ought to urge the President to address the issue of their self-determination, which is what is at stake and one of the fundamentals of Federalism. Whatever any regime change or change of personnel, if the matter isn’t addressed, we will continue to have the problems we face presently.
Is Boko Haram’s demand more of self-determination than Islamisation of the country, which is written in their manifesto?
Shehu Sani, in his interview, has told the sect that it is dreaming if its ambition is to Islamise Nigeria. I have often said that it is a dream for anybody to think he can Christianise or Islamise Nigeria. As a strategy to understanding what the Boko Haram people really want, I found out that what they really want is self-determination, which is the right of any nation or part of a nation existing in a federal system. In federalism, constituent units are entitled to be autonomous despite being part of a Federation. So, if the sect says it wants the implementation of the Sharia Law in the North East and North West zones, then they are asking for their right. What government ought to do is to ensure that due process is followed in addressing such issues. Government should look at the prerequisites for it to be done and its impact on relations with others. In that case, government can not have a two-way talk involving it and the sect only, but an encompassing one.
I believe it is a logical option for us to return to the former six regional federating units, with all the political and economic autonomy required. Just the same way we have misconceived what the function of the NSA is, so also are our misconceptions about federalism. We claim there are other levels of government–namely, state and local governments–but they are not autonomous governments in the true sense of the word. Part of the primary functions of a government is to make laws and have the ability to enforce the laws, but we can’t say it is a government, where that is absent. Unlike in the UK where local governments have their own police, Nigeria doesn’t have such. We have carried on with a colonial mentality that derides and corrupts the idea of self-determination. We tend to view agitation for self-determination as a rebellion, but it is not. It simply means the expression of how a group of people choose or wish to live.
For instance, in the US, some states have the capital punishment as part of their laws, while some don’t. The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo has stated the essence of Federalism expressly in one of his books. Federalism is a system that though, preserves and recognises the diversity of the people, yet fosters unity. It is an ambivalence that fosters unity in diversity. The first thing the politicians should have done was to restore proper federalism in Nigeria and then give us a new Constitution. As we speak, we have an illegitimate Constitution, because it was one that came into existence via military decree. It is a lie that the people consented to give unto themselves that Constitution. Which people consented? Was it the Hausa/Fulani or the Boko Haram people that consented? And granted that the Constitution was a creation of the military, it wasn’t subjected to a referendum through which people could express their wish.
Even in Egypt, where the Constitution would emanate from a ruling military government, referendum would still be done to know what the people’s opinions on it are. A constitution that isn’t subjected to a plebiscite is illegitimate, because it isn’t owned by the people. The pedestrian argument we hear is that there can’t be a national conference because there is a National Assembly. Even in the UK, there will be a referendum in September to determine who wants to opt out or remain in the union. Despite being the oldest parliament in the world, the British parliament still allows referendums and national conferences. Nigerian politicians are averse to this because they know that many of them will not be eligible to contest, if the proper system is put in place.
The Boko Haram insurgency has succeeded so far in places where it has bases because they enjoy the support of the locals in those communities. The case will be different if they tried to do same, for instance, in the eastern parts of the country, because people will squeal on them and they will be caught. I once attended a conference with Tanko Yakassai, Tony Uranta and others and we found out that many of the northern emirs consider their domains unsafe and stay in Kaduna, Abuja and Lagos. There are senators who can’t even go home. As Nigerians, we must respect one another and then begin to reason together.
How much of Sambo do you know?
I have known Sambo Dasuki since 1971 and as a student in the United Kingdom in those days, I used to stay in Ikoyi with Sambo any time I returned home for the holidays. In sharing his goodwill, I can say that Sambo does more to southerners than northerners. Sambo and Aliyu Gusau are of same breed, because Gusau also has friends all over. To a certain level, Sambo is someone who is acceptable to the northerners and that may be an added advantage in carrying out his job. Secondly, Sambo comes from a popular family. So it may be easier for him to reach out to people.
But it is not that simple. We seem to be forgetting that the Boko Haram people are also fighting something like a class war. So, Sambo has a lot of marriages to do by mending the cracks, bringing the talakawas and the upper class together. Insurgencies are strategic and could ground the nation’s economy. The NSA must reach out to all aggrieved people. I don’t believe that the Boko Haram sect can’t be reached, but not in the manner government handled earlier discussions with them. You don’t hold meetings with serious people and at the same time trivialise it by making the details of the meeting public. The people feel very offended by that and anyone who knows insurgents would know that they don’t like people who don’t keep to agreements.
But the result of the meeting between Boko Haram and former president Olusegun Obasanjo was the killing of one of the group’s members?
One name that has continued to recur is Dr. Datti Ahmed and I think government should go for him. If negotiations between the government and the sect could be handled with respect, covertly and properly, devoid of people and things that tend to earn cheap political gains at the expense of the objectives of such meeting, then there could be a way forward. A lot of people have been dabbling into it to either make money or cheap publicity and that is what the Boko Haram doesn’t like. So, I am saying that negotiations should start and government must be ready to listen to them. An insurgency is a heart and mind thing. No one read the minds of the insurgents and listened to their background whisperings. What we hear is that Boko Haram wants to Islamise the country, but that is just the information being put out. The main issue is self-determination. We got the whole thing wrong from the beginning, starting with the misconception about the role of the NSA.
How have the deficiencies of President Goodluck Jonathan compounded security challenges, especially in tackling the Boko Haram sect?
The issue is not whether one has a military background or not. It is basically whether one is capable or not. People tend to forget that the strategy that won the civil war for Nigeria was from the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The actions he took and the time he took them, like changing the currency, made General Yakubu Gowon to win the war. These were civilians and yet their contributions were invaluable in winning the war. It doesn’t really matter whether one is a military man or not, because in some cases you may even have a military man that may not be effective. Rather than focusing on the man, we should try and build institutions. Institutions are determined by the supporting structures, like an acceptable Constitution, and then good leadership.
The real problem facing the country is lack of an enabling structure for anybody to function. Even if you bring President Barack Obama here to govern, he may not function effectively. Even Nigerians are becoming increasingly worried that something has to be done. What should be done now is organising a national conference and giving the people an acceptable Constitution. The message that should be passed to the National Assembly is that if they so insist on reviewing the Constitution, which isn’t their job, they must subject whatever they arrived at to a referendum.
You said it is imperative to negotiate with the Boko Haram sect, but what will be the option if the negotiation fails?
I will answer with the case of the IRA in Northern Ireland case. The British government kept discussing with the IRA. You have to negotiate, because every conflict ends at the negotiation table. My point is that the Boko Haram people are Nigerians and from all evidence, the community in which they live, the leaders who collect money on their behalf, have not particularly shown love to them, to the people generally. Though I hate what the Boko Haram sect is doing, it is an example of what people could do when they are driven to the wall. I have also faced injustice.
In a situation where people vote in an election and their votes do not count, the elections are rigged and the voters can’t even get justice in the courts, then they will be left with no choice than to confront the corrupt leadership. Poverty arises as, mostly and in the case of Nigeria particularly, an effect of bad leadership.
How have you been relating with General Ibrahim Babangida?
Cordially. Babangida himself has realised the mistake he made and I have also realised the mistake I made. Babangida and I have realised no one can oppress the other. So, we both have learnt lessons.