Boston – By Emman Okuns.
Nigeria’s National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Retired Colonel Mohammed Dasuki Sambo told the world in Boston Friday that the central casualty of the lingering Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria was government’s diversion of scarce resources that could better support the development needs of the country to security issues.
He also said that government programs could only be achieved under a peaceful environment and that the terrorist activities of Boko Haram represented a serious threat to the nation’s democratic foundation, pushing the people into poverty.
Sambo who bemoaned this state of affairs was speaking as a facilitator at the Nigeria’s Security Summit convened by Mr. Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, publisher/Editor-In-Chief of Huhuonline.com at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The nation’s security Chief said that terrorist insurgency has undermined all other pressing issues critical to national development – something he noted has also affected Nigeria’s relationship with other countries in various ways, including trade, technical cooperation and aids.
“One very glaring consequence of insurgency was that all other governance issues became subordinate to security considerations. This consumed both time and energy on the part of the general public and the government in particular. A central casualty of the insurgency was that government had to divert scarce resources that could better support development needs to security issues,” he regretted.
He remarked that the current pressure on Nigeria and the main focus of foreign intervention, especially from foreign governments is how to tackle insurgency.
“Assistance from donor countries is slowly shifting from economic issues to security issues which necessitates that the relationship between Nigeria and many countries, including her neighbours, which used to be dominated by trade and technical cooperation have been replaced by security considerations.”
The focus of Nigeria’s foreign partners on such issues as governance issue as it is related to corruption and concern about the conduct of free, fair and credible election prior to the insurgency, he recalled has since shifted to security issues.
He said that government has put in place series of measures to deal with the nation’s security challenges and that in doing so it remains conscious of complying with international norms so as to ensure the protection of people’s human rights because of the administration’s belief in the rule of law and respect for human rights.
He acknowledged that the threat posed by Boko Haram has come with both challenges and opportunities that have compelled government to take measures to review and change current laws and strengthen security infrastructure – changes, he regretted often go un-noticed by the public.
“Terrorism has come with both challenges and opportunities. It has enabled us to change our laws, rebuild our institutions, and create platforms for greater coordination and cooperation within and across agencies tasked with security. Additionally we have developed avenues that allow us to synergize our efforts and work more collaboratively with the civil society.
In short we have devised a national security model that is inclusive, premised on the provision, of peace, security and development, through a whole of society approach.
It is important to remember that all these changes have happened in the span of a few years since the start of Boko Haram’s virile attacks, but they often go unnoticed.”
He said the creation of Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act of 2013 led to significance progress being made in not only properly defining terrorism, but being able to block avenues of financing of their activities while putting in place structures to deal with current threats.
One of the outcomes of the measures, according to him was the establishment of a Counter Terrorism Centre and working with key stakeholders.
“We have developed a National Counter Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST). The NACTEST is new and is the first major attempt by the government of Nigeria to holistically address the terror attacks that are being perpetrated by violent extremists. As a sub-set of the overarching National Security Strategy, it holds a strong promise for Nigerians and seeks to re-engage a stakeholder population that is losing or may have lost faith in ongoing efforts aimed at addressing threats.”
According to him, Seventeen Federal ministries and Twenty Seven departments and agencies are involved in the implementation of the strategy to fight terrorism in Nigeria and that his office has developed a benchmarking framework for the evaluation of the implementation of NACTEST in the following key areas:
“The NACTEST is organized around five streams, each with key objectives and indicators. FORESTALL; to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting attacks. SECURE; strengthen protection capacity against terrorist attacks. IDENIFY; pre-empt through detection, early warning and ensuring that terrorist acts are properly investigated. PREPARE; to mitigate the impact of terrorist attacks by building resilience and IMPLEMENT; a framework for the mobilization of a coordinate cross government effort.”
He told the audience, composed of scholars, including security experts and other professionals that despite the challenges, Nigeria remained focussed in its transformational programs for the benefit of the populace, adding that education remains the nation’s number priority in not only for national development, but in re-orientating the people who would have otherwise succumbed to terrorist recruitment.
Government, he continued has put in place measures to ensure peace and security in the nation’s educational institutions, adding that the economic revitalization program of the administration was designed to strengthen the spirit of entrepreneurship, create enabling environment for investment and provide job for the teaming population of the people.
To defeat terrorism, he stated: “we cannot leave anyone behind. We cannot allow ungoverned spaces and everyone must act responsibly in their sphere of authority,” adding that as a federation, doing this requires government actions at both national and sub-national levels.
Dasuki Sambo reminded local government authorities of their responsibilities as the closest in the realm of governance to the people that they must be re-focused on the important issues of good governance.
“Working with traditional institutions, community based organizations and the police, local governments must be proactive in building community resilience and good governance. It is time we leverage on our democratic processes to increase access to decision making for a majority of our citizens. Inclusive, non-discriminatory and participatory governance is more likely to detect discontent before it erupts.”
The security Chief demanded that “The goal of politics must be to lift our people out of poverty and provide them with the enabling environment to compete favourably. This may not eliminate the possibility of misguided individuals or groups rising up against the nation, but will address some of the underlying factors leading to recruitment into groups prone to violent extremism”
“The insurgency has re-shaped and redefined the classification of Nigeria in many peoples’ minds all over the world,” regretting that the country’s name is now being mentioned along with those of other countries that have had long standing terrorism challenges.
“Ordinary Nigerians have also redefined their views of the security situation in the country. Issues that used to agitate the minds of the people, in the immediate past, such as armed robbery and kidnapping”
He assured that the Nigerian government was doing everything possible to safely secure the release of the kidnapped Chibok girls.
Read the full text of the NSA speech here…..
