National Security & YOU (Part III)

In the last post, we discussed how the involvement of people in government can aggravate the issue of terrorism. This is done majorly by the leakage of security intelligence to the Enemy. No matter how equipped your army might be, the enemy would always defeat them or continue to thrive and cause great harm if your plans and secrets are open to them. In the Art of War, this is the job of spies.
On several occasions have I heard of how people in government hope that the crisis should continue because of the financial benefits they derive from it. Frankly speaking, there are many sides to the issue. What we shall be discussing today is how we can help to bring it to its conclusive end.

Poverty Must Be Tackled and Eradicated
The Yorubas has an adage that says "Bi ebi ba kuro ninu ise, ise buse". The literal meaning of this is that hunger is the biggest problem with poverty. This is buttressed by the English proverb that says "A hungry man is an angry man". From the two proverbs aforementioned, it's clear that all the security challenges that we face today is due to the fact that people are hopelessly hungry. In other words, if we must overcome poverty, food security is a must.
In case you haven't noticed, the better part of our income goes to food in Nigeria whose production is pretty low compared to its consumption. If you doubt my analogy, please point to any Boko Haram member that's from among the Rich. How many are the kidnappers or Niger Delta militants that hale from wealthy families that you know? I don't know any. You'll be doing a great favor if you'll give one in the comments below.
It's only the poor man's child that spare heads an insurgency, militancy and robbery gangs. They do this because they have known hunger and want to spend the rest of their lives without it and they don't want their children to suffer as they have suffered. Salaries cannot take workers home not because they are small but because food is expensive. Should a bag of rice go for N1 000 and that of beans for N500 and maize N200, no one would be agitating for salary increase. This is a topic for another day, but one thing I want us to take home from here today is that hunger, is the root cause of the security challenges we face today.

Nigerians Must Go Back To Farm
Although, he paid lip service to it, but, General Obasanjo was right when he said that we should go back to farm. According to available data, in 2018, importation of Agricultural products amounted to around N230 Billion. What that means is that in 2018 a whooping sum of about N230 billion was taken out of our economy due to the importation of food!
Should this money be retained in the country you can imagine how many jobs it would create and how much wealth that would be created in the process! This money can be re-invested to produce even more food and much more income. I hope you are following?
I know, as usual, we shall be thinking that this is the responsibility of the government not ours. This is where we get it wrong. We need to start getting it right if this menace must stop. Go back to farming. Pick any of the so many that is available to you be it animal rearing or crop farming. You can do something even if its that little space in your compound...get started with growing vegetables for yourself and your neighbors. Own a farm today and you would have done your part in eradicating hunger and security challenges as a whole.

Charity is A Must For All and Sundry
Charity organizations are expected to be funding the IDP's. When I say charity organizations here, I'm not referring to all those international organizations that are currently scattered all over the North. You don't even know who is who up there right now. This shouldn't be, Nigerians must learn to look out for one another. You and I can help to fight the many battles that are currently plaguing the country should we be GENEROUS enough to start raising funds to adequately fund the IDP's and the less privileged up North. Sincerely speaking, my brothers, we need to do something about the plight of the Alimajiris coz they serve as a fertile soil for the propagation of crisis and riots. We must learn to be more generous with feeding, clothing and sheltering them. If the government is not doing that, we can always organize ourselves into charity groups to do that...if not for anything, we should do it for the sake of our general well being as a society.

Charity goes a long way to put crime and crisis at bay. The Bokos for instant can be dealt a serious blow should the people of the North organize themselves to fund the war against the insurgency. If the Insurgency must be defeated, three to four things must be done as a matter of urgency.

(1) Ordinary People Must Organize Themselves Against the Insurgency: 
     This does not mean you should take up arms and head on to the Sambisa, no. What it means is that we should come together and strategize effectively to fight the insurgency. As earlier said, we must be ready to pool resources together to fund volunteers that are ready to go to the field.

(2) Local security Outfits Must Be Created to Argument the Efforts of the Armed Forces
     Vigilate Groups should be employed and adequately armed to man strategic positions in the remote villages that are soft targets for the Bokos. It has been noticed that hunger is a big factor in fighting the insurgency. Most times when they strike the small villages around the Sambisa and the main towns, it's for food...they only make it seem otherwise but that's the truth. If the vigilantes are well funded and adequately armed, vigilante groups can help starve the Bokos to submission.

(3) Vulnerable Groups or Members of the Society Needs to Be Protected
      Alimajiri boys are the most vulnerable as far as the Bokos are concerned. The Alimajiris should be protected from the Bokos with the provision of a decent shelter, clothing and food for them until they are done with their education. after the completion of this education, we must be ready to empower them with one form of skilled labour or the other. If this is not done, the Bokos would recruit those innocent, harmless and vulnerable boys and convert them to veracious weapons against us!

(4) Deliberate Efforts Must Be Made to Castigate them Via All Forms of Media
     Unfortunately, we have those that are sympathizing with the Bokos and are rendering all forms of help to them secretly. Some are doing this because they believe they are fighting a just cause others because they see them as victims of security brutality. Whichever the case might be, the bottom line is that some people in the local areas where they (Boko Haram) operate still give substantial support to them. Such people that offer this vital support to them can be reached via the media. Islamic clerics must be sponsored to dispel their minds, re-orientate them and make them see the Bokos for exactly what they are. Sponsored programs must be aired consistently on radio and TV stations to explain as to the reason why the Bokos should be disbanded for good.
If this is effectively done, the bokos would loose their support and starve without any end in sight. when this happens, the insurgency shall die a natural death! Insha Allah!

The insurgency has created a huge case of desperation where we have tons of widows and orphans that need as much help as they can get. We must be Patriotic enough, irrespective of our affiliations, to help out as fellow Nigerians. Courtesy demands that we do! 
This is how much time and space would allow me say about the state of our National Security. As you might have found out, there are a lot of ways by which we can contribute to ending the crisis ASAP despite the involvement of corrupt people in government. They are also in this current administration because they are part of the Civil Service which no administration can be free from. The best we can do is to curb their excesses and that's why the Boko Haram is no longer as potent as they used to be!
God Bless Nigeria!
Ameen!!!
 

National Security & YOU ( Part II)

The Late General, General Sanni Abacha, has been reported to have said: "If an insurgency lasts for more than 48 hours, the government has a hand in it!" You know, I saw this online right from the beginning of the Boko Haram epidemic and I took it really seriously. The General was right, but, I misunderstood a vital part of his statement which was the 'government' part of it.

Ordinarily, in Nigeria, when we talk about the government, what comes to mind straight away is the Federal Government. To the average Nigerian, the government is the federal government. When this happened, as in, when I saw this statement of the General, it was President Jonathan that was in power. Just like any other Nigerian, my mind went straight pointing at the President. However, I have always had my bias against President Jonathan. In my opinion, he's like a meek sheep leading a pack of wolves!
So, I knew that he's not directly involved, but, I was certain that some people in his cabinet are actively involved. Just as I was trying to find out about that, there came the General Azazi's case!
General Azazi in the middle of the heat of the confrontation of the Military with the Bokos, was forced to let the cat out of the bag. He blamed the Boko Haram palava on the PDP which happened to be the ruling party.

Before you could say 'Jack', Azazi got sacked as the Chief of Defense staff. He eventually died in a funny air crash in a matter of a few months after his sack from work! Another funny and rather embarrassing part of the whole story is the fact that investigation into the air crash was summarily done and closed very quickly. No one was caught or punished. Now, it was clear that some members of the ruling party have their hands soiled in the Boko Haram insurgency. This has just confirmed the sayings of General Sanni Abacha. Now, that was then, let's fastfoward to the present shall we?

Today, we have a retired General as against a 100% civilian in the Aso Rock, yet, the Bokos are still operating up North. Yes, under the General, things have improved a great deal, but they (the Bokos) are yet to be defeated...100%. The IDP's are still suffering in their various camps as we speak. Judging by General Sanni Abacha's statement about insurgency, one would expect that the Bokos would have been defeated in totality but they are still there...although, they're no longer as strong as they used to be but they're still there!
The total defeat of the Bokos seem impossible and some people are already spreading the bad news. If you'll ask, I'll say that they can be defeated totally. They and the so many others that are springing up recently all over the North can be defeated in totality. How? You may ask...hmmm...why don't you join up for the next blog post for the answer?  
Please, do share this blog post with your family and friends on your social media accounts? This is National security and we all have a role or the other to play in ensuring the security of lives and properties.

National Security & YOU

I'm picking on this topic today because of the misguided mindset of the majority of Nigerians on this matter.If you ask an average Nigerian as per who is responsible for security, over 90% would answer that it's the government. I wasn't really moved by the widespread ignorance until I started hearing the so called security experts heaping the whole thing on the government too! It's so shocking to me!
I'm not a security expert, though, but, I feel like there's more to security than us depending on the Armed Forces only for security.
Simply put, security is the state of being free from danger and threat. Having defined the term security, discussing it extensively would be easy.
From the above definition of security, it can be clearly seen that security is everybody's business and not that of the government alone as most people tend to believe. The funny thing about security today is that we are not securing ourselves against wild animals or beast but against fellow human beings which makes the topic more interesting!

In the next few posts on this blog, I shall try to explain what went wrong and how we can fix the problem for good. Our task would be made extremely easy if we would acknowledge the fact that sticking to the books alone is not helpful .We must learn to think out of the box....as in we must learn to adapt to the reality on ground.

The Security Challenges of Nigeria
Personally, I think the Nigerian security challenges are man-made. They are entirely preventable. I shall illustrate with example.
The most prominent of all the current challenges we have in terms of security today is the Boko Haram insurgency. How did it all begin?
According to most sources, they were originally a religious movement that have been around for a while. A particular source said the religious movement was approached by a politician who sought their support and they gave it in exchange for a better societal welfare package. Unfortunately, as usual, they, the politician failed them and they, in retaliation started preaching against the politician's regime who in response had used his political powers to crack down on the group. Things got totally out of control when the politician used the Police against the embittered group. Before you can say 'Jack', the group had resorted to carrying arms and things deteriorated so quickly that the Military was called in to interfere. The group took up the full features of a terrorist group when their spiritual leader in the person of Muhammad Yusuf was murdered in Police custody extra judicially.

From what I've illustrated above, you can see that the case of the Boko Haram was mismanaged by our Armed Forces in collaboration with the political class. I want to believe that should the said politician have been brought to justice and those responsible for the death of Muhammad Yusuf were made to face the full wrath of law, Nigeria and Nigerians would have been saved the needless crisis we have at hand.

Our Sense of Security is Poor
 The unfortunate part of the whole thing is that we Nigerians have heaped all the faults of our security flaws on the government. We don't think we have any role to play in securing our communities. Whereas, in the real sense of it, security is primarily our responsibility not the government's.
The Bokos are still relevant because of the several successes they have recorded over the years. A similar group was uprooted in the South West on the country. This group was known as 'Badoo'. How were they uprooted? It's simple, the residents of the area where they operated stood against them. The affected communities formed some sort of task force that fished out members of the dreaded group until it was no longer a good idea to join forces with them. They didn't wait for the Police or the government, they did it themselves! Why can't we have the same happen up North?
We must stop the nonsense! We must secure ourselves before we expect someone else to come to our aid. Let every community put up their own local security systems. It can be as cheap and simple as employing the services of Vigilante groups and it can be expensive and sophisticated to the point of using CCTV cameras and employing the services of a more corporate and professional security outfits that are springing up all over. It all depends on the budget of the community. Every community must organize themselves and act as one indivisible force. Such a community is an ideal community which would hardly suffer.

Know Your Neighbor
In some cases, the cause element of insecurity is the lack of knowledge of one's neighbor. Now, I'm not asking you to spy on your neighbors. What I'm saying in essence is that you should be able to socialize and interact freely with virtually everyone in your community. In a situation where you have a new resident who is not known to socialize, you have a duty to report such person to relevant authorities in the community that would send a delegate to find out the necessary information about the new entrant. This is what happens in a well organized community. Now, it doesn't have to be a GRA this is can happen downtown too. This, in itself is security for the community. When you combine this with night watch, you would have dealt with all forms of security threats almost 100%!

I would stop at this juncture for today. This is a burning issue today and I would love to hear from you too. It is not just the Problem of the North but that of Nigeria to which we must find a solution to as Nigerians. Please leave a comment or 2 below or connect with via:
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