Every net has holes. But Boko Haram and Fulani
herdsmen attacks have shown gaping ones in Nigerian intelligence agencies. Can
they be fixed?
Intelligence process
includes requirements, collection, processing and exploitation, analysis and
production, dissemination and consumption, and feedback. The details of this
process are made secret by the various intelligence agencies for their
effective operations to smoke out terrorists and those that are potential
threats.
The State Security
Service (SSS), military intelligence among other intelligence agencies in
Nigeria have intelligence network system which information about a particular
entity is collected through the use of more than one, inter-related source.
They gather intelligence to build up a detailed knowledge of threats to Nigeria
both from within and internationally, and the assessment and investigation
process helps to make decision about how they should respond. They have all it
takes to infiltrate Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen and any organization that pose
a threat to Nigeria’s security, unity and progress. But corruption, tribalism,
ethnicity among others which lead to negligence; these agencies have been
seriously compromised with irrefutable intelligence swept under the rug.
The State Security
Service (SSS), self-styled as the Department of State Services (DSS), is the
primary domestic intelligence agency of Nigeria and is primarily responsible
for intelligence gathering within the country and for the protection of Nigerians
and foreigners in Nigeria and work in collaboration with other domestic and
international intelligence and security agencies including Interpol among
others. Their primarily responsibility is also to detect plots and stop them
before the attackers hit their targets not to wait until the attacks strike
before looking for ways to curb it or prevent future attacks. They also have
extraordinary task of anticipating various damaging events and creating various
counter measures to prevent such anticipated events from hitting the ground
when terrorists and others are working on such anticipated events to carry out their
attacks.
I understand very
perfectly how intelligence operation works. There is no threat in Nigeria that
DSS, military intelligence among others cannot prevent or bring to an end. The
late Head of State of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha said, “If insurgency last in
any country for more than 24 hours, it means the government has a hand in it”.
I think he was not far from the truth. The fight to end Boko Haram and Fulani
herdsmen attacks by these agencies has been compromised, and something is
seriously wrong somewhere.
Pooling information is
logistically difficult; given that the Nigerian intelligence community consists
of different autonomous agencies which have further compounded the situation by
other factors.
In January 2000 a group
of al-Qaeda operatives met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to plot the attack on the
U.S.S Cole. Malaysian authorities caught the meeting on a surveillance videotape
and turned it over to the CIA. In the summer of 2001 the agency identified one
of the attendees as al-Midhar, a Saudi who intelligence officials thought had
entered the U.S. shortly after the meeting and left six months later. The CIA
put his name on a watch list and handed it over to the Immigration and
Naturalization Service-but by then al-Midhar had slipped back into the U.S.
Within the next few days, the CIA briefed the FBI on al-Midhar. FBI officials
say they initiated a frantic manhunt for al-Midhar but never found him. On
Sept.11, 2001, authorities believe, he flew American Airlines Flight 77 into
the Pentagon. Al-Midhar bought his Sept. 11 airline ticket under his own name,
but American Airlines officials say no government authorities informed them he
was on a terrorism watch list.
The Nigerian
intelligence agencies have been criticized for failing to infiltrate Boko Haram
and Fulani herdsmen who all display acts of terror. Experts say Boko Haram and
Fulani herdsmen are working to find ways to inflict more irreparable damage on
Nigerians which the agencies are still not doing all it can to protect
Nigerians.
That Al-Midhar could
elude three Federal agencies, all of which knew his identity and the danger he
posed shows what happens when intelligence agencies are compromised and
intelligence swept under the rug. This is the same situation going on in
Nigeria now among intelligence agencies. And many Nigerians have lost faith in
our intelligence agencies in protecting them not as a result of their ineptitude
but their compromise and negligence.
The leadership of Miyetti
Allah Kauta Hore issued a threat to attack Benue State (which these agencies
were aware) and still successfully carried out such attacks. Even without
issuing threats, the DSS, military intelligence among others have the
capability to detect such plot. The leaders of this association and most of
their members have shown terrorism tendencies. What stops the DSS, military
intelligence among others to swing into action? This is where conspiracy,
compromise and negligence play central roles.
Nigerian intelligence
officials remain “blind” to this deficiency but the proper focus of
intelligence agencies should be “the pursuit of the secret” in defence of
Nigerians. As long as Nigerian intelligence continues to peer in compromise and
negligence, they may be unwilling to discover what Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen
and other violent-prone organizations and individuals are hatching right in our
backyard.
By Terfa Naswem