By
Vice President SamboCommittee knocks security agencies for rivalry
The intelligence community got a bad report card yesterday.
The Presidential Committee on Security challenges in the Northeast, otherwise called the Boko Haram Committee, submitted its final report to the Federal Government, delivering a scathing verdict – Intelligence failed.
The committee noted that there was no effective and co-ordinated intelligence gathering and deployment to forestall crime.
Besides, it listed operational lapses, service rivalry, under-funding and lack of collaboration as part of the problems of the security agencies.
The committee blamed the crises on poverty, unemployment, existence of private militias and the extra-judicial killing of Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf and some members of the sect by security agents.
Besides, it identified weak governance and failure to deliver services, even as huge resources accrue to state and local governments.
The committee advised the government to consider dialogue and negotiation, which should be contingent upon the renunciation of all forms of violence and surrender of arms.
The committee also suggested another committee with wider powers and increased membership to handle the assignment within a reasonable time frame.
This view, the committee stated, is based on the comments, suggestions and counsel of many concerned individuals and the fact that the group has shown interest in dialogue with the government.
Already, Boko Haram has indicated its desire to dialogue with such a committee, stressing the inclusion of the Sultan of Sokoto or his representative as well as the Emir of Bauchi and Sheik Abubakar Gero Argungu.
The Committee, which was inaugurated on August 2 by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, was to identify the faces behind Boko Haram (Western education is a sin) and their grievances.
It was also to create a forum for suggestions that will guide the government on the desirability or otherwise of negotiating with the sect, which has claimed responsibility for the bombings in the North.
The report was presented at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, by the Chairman of the Committee, Ambassador Usman Galtimari.
Other causes of the crisis identified by the committee include high level of poverty and illiteracy; massive unemployment of youths, private militias that were established, funded and used by politicians and individuals and then dumped after having been trained to handle arms and presence of almajiris who together with those mentioned above could easily be used as canon-fodders to ignite and sustain crisis.
There are, also, *Influx of illegal aliens resulting from porous and unmanned borders, and inciting preaching by some religious leaders.
Receiving the report, Vice President Namadi Sambo assured members of the committee that the government will implement its recommendations to the letter, saying it would not be “business as usual”.
He also said this administration has set aside a huge amount of money for job creation in the budget, which is an indication of its desire to tackle youth unemployment.
The vice president also said a survey conducted by the government on almajiri indicated that about 9.5million of them exist in the North.
The government, he said, is working on putting them in boarding schools; adding that the second phase of the programme worth over N4bn was approved last week.
“We are committed to ensuring that lives and property of Nigerians are secured,” Sambo said.
In arriving at its report, the Committee said it visited all the states in the Northeast and held interactive sessions with governors, traditional rulers, community, religious and opinion leaders on the immediate and remote causes of the Boko Haram siege. It also visited Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Niger and the Federal Capital Territory.
The report states: “On the part of the security forces, there are palpable operational lapses, services rivalry, under-funding, under-equipment and lack of collaboration. In addition, governments have failed to deliver justice and bring immediate relief to victims of the crisis.
The committee recommended that government at all levels should, as a matter of priority initiate and design appropriate programmes to address unemployment in the zone”. “The committee is of the view that the ongoing trial of police officers linked to the murder of Mohammed Yusuf, the sect leader and some of his followers, should be expedited and publicised to convince the public of government’s sincerity on the matter.”
“The committee discovered that there was a general failure of effective and co-ordinated intelligence gathering and its deployment to forestall events with undesirable consequences. In this direction, there is no high-level security network/forum (outside the statutory national security institutions) that will enable an informal meeting between Mr. President and the governors as well as other top-level security stakeholders. The lack of an institutional structure/arrangement to primarily cater for inter-religious affairs to promote harmonious co-existence confounded the problems. Most importantly, the committee was inundated with series of complaints that the increasing level of in security in the country was amongst other reasons due to the failure of governments to implement reports of various committees that were constituted and had submitted useful recommendations in the past.”
The committee’s recommendations include:
•dialogue and negotiation which should be contingent upon the renunciation of all forms of violence and surrender of arms to be followed by a rehabilitation programme;
•informal forum at the highest level, where Mr. President will discuss national security issues with governors and other stakeholders from time to time; *strengthening means of creating avenues for international intelligence sharing and inter-agency cooperation through diplomatic channels/pacts; and
•compensation of victims.
Every land recovered from the sea will probably one day go back to the sea.What ever belonging to the "Street" which men in authority denied or took from it,someday the street will come up to take it back from them.No matter how untouchable our present and past rulers may think they are because of the security they mount around themselves, they will soon be on the run unless they stop eating what belongs to the "DOGs".The "DOGs" have sharpened their teeth and will stop at nothing until the owner pays and promises to stop eating "DOG" food.One way of escape is left to this upcoming revolutionary trend.The escape route is simply, return what belongs to the "DOG" and never go back to take it again.What is this food that belongs to the "DOGS"?
ReplyDelete1.Those in Authority should stop embezzling public funds and diverting them to their personal use.
2.Make education free for Nigerian at all levels and remove the blocks that discourage the youths towards attaining it-WEAC;GCE;JAMB etc
3.Create a wide data base that will incorporate all unemployed youths;pay them unemployment benefits,train and retrain them in line with the trend of what the labour mkt wants and assist them in going back to the stream of employment.Allow no man to be idle by engaging them into something whether meaningful or not.
4.Introduce a viable social family support system that will improve the financial life of our families.
5.Let the publishers of Koran,Bible and other religous books try as much as possible to publish them in English and native Nigerian tongues and not in Arabic and Latin.Also with the fellowship sessions of both the churches and the Mosques.Let them all be in English.Especially,let the Immams say the mosque procedings in English..These and many more will help Nigeria alot