Department of State Security (DSS). In this
interview, he speaks on the herdsmen
menace.
The country is facing multiple security
challenges presently. As someone who
traversed the country and performed
security services at the highest level, what
is your take and how can we overcome
them?
When
the
present administration came into power, it
was contending with the issue of Boko
Haram which had been on the table. Luckily
enough, the government is overcoming that
challenge. Though it is
the government’s
position that Boko Haram has been
technically defeated, we are contending with
the spillover.
We still have pockets of explosions and
suicide bombings, but I believe that
government has made tremendous success
in terms of checkmating Boko Haram.
Meanwhile, I think the greatest challenge we
are facing now is the issue of militiamen. I
won’t want to call them herdsmen, I look at
them as another set of Boko Haram
militants because, going by their trade and
antecedents, nobody has made any report of
missing cows before the attacks.
But you see a situation where people will
just go to a particular town and wreak
havoc. It started from the North-Central.
The recent stories are there of Agatu where
over 500 people were killed and the attack
in Enugu. We even have cases of
herdsmen’s attacks in Delta, Ogun, Ondo,
etc. So this thing is spreading and I believe
it is going beyond the cattle rearers or
herdsmen, it is more than that.
Now, I want to suggest that the Federal
Government takes urgent step, through the
Inspector General of Police and the Chief of
the Defence Staff, to ensure that the
perpetrators of the Enugu incident are
brought to book. As we speak, no arrest has
been made and, again, I am not comfortable
with the way government is handling the
situation. I want to suggest that the
President makes a national broadcast. This
is not an issue of delegating committees;
this is a very critical national challenge that
must be addressed by Mr. President before
we start talking of tackling the spread of
the militants.
I don’t want to call them herdsmen and I
insist that they are not herdsmen. We have
lived with herdsmen over time and I know
occasionally they attack farms, but now we
have a situation where women are raped,
towns are attacked, houses are destroyed
and burnt. These people are walking around
with sophisticated weapons; they are armed
with AK 47, so they can’t be herdsmen.
One of the campaign promises of the Buhari
administration ahead of the elections was
security and people are beginning to
question this promise. Even the body
language of the President is not giving the
impression that this administration is ready
to do anything about these herdsmen’s
clashes.
I won’t say that he isn’t addressing the
issue of security. Don’t also forget that even
the elections were postponed for six weeks
to enable government acquire arms which I
believe was done. But Nigerians haven’t
been told what quantity of arms were
bought and, if they didn’t buy the arms,
what are they fighting with now because I
believe that, while the previous
administration bought arms, the only
difference now is that, if you look at the
service chiefs, the President was careful
about the appointments.
He appointed people from the affected
areas, like the Chief of the Army Staff
which, to an extent, changed the dynamics
of the fight against insurgency by boosting
the morale of the troops. The National
Security Adviser is also from Borno. So, I
think the President did well in those
appointments because, in the previous
administration, the then Chief of the Army
Staff was accused of genocide but nobody
can accuse the present Chief of the Army
Staff of genocide because he can’t
deliberately go and kill his own people.
So it is the morale booster that helped in
fighting Boko Haram and that accounts for
the success achieved so far. But, talking
generally, you will agree with me that we
have more security challenges which are
self-inflected because if some of the issues
are addressed in time, we won’t have some
of the challenges. Some of the security
challenges we are having can be addressed
holistically: for example, the one involving
the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra. This can
be resolved politically. How? Get the
political leaders in the South-East, the
governors, religious leaders call these
youths who have not witnessed war before
and don’t know the implication of war; ask
them what are their problems so that
government can address them. But when
you try to sweep the problems under the
carpet and say nothing will happen, it will
come to a stage that the problems will
become unmanageable. The issues of
herdsmen is the same thing. Government
must initiate action to establish the people
behind this act. Mr. President needs to look
at the issues critically and address the
people on what government is doing.
Many Nigerians are of the view that the
Presidency, the security chiefs are toying
with what these people are doing?
I want to approach it from the point where
Nigerians suffer generally from the activities
of these militants. Not long ago, if you can
recall, trailer loads of arms and ammunition
were intercepted in Aba and Port Harcourt
and it was alleged that they belonged to
Boko Haram members. As we speak, now
no one has been informed about the
outcome of that investigation. So the
possibility of fleeing Boko Haram members
infiltrating other parts of the country
because of the intensity of the war against
the terrorists, and the tendency of them
moving down South can’t be ruled out. You
will also recall that about two weeks ago,
there was an interception of some alleged
herdsmen here in Abuja. Two truckloads, one
in Gwagwalada, one in Keffi were
intercepted; these can’t be herdsmen. They
were intercepted with sophisticated
weapons and charms.
What we are facing is a serious challenge.
The issue of terrorism is not one you can
just sweep under the carpet. There are
different phases; if you are overcoming the
issue of Boko Haram, another phase can
just come and that is what I suspect. I want
our security agencies to look in that
direction. It is instructive and curious that
after all these attacks, no arrest has been
made. That is why I want to support Mr.
President’s decision directing the IGP and
the Chief of the Defence Staff to fish out
the culprits of the killing of people in Enugu
in particular because there is no way you
would look at it without political or ethnic
colouration especially with the activities of
MASSOB and IPOB attracting so much
attention.
Another issue is that of the Department of
State Services going into areas many
people think are outside of its mandate.
We have instances where DSS went to
Government Houses to ransack the
premises whereas the law says governors
have immunity. We have also had an
instance of the DSS going to the hallowed
chamber of a state assembly to arrest
people. Is this how the DSS is supposed to
operate?
Unfortunately I want to be excused in
answering the question concerning the DSS
and what they are supposed to do. As a
journalist, you have access to the DSS. I
think that question should be directed to the
appropriate authority. I am not in the
position to comment on that.
The present administration has been
accused of making promises. Almost one
year after t came into office, not one
promise has been met. Even the issue of
corruption that they are fighting is neither
there nor here. Do you think this is the best
way to fight corruption?
The fact remains that government is
committed to fighting corruption. But while
it is fighting corruption, people should be
aware. Though they usually talk about
undoing the misdeeds of the former
government, nobody is ready to listen to
that any more. The government promised
change, I am not a politician, I speak from
the point of security; the economic crisis in
Nigeria is even another big challenge. Some
people have gone to occupy the National
Assembly on the grounds that the Senate
President’s case is political and all that, so
we don’t need to heat up the polity. What
the average Nigerian is interested in is food
on the table; there is no light, no fuel, no
money.
We pray that the President and the National
Assembly will resolve their impasse and
pass the budget so that we can see if there
would be any difference in the life of the
average Nigerian. That is what we are
interested in. Whether Saraki is jailed or he
is freed doesn’t concern most Nigerians.
What they are concerned about is the
promised change. We need change, positive
change. Let me give you a story. One of my
friends told me the story when we were
talking about change. He said it is like a
man who went and deceived a woman that
she should come out of her husband’s
house and made different promises to her,
that he will take (the woman) to Dubai, buy
her a limousine and other goodies. In the
end, the woman left her husband and
followed him and the woman was now
asking,
‘What about all the promises you made to
me? You said you would take me to Dubai,
you would buy me Rolls Royce’. And the
man now asked her, ‘Did your former
husband buy those things for you?’ And she
now replied, ‘If my former husband didn’t
buy those things for me, you would have left
me with my husband’; it is just an analogy.
So the issue remains that promises have
been made, it might be difficult to fulfil
some of those promises, but government
owes us the responsibility to explain why
they can’t meet those promises because as
long as the people continue to hold
government to those promises that aren’t
being met, they will continue to grumble.
So what is the way out; there is also an
issue of farmlands and grazing. How do we
go about it?
The issue of grazing bill, the National
Assembly is denying that there is nothing
lke that. Well, nobody lies any more because
the social media will expose you. Everybody
has the video that the bill is before the
National Assembly. That is one major
challenge. That bill is dead on arrival.
Nobody is going to pass it because you
don’t expect me to surrender my land to any
other person except government and for
public interest. We have gone beyond cattle
rearing. Cattle rearing is not the problem
but if this government insists on establishing
grazing reserves or ranch, I would suggest
that since the war against Boko Haram is
being won in the North-East, we should
convert the whole Sambisa forest to grazing
land and put military bases there so that
they don’t have insurgents attacking them.
I want to repeat that the attacks going on in
various places are not connected to cattle
rearers; it goes beyond that and I want the
government to look into that and I want our
security agencies to investigate and
establish the connection between fleeing
Boko Haram and what is going on in the
country.
Still on the herdsmen and fleeing Boko
Haram members, how come our security
services aren’t able to use intelligence and
new equipments, said to have been
acquired, to track them?
I think one of the leaders, Al-Barnawi, was
arrested in Lokoja recently; so I believe, with
this arrest, a lot of debriefing would have
taken place. But like I have always said, if
you defeat the local Boko Haram, what
about the international Boko Haram? Boko
Haram, if you recall, is affiliated to ISIS.
They declared allegiance to ISIS, how do
you think they get arms? That reminds me, I
am not very sure of the date now; I think
the US Commander of the African Command
recently intercepted some arms coming to
Chad and to Nigeria, to Boko Haram. So we
believe arms are still coming to Nigeria for
Boko Haram. We need to man our borders.
Some people argue that these herdsmen in
quote are not Nigerians. So how did they
come into Nigeria when we have the Multi-
national Joint Task Force at the borders?
These are the issues I want our security
agencies to handle. Security is the
collective responsibility of everybody. So if
you have leads or information, pass it on to
them like we are doing now. I believe they
will work on it and look at these directions
which are very important.
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