The spate of armed attacks, abductions and general insecurity across the country is increasing by the day. The prolonged absence of President Muhammadu Buhari from public view and the belief that he is incapacitated have become even a greater source of concern to many Nigerians. In this interview, Brigadier General Idada Ikponmwen (rtd) examines the developments and tells ONWUKA NZESHI that something must be wrong at the seat of government, Aso Rock
In recent times, Nigeria has witnessed a series of mass abductions by terrorists who demand huge ransoms before releasing the victims. What is the implication of this scenario?
It is unfortunate that these mass abductions are taking place at all in our country. It is even more disturbing that it is now targeted at secondary schools, tertiary institutions and even hospitals.
Some of their captives have been killed because their parents and the government refused or were unable to meet the demands of the terrorists in terms of payment of ransom.
The issue of ransom payment is a twoedged sword; it is not the best to be paying ransom because by so doing, you are encouraging these kidnappers to do more havoc. The money you pay them to release captives sustains them and helps them to buy more weapons with which they carry out more attacks on the people.
On that note, it must not be encouraged, but at the same time, we must do everything possible to prevent the kidnapping of our citizens whether in their homes, schools, markets, farms, hospitals or on the highways. It is the responsibility of the government to provide security for everybody.
If the provision of security and welfare of the people is the primary purpose of government, it then means that there is nothing too much for the government to do in order to guarantee the security of every citizen.
If government is not delivering on this primary responsibility, then it is not fit to be called a government.
How do you feel about the situation in Kaduna State, where the governor maintains a policy of no payment of ransom and citizens of his state who were kidnapped are being killed by their abductors?
I don’t think the state governments are doing enough and the Kaduna State Government is certainly not doing enough in the face of the security challenges confronting the people of the state.
After the Federal Government, the State Government is the next level of authority and is even closer to the people. The situation in the states and indeed in country as a whole is lamentable especially when the major instruments of maintaining security, law and order are controlled by the Federal Government.
Are you saying state governments are helpless?
No, I won’t say they are helpless. I cannot say that the states are helpless because state governors receive whooping amounts of money as security votes every month. They should commit a reasonable proportion of the money they get as security votes to put in place structures and measures that will be able to identify the location of these kidnappers, get them arrested and prosecuted.
The state governors must do all within their powers to prevent these kidnappings and killings going on in their respective states. It is not impossible to tackle this wave of insecurity. It is a matter of political will. It is a matter of how concerned those who govern really are about the situation. Look at the case of the American who was kidnapped somewhere around our borders with Niger Republic.
The abductors brought the young man and hid him at a location in Nigeria and were demanding ransom from his relatives. But what did the United States do? They simply deployed their special security forces to rescue their citizen and in the process eliminated those miscreants who kidnapped him.
That is what government is all about and that is what engenders patriotism from the average citizen. When you see that your government can go any length to save you from danger and harm; when you see that your government is always ready to ensure your security, welfare and wellbeing, nobody needs to tell you that you must be loyal and patriotic. This is what we expect from our own government too.
All our government needs are gathering the right intelligence, deployment of high calibre military equipment and trained security personnel to confront these terrorists. Above all, the government of the day must have the political will to go to battle with these terrorists and defeat them for Nigerians to be free to go about their legitimate businesses without fear.
What can the government of Kaduna State and the Federal Government do to bring the hostage stand-off in Kaduna to an end?
Quite frankly, I think that a state of emergency needs to be declared in that Kaduna State. So many people are dying from frequent attacks on communities and people are being abducted on daily basis. I think that a declaration of emergency has become very necessary in Kaduna State.
The whole situation seems to be hopeless. A state of emergency has become desirable in Kaduna State.
In the neighbouring Niger State, Boko Haram elements have sacked about 50 communities and hoisted its flag there. What does this mean for our country?
The same measure should also be applicable to Niger State because of the latest developments there. I just told you that I do not think the government is really serious about fighting this war. From every measure of assessment,
it is difficult to give the government a pass mark. In fact, I don’t think government is doing enough because this situation can change for the better if all the necessary measures are adopted. If the security system is overhauled; and if you remove the temptation for people to steal in order to make big money.
There are so many things that are wrong. The issue of security is so important for you to say that a government that is unable to address these issues is doing well.
Recently, we got a report of a Nigeria Air Force jet that bombed our ground troops who were also in the counter insurgency operations in the North-East. Why should we have such a fatal mistake? What is happening?
Well, this is a war situation and anything can happen. Whether we agree or not, this is war; anything can happen in a war. There can be miscalculations while the Air Force is trying to support the land forces. It is not a new thing. It happens sometimes due to human error.
But such things can be avoided. The planning and the coordination between the air and ground operations must be synchronised as much as possible. The Air Force should be seen to be practically supporting the land forces which are supposed to be their role. They are not really supposed to be doing it all by themselves.
We always say that the Army is the king of the battle and that all the other services support the Army in the battle field, although, in recent times, the Air Force, you know, have been gaining more grounds in battles since Israel fought the Six Days War.
It has made some people to say the Air Force can go it all by themselves, but I think that the Nigeria Air Force should be able to plan its operations in a proper manner that takes into consideration, the operations of the ground troops.
But as I said earlier, we cannot rule out some of these mistakes in a war. I must add that the entire Armed Forces must be under proper coordination and if there has to be proper coordination, there must be somebody doing the coordination.
This is why I have always quarreled with the issue of coordination both in terms of the constitutional provisions and the practice of it where the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) is nothing but a figure head.
He should be the one coordinating and allocating responsibilities to the different forces and ensuring that each arm does its own part in a proper way. This can be done by proper intelligence, not just information but one has been well analysed in relation to the specific security situation.
We’ve always talked about intelligence and what it does to fighting insecurity but how much of it has the security forces used in tackling the problems?
Well, there is this perception that our intelligence gathering has not been good enough. If there is no efficient intelligence gathering and dissemination, there’s bound to be errors, there’s bound to be inaccuracies, there’s bound to be attack on wrong targets and there’s bound to be casualties.
So, I think we must emphasise the need for effective coordination of operations and the CDS must be allowed to play his role as the leader of the Armed Forces.
Some months ago, Nigerians agitated for the change of the Service Chiefs because they believed that was the key to restoring security in the country. It appears their hopes have been dashed. What do you think happened?
When we were agitating for the replacement of the service chiefs, we all believed that it would bring great improvements in the security situation in the country. But some of us also knew that the change of the service chiefs is not the only answer.
No matter how many times we change the service chiefs, if our government and leaders are not seen to be serious about fighting insecurity, it will be a sheer waste of time. I know that the present service chiefs are very determined to make some impacts on the security situation.
They are professionals, they are committed and they want to ensure that the welfare of the troops is on top of their agenda. With their recent appointment and subsequent changes made in the security forces,
I believe that the morale of officers and men of the forces have increased tremendously. But that is not enough. The confidence of the people in their government and the perception of the people