Back on December 25, 2009, in the aftermath
of Abdul Muttalab’s botched attempt to blow up an American
airliner, when the United States placed Nigeria on her
terror watch list, the government and people of Nigeria were
outraged and indignantly protested the inclusion of their
country on that infamous list. It did not matter that the US
State Department was simply doing what was required of it by
law and public policy in the nation’s overall global counter
terrorism efforts. The government and public outrage that
greeted the US action was, however, understandably based on
the fact that Nigeria had no history of terrorism and, on
the assumption that Abdul Muttalab’s case was a one-off,
individual mental aberration that would not repeat itself
and upon which alone such weighty classification could not
be properly and validly founded. In other words, Nigerians
and their government were simply saying that the nation
should not be judged by the act of one man however heinous
it might be that would not be expected to repeat itself in
future.
However, that argument, though clearly self-serving and
rather presumptuous too, remains largely unassailable
because even the United States herself has unwittingly bred
and continues to breed homegrown terrorists the most famous
of which is Timothy McVeigh of the Oklahoma City Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Buildings bombing infamy, on April 19, 1995,
that claimed 168 lives and destroyed or damaged 364
buildings and some 86 cars, including some who allegedly
left the US for terrorist training abroad, specifically in
Pakistan, under Al-Qaida pupilage, not to mention the New
York’s Times Square attempted bomber and other homegrown
terrorists with cells US soil. That would not qualify the US
or any other nation for that matter as a candidate for
terror watch list. Would it? On that score, therefore, the
protests appear to be well founded at least on the face of
it, even though the US might have known more about the
security situation in Nigeria than the Nigerian government
itself but which it was unwilling to disclose publicly that
might have informed her action in placing Nigeria on that
terror watch list.
The truth of the matter is that there is so much the public
does not and will not know about terrorism, counterterrorism
and intelligence. The world of intelligence and counter
terrorism is like that of secret societies and so we may
never know publicly the real reasons behind that move on the
part of the US government against Nigeria for which Muttalab
might only have provided the catalyst. And Nigeria’s protest
was somewhat political in that it helped to divert attention
from her own security and intelligence shortcomings in the
face of the bloody religious uprisings in the north that had
constantly kept the nation on edge. All of a sudden the
issue was no longer about a seemingly harmless kid walking
through Nigeria’s airport security portals effortlessly with
bombs strapped to his groins, but about Nigeria being placed
on the US terror watch list unjustly as an unfriendly act
given the historical cozy relationship between both nations.
Even so that position did not stop Nigeria from being one of
the first nations to hurriedly deploy body scanners at her
international gateways and proceeded to activate them even
before the US itself did as the very active civil rights
groups in the US tackled the Obama government over possible
privacy rights violations. It took nearly a year after the
Muttalab incident before body scanners were deployed and
activated in US airports due in part to those privacy
concerns. And that, by the way, testifies to the studious
and deliberate approach usually applied by the US government
in domestic policy formulation and implementation as opposed
to the nervous and panicky, fire brigade reactions of its
Nigerian counterpart in similar facts situations. The
contrast between the two nations in policy formulation and
execution, at least in that singular instance, couldn’t be
sharper and clearer.
With that said, the Nigeria government was understandably
eager to impress the world and demonstrate its zero
tolerance for terrorism even before a clear anti-terrorism
policy was initiated and put in place. Thus the Nigerian
government, in her desire to please the world and be in the
good books of the West rushed to deploy the machines without
any considerations whatsoever of possible privacy violations
of her citizens as did the US and other western nations that
are much more sensitive to privacy rights even in the face
of terrorism. Such fitful and nervous reactions, however,
betray acute lack of confidence on the part of the Nigerian
government to act with utmost deliberation and coherence in
her overall national security policy instrumentation and
infrastructure provisioning. Resorting to ad-hoc,
fire-brigade approach to national security management is
symptomatic of the absence of clear policy framework with
seamless interlocking components, which should necessarily
include the body scanners at international gateways given
her long history of being a transit point for narcotics
trafficking, robust access control, hi-tech surveillance
systems, patrols, and highly trained security operatives
that are well heeled in intelligence gathering and analysis,
amongst others. However, her jittery efforts managed to get
her off the US terror watch list, and then went to sleep.
This comes down to the question of the culture of
governance. A government operates under one of two cultures
of pro-activity or re-activity. At the very first sign of
danger a proactive government moves to arrest the danger,
real or perceived, whereas a reactive government sees
similar signs of danger but waits until the danger itself
fully materializes before acting, oftentimes through
incoherent, unsustainable and unproven fire brigade methods,
with the goal only of putting out the fires rather than
preventing the fires in the first place. This reminds one of
one of the famous statements by the former US president GW
Bush: “I will not wait until danger is upon us” in reference
to his decision to go to war in Iraq over Saddam Hussein’s
alleged stockpile of biological and chemical weapons. Though
no WMDs were found that is beside the point.
Thus rather than seeing the Abdul Muttalab episode as a
wakeup call and be proactive in upgrading the nations
security infrastructure, then Vice President Jonathan who
was clearly distracted by then hospitalized late President
Yar’Adua’s handover crisis simply installed the body
scanners and moved on to strategize over his political
battles in Abuja with the budding terrorism quickly pushed
to the back burner. After all, there were no suicide bombers
in Nigeria and none were foreseeable on the horizon as of
then. We were glibly but naively told then that Nigerians
loved life and therefore culturally averse to suicidal
self-immolation like the Iraqis and the Talibans in
Afghanistan, so why worry. And many Nigerians shared in that
flawed theory. Well it turned out that the government and
people of Nigeria misread the signs of the times and failed
to take into due cognizance the well known propensity of
Nigerians to copy anything—you name it—good or bad—from
abroad—east or west, and indeed from anywhere on the face of
the globe. And till this very day the Nigerian government is
still in denial, ascribing the spate of terrorist attacks in
the nation to foreign nationals that allegedly infiltrated
the country through the nation’s porous borders leading to
reports of arrests and deportation of illegal aliens. While
that is possible it conveniently overlooks the local
connection. It’s like a parent denying the criminal actions
of his or her child. Foreigners will not come and commit
terrorist acts in Nigeria without local contractors resident
in Nigeria who brought them in the first place and provided
them sanctuary, targets and logistical support for their
operations. Whatever is happening in Nigeria is homegrown
with or without foreign assistance. If there are any
credible Al-Qaida connections with the terrorist acts in
Nigeria such connection were initiated from within not from
without. And of course Al-Qaida would jump at such
opportunity to expand its global franchise if offered on the
platter of gold by local jihadists in Nigeria.
This is not, however, meant to put down the Nigerian
government, because unlike the US and other terrorized
nations, Nigeria is relatively new to the world of
terrorism, therefore her reactions to terrorist acts would
necessarily be carried out in anti-terrorism policy vacuum,
leaving her to improvise as best she could when hit or
implicated in terrorist attacks as was the case with
Muttalab. And come to think of it, how is a country that is
unable to carry out conventional policing of common
criminals that are daily terrorizing the citizens in broad
daylight supposed to be masters of counterterrorism
overnight? It is utterly unreasonable and unrealistic to
expect the Nigerian government to be masters of the game of
counterterrorism overnight in the absence of a pre-existing,
robust security and counterterrorism infrastructures
inherited by the Jonathan administration.
This, by the way, is one reason why this author is rather
amused at the naïve and seemingly ignorant commentaries of
certain individuals in the media who seem to think that
dealing with terrorism is a walk in the park like cleaning
out hoodlums from the streets even when more experienced
nations and grandmasters of counter terrorism, such as the
US, Britain, India and the rest are still struggling and
unable to prevent each and every terrorist plot at home and
abroad against their national interests. As intelligence
experts always remind us, it takes just one successful
terrorist attack out of 100 attempts for terrorists to claim
victory and rubbish the good work of intelligence and
security operatives who prevented the remainder 99 attempts.
As indicated above, Nigeria’s case is compounded by lack of
robust counter terrorism apparatus. However, such
infrastructure will not fall from heaven like manna but
carefully and painstakingly architected and built up over a
long period of time and continually updated and upgraded.
Nigeria never had one to begin with and therefore Jonathan
never inherited one, either. The reason Nigeria has been
lacking in the department of counterterrorism is because
terrorism has never been such a big threat or at all until
now. And here, I am referring to suicide bombers targeting
governmental institutions. In this regard, local Islamic
fundamentalist flare ups prevalent in the northern parts
must be totally distinguished from the full blown terrorism
involving suicide bombers with international dimensions that
the nation now faces. While the old threat is purely
religious, and some might add, economic, too, the new threat
is entirely political.
The new reality requires new set of tools and infrastructure
that must be built from the ground up. For this reason,
therefore, I will be deliberately lenient with the
performance of the Jonathan administration in putting out
this new threat because that is simply impossible in the
face of inherited deficiencies in security infrastructures
in the nation. When you see the Nigerian government
deploying armored tanks in the streets of Abuja and
elsewhere as part of counter terrorism measures as if there
is war going on, that tells you that the nation has no
counter terrorism infrastructure in place but relying on the
military and military hardware meant for conventional
warfare to deal with the situation instead of intelligence
and counter terrorism security systems. As heavily policed
and heavily protected as the United States is, for obvious
reasons, with her huge and extensive security and
counterterrorism infrastructures, there is hardly any
military hardware seen in public, yea, not even a single
soldier could be found in the streets and public places for
security duties. That is the job of specially trained
counterterrorism operatives lurking in the shadows of
regular cops that constitute its public interface.
Presently, as I am putting out this piece, the US
government, states and municipalities have marshaled
counterterrorism forces in response to alleged terrorist
plot on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks with
huge police presence but not a single military officer or
military hardware like armored tanks and the like could be
seen in the streets or public places. That is the way it
should be configured, not show of military power in the
streets. It’s unnecessary as such only helps to terrorize
already terrorized citizens and does nothing to stop or
prevent terrorist acts. The nation must, therefore, move
away from the old to the new paradigm in the war against
terror by investing heavily in counter terrorism.
When we look back with the benefit of hindsight to the
steady progression and proliferation of domestic terrorism
in the land, however, we will come to the realization that
citizen Mutallab’s botched attempt to down an American
airliner, though unsuccessful, successfully introduced
Nigeria to the world as a potential terrorist nation, or I
should rather say terrorized nation. While the Islamic
fundamentalist bloodshed in the North and Niger Delta crisis
had gotten the attention of BBC and a few western media
outlets that saw them purely as a domestic problem,
Muttalab’s attempt was truly terror on global scale and
therefore carried in every global media outlet with global
reverberations that continued for months on end. But that
was only the beginning, though thankfully, there has been no
Muttalab from Nigeria terrorizing the world outside the
nation’s shores. However, domestic terrorism had taken root
and unremitting since then as Muttalab gave way to MEND and
Boko Haram. After that episode, the Nigerian government
embarrassingly found itself formally showcasing the nation’s
real debut in domestic terrorism with her first home grown,
high profile terrorist attack during her centennial
anniversary in Abuja, on October 1, 2010, with multiple car
bombs going off simultaneously under the full glare of
foreign dignitaries who scampered for safety. There was no
better time and no better occasion for Nigeria to
demonstrate to the whole world her capacity for producing
terrorists. There was no question therefore that the nation
had joined the club of terrorized nations. MEND, which
claimed responsibility for the attacks, helped her fulfill
that critical requirement for admission into that club.
Before that MEND had earlier struck in the oil city of Warri,
Delta state, during an event sponsored by Vanguard Newspaper
on the ND crisis by blowing up several cars that claimed the
lives of a few Nigerians. However, none of these involved
suicide bombings, which tended to validate the government’s
claim that Nigerians were bereft of suicidal instincts like
their counterparts in the Middle East. Since then Nigeria
has moved up the ladder and graduated her class of suicide
bombers. It has been downhill as other terror groups have,
in the notorious copycat mentality of Nigerians, quickly
sprung up to help maintain Nigeria’s permanent membership of
the club of terrorized nations. So it came to pass that as
President Jonathan nervously dialed his counterpart in the
White House, President Obama to ask for assistance in the
face of the dire security situation his government has
suddenly found itself barely three months after his
inauguration, most tellingly the bombing of the UN office in
Abuja, one is apt to visualize the US president saying to
Jonathan:
“Hey, Mr. President, I told you so back in December, 2009,
with that Muttalab kid trying to blow up that big bird and
wound up blowing up his balls. And that’s why I placed your
country on our terror watch list, but you saw the matter
differently not being all that familiar with the world of
terrorism. Well, I can tell you that we, in the United
States, can see and recognize the face of terror even in the
dark and confront it right away. Anyway, welcome to the club
of terrorized nations. Mr. President. Be advised though that
it’s not going to be terribly pretty for you out here. You
may take your seat and still your nerves for the bumpy
ride!”
Still in denial, I could envision President Jonathan telling
his US counterpart:
“No Sir, but thanks anyway. I don’t belong to this club, Mr.
President,” to which the US president would reply with a
chuckle:
“Neither do I, or any of the other members of this club that
I will introduce to you presently. You think we like it out
here? We were all conscripted into this club against our
wishes, just like you. But you will get used to it, Mr.
President. It’s a whole lot easier getting in than getting
out, if at all, and that’s why we are still here becoming
senior club members mentoring and advising new members, just
like you.”
Still unwilling to be inducted into that club one could
envision Jonathan protesting his forced membership of that
club and saying to the US president:
“I am not and will never be a member of this club but an
invited guest or what you might call an observer because we
don’t have terrorists in our country, only misguided
religious bigots that have caused some anxious moments which
we will take care of and move on like we did in Niger Delta
with an effective home grown solution, which by the way, I
would respectfully recommend to you, Mr. President.
“It didn’t cost much. We did it on the cheap. No massive
security infrastructure, hi-tech gadgetry or expensive
drones and surveillance systems. Just some tokenistic
handouts to the boys and their commanders and some
vocational training, for example, in handicrafts, tailoring,
shoe and watch repairs, barbing and hair dressing, plus
taking the boys around western capitals to see the world and
feel good.
“That was all that got the problem permanently fixed and the
guns have since fallen silent in ND. You can’t beat our
formula, Mr. President. It works and works well. We don’t
believe in grandiose systems just to get jobs for the boys
and keep capitalists in business in perpetuity at the
expense of the people. We do low tech not hi-tech. Try it
out in the US and in other parts of the world and you would
be glad you did.”
Chuckling but profoundly taken aback by the naivety
exhibited in comparing Niger Delta militancy to the new
terrorist challenges, one could almost hear Obama saying to
Jonathan indignantly:
“Oh please cut it out and let’s get real, Mr. President. You
should know better than that. You are the leader of the
biggest and most important black nation on earth with a
young democracy still struggling to get a foothold in an
extremely hostile soil in the part of the world inhospitable
to democracy.
“Understand that democracy is a poison and therefore
anathema to terrorists, and you saw it during your last
general elections. Didn’t you? That’s why they tried to stop
democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan and trust me, they will
try to stop from taking roots here too because of the
importance and influence of your country in Africa and
throughout the black world and beyond. That is the
perspective we are coming from.
“The happenings in your country are not isolated events but
the unfolding of a global terrorist script that will only
progressively get worse not better. Don’t forget what I
mentioned earlier: The US sees and recognizes the face of
terror even in the dark.
‘This is beyond Niger Delta Amnesty Mr. President. This is
the real deal—global terrorism has berthed in your country.
You’re not just an observer or guest as you might wish to be
but a full fledge member of this highly strategic club with
the resources and leadership to confront the evil now placed
at your disposal. Again, Mr. President, as president of the
club, I invite you to take your seat at the back.”
And as Jonathan nervously, ruefully, and despondently took
his seat at the back as a new member of the club, he could
find old club members such as the United States, Britain,
Spain, India, Israel, Kenya, Saudia Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan,
Iraq, seated at the front and second rows, looking at him
piteously like a lamb destined for the slaughter.
Now, as Jonathan uncomfortably settled on his seat
precariously one could imagine the old members taking turns
to bring him up to speed and lecturing him on what to expect
in his country. Obama would tell him point blank that it is
no longer business as usual urging him to brace up to the
stark challenges of terrorism, whether home grown or
imported, and be prepared to marshal and commit huge
national resources that would otherwise be deployed to other
sectors including men and materials and high level security
trainings for all cadres of government functionaries
particularly the security agencies to fight the war on
terror.
He would tell him that it is not enough to install body
scanners in the nation’s international gateways but on all
government and corporate buildings and major infrastructures
such as bridges and highways, properly manned by highly
trained security operatives 24/7—all connected in real time
to National Command Center. Jonathan would get an earful
about the urgent need to harden access points to all public
buildings with several layers of security and proper fool
proof identity tags, not made in Nigeria but contracted to
reputable firms abroad to forestall faking and compromised
quality. He would tell him to sensitize the public to the
new realities through massive public enlightenment campaigns
at all levels of government urging them to be extremely
vigilant and report suspicious movements to designated
authorities. He would tell him to urge his fellow citizens
to be prepared to spend some time going through security
checks in public buildings before accessing them for
services or business transactions. Jonathan would be told
that national security legislation would be required to
regulate private security and investigation activities which
would clearly set out their areas of operations, licensing
and training requirements, compliance and reporting
obligations to the authorities. The Nigerian president would
be told that national legislation would be required to
regulate the possession, transportation and use of certain
chemicals and explosives, including those capable of
composite applications in order to deny terrorists access to
them. He will learn that a proper national vehicle
registration and identification system need to be put in
place, which would track the life cycle of all vehicles as
they change hands throughout their lifespan until they
become unserviceable and scrapped. Needless to add that he
would be told that a proper national identification system
for all citizens is a categorical imperative, that must not
be toyed with or regarded as a luxury. Then off course, the
proper and effective policing of the land borders,
particularly those in the northern parts, through which
terrorist groups from North Africa could easily gain entry
into the nation to cause untold havoc in the nation. Proper
border patrols with high tech surveillance system must be
emplaced, he would surely be told, to prevent cross border
infiltration by terrorist elements.
And then comes the shocker: He would be told that even after
he had implemented all of the above measures he would still
not be guaranteed security of the nation and Nigerians would
be perpetually condemned, like the Americans, Indians,
Pakistanis, and other club members, to living their lives in
fears and paranoia, spying and reporting on fellow citizens
and seeing their neighbors as potential terrorists. They
would have their telephones wire-tapped through mandatory
partnerships and collaboration with telecommunication
networks operating in the country with their privacy thrown
out the window. They would spend quite a few minutes in the
burning sun waiting to get into public buildings and be
frisked from head to toe.
Welcome to the world of terrorized nations! This is the
world being lived daily by citizens of terrorized nations.
It is a great pity that Nigeria has been forced to join this
terrorized alliance—thanks to Boko Haram and their high
heeled sponsors that the Nigerian government has been rather
too timid in identifying and bringing to justice.
Now that the genie is already out of the bottle, however,
President Jonathan must brace up for the worst possible
scenarios and devote his full attention and national
resources to national security. Without that his presidency
will be totally marred and nothing else can be achieved in
an atmosphere of extreme insecurity. The downside is that
paying 100% attention on counterterrorism could easily
distract the federal government and stymie whatever
development programs the government has embarked or
embarking upon within the limited timeframe of its tenure.
That translates to stalled presidency. Nothing would thrill
Jonathan’s detractors better than getting bogged down
chasing terrorists all over the place with many of their
sponsors taking pot shots at him from the sidelines. And
that’s why he must move quickly and aggressively to identify
and expose them to the world with credible evidence not
witch hunting or political vendetta, which is totally
counterproductive. But the federal government need not go it
alone. National security is not a federal matter alone. It
should and must involve the federal, states and local
government as well as private corporations operating in
Nigeria and indeed individual citizens. Security
surveillance systems must therefore be mandated for all
levels of government and corporate bodies in the National
Security Act that this author hereby proposes for the
nation. The proposed Act should mandate minimum security and
safety standards to be maintained at all levels of
government and private institutions with a national body to
oversee their regulation and enforcements, including fire
and chemical hazards.
This is beginning to sound like an impossible task for a
government that is not used to prescribing and maintaining
standards in her national affairs. What a pity. This could
indeed be overwhelming for the Jonathan administration still
battling to find its footing on the economic and social
fronts. But there are silver linings in these dark clouds.
There are huge opportunities here for job creation through
security infrastructure upgrades not just by the government
but by businesses and private individuals as well as
indicated earlier. This might begin to sound
counterintuitive but the government should look at this as
an opportunity to move in tandem with the rest of the
terrorized developed world by upgrading her security and
public safety infrastructures to international standards.
National security is big business at least in the United
States. This is beyond torch and whistle security guard
business. And when we come to look at it closely, national
security should be the very first order of business for any
government and nation. And as I indicated above the private
sector must be part of the deal. It would be a huge mistake
indeed for the government to view these security challenges
as distractions and approach them with a negative attitude
of being forced to deal with them. A more profitable
approach would be to regard these as veritable opportunities
for national growth and development within the overall
national development strategies. There is something called
“security and safety” industry, which the government must
move to develop because it provides jobs and huge
opportunities for national development.
Nigeria is long overdue for a robust national security and
safety infrastructures with an industry and if takes Boko
Haram to get her there so be it. How else is she aiming to
become the 20th largest economy in the world by Y20/20 with
her present rickety security infrastructure, anyway, Boko
Haram or no Boko Harama? As Nigeria develops here national
highways it must have security built into them. All
buildings and bridges must have security systems built into
them. All schools, hospitals, banks, corporate buildings,
government secretariats, markets, and all significant public
institutions and assets, must have robust security systems
built into them. I watched on television trees being moved
to the new World Trade Center Memorial ground in New York
City from different parts of the country on trailer trucks
with their root beds fitted with sensors that will gather
and transmit information relating to soil conditions and
other data types to a central monitoring station. These are
hi-tech trees.
By the way the 9/11 Memorial will have been commissioned by
the time this write up appears and the public will be
milling around those trees not knowing what is embedded in
their roots transmitting information to central station
somewhere away. It shows how technologically savvy the US is
in every field. That is an example of hi-tech provisioning
in national infrastructure similar to what could be done for
security. The World Trade Center is not owned by the US
government but by the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey, which is a government agency. If it could do it the
Nigerian government could equally go hi-tech in security, if
the will is there as a national priority. Nigeria must not
do it on the cheap by cutting corners and greasing itchy
palms of corrupt government officials. Some might say the US
is hi-tech because it is a developed country and superpower.
But being a developed country or a super power is a state of
mind. The people and government of Nigeria should develop
that state of mind that will get them there, just like the
US and quit approaching development the native way.
Costly? Not nearly as costly as the loss of lives and
properties to terrorist attacks and the national siege
mentality that goes with it! Anyone who thinks security and
public safety are too expensive should try insecurity and
see how cheap or expensive it is. Plug all the corruption
loopholes and the jumbo salaries for NA members and
political appointees and the money will be found because
there no fooling around with national security. And as
indicated earlier, this must be mandated by law. All of
these would require trained hands and vendors, and that
means more business, more jobs and more technological
awareness for Nigerians in general and in particular those
in the public safety and security fields thereby making for
a more vigilant and aware citizenry in general, for the
price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Now, that is real growth and development.
Franklin Otorofani is an attorney and public affairs
analyst.
Contact: mudiagaone@yahoo.com
Published
September 13th, 2011
