BOKO HARAM: BETWEEN OPERATION AND THE OPERATORS

Everyone wants to help Nigeria. It is good to help Nigeria. Nations that cannot help themselves should be helped by others. Stewart Patrick says so. He is an author, and a fellow at the US Council on Foreign Relations. “Failed states are mainly a threat to their own inhabitants. We should help them anyway.” So the European Union, EU, has taken up the challenge. After the latest series of bombings and shootings in Kano State, EU says the body will discuss how to address and support Nigeria’s security needs at its next ministerial meeting. United States of America is not left out -  its Nigerian-US bilateral Commission is battle ready to bring help Nigeria’s way.  And as for the Israelis, they beat their chest and make the loudest boast. “Today, terrorism is one of Nigeria’s biggest and immediate challenges. It is not a secret that Israel’s expertise can significantly help Nigeria in countering terrorism.” George Deek speaks for his country that time; he is Deputy Head of Mission, Israeli Embassy in Nigeria.

That a state fails in its responsibilities is one reason to offer it help. Officials here say Nigeria is as healthy as a fighting bull. There is no point quarrelling with that.  It is not unexpected. Unbiased umpires however say one sure way to know a healthy state is that it has a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within its borders, and that when this is broken through the dominant presence of warlords, paramilitary groups, or terrorism, the very existence of the state becomes dubious, and the state becomes a failed state. That the spate of terrorist attacks in Nigeria in the last two years has increased is a known fact.  Over time, the government has taken measures that are targeted at dealing with the incessant attacks. Consistently, the police force starts, but the army takes over. That is the case in Borno State, it is in Yobe, and the same goes for Plateau. Even long before the declaration of partial state of emergency in each of these states, the military had taken the front row from the police. But the matter has become such that the last time when Nigerians sang and danced on Lagos streets, protesting the removal of fuel subsidy, the army was also assigned the task of stopping them. And they carried out higher orders for days before they were eventually withdrawn. That, after series of expression of displeasure came from everyone, including the Lagos state governor who said the task of patrolling the streets, and dealing with civilians belongs to the police.    

This piece thus focuses on the police which should in the real sense of it be dealing with many of the internal security challenges confronting the nation, and should have nipped them in the bud before it got to this alarming point where the army comes into the picture. One characteristic of the attempt to deal with the security challenge in the nation is the constant thinking and rethinking of strategies, the allocation and reallocation of responsibilities on the part of the government. The sum total of this is that government jiggles both its own operational plan, as well as that of the security forces that would, under field conditions, deal with the terrorist threats. Some in the public space even offer counsel on how to go about this, counsels that amount to treating the symptom rather than the cause of an illness. In order to prevent the frequent attacks on police stations, for instance, one commentator says the police should no longer build stations so close to the road. So, the question may be asked: Who should erect structures close to the road and be better exposed to attacks from terrorists? Civilians whom the police should protect in the first place? Ordinary Nigerians know what police protection amounts to as the security situation stands in the country. This is one clear sign of the weakness of the nation’s police force. In the event, efforts of the government have essentially been concentrated on operational plans, yet the same police force, left unchanged in character and mode would implement the operational plan. Dealing with the nation’s security challenge goes beyond coming up with different operational plans while the necessary overhaul of the police force is not carried out. For there is no doubt that many of the fantastic ideas on how to combat security threats have been jeopardized at the operational level, by those who essentially operate them.

One should think simple reasoning, on the part of government, as to why terrorists live among people and the police don’t get to be informed about it is a sign of where real operations need to be carried out. That is, the need to work on the rot that has led to deep distrust in police-civilian relation – a relation in which Nigerians worry about the police trading their lives for money after they pass on information. There is definitely the need to sanitize the police force, and for so many reasons. The current problem posed by the Boko Haram terrorists as well as other security challenges across the nation offers that opportunity. There is no point polishing the surface of a piece of furniture that is rotten down under. If the Nigerian police would not regularize the quality of its recruits, make billions of naira appropriated to the police force get to the pauperized officers on patrol, officers that have been dehumanized to the extent that they themselves don’t have respect for the uniform they wear, and care nothing about the integrity that should be associated with their profession, the government should not expect different results even if the entire world offers help in the form of ideas, intelligence and equipment. The reason is simple: A bad operator would make a mess of the best operational plan.         

Tunji Ajibade is a Communications Consultant. tunjioa@yahoo.com.