Col. Dasuki & the prevailing security situation By Babayola Toungo

The recent tinkering of the
leadership personnel of the Defence
establishment by President Jonathan
even it be cosmetic, appear to wake
up some people from a self-imposed
slumber. For whatever it is worth,
the visits by the new National
Security Adviser (NSA) Col. Sambo
Dasuki (rtd) to the theatres of war
have shown those bearing the brunt
of the terrorists that some people
still care about their plight. The
president failed to visit both Borno
and Yobe states, the centres of the
Boko Haram carnage giving as an
excuse the lack of functionality of
the Maiduguri Airport (the shame of
it) for his non visit but his erstwhile
NSA, Owoye Azazi couldn’t even
glorify the people by giving an
excuse, no matter how laughable.
The people are really appreciative
of the NSA’s visit to empathise with
them on the siege they have been
under in the past two years.
But the visit alone cannot solve the
people’s problems and they are
waiting for the NSA to start acting.
Thankfully Col. Dasuki informed
Nigerians that he has obtained the
phone numbers of those to be
contacted for dialogue on how to
bring an end to the state of
insecurity facing the country,
particularly the north. Col. Sambo
has clearly shown his intentions of
dealing with the macabre dance of
those attempting to bring the north
in particularly to its knees, by
hitting the ground running. But as
far as I can see there are those who
want to ensure that he failed
woefully in his attempt. The
renewed and sustained attacks on
northern cities is indicative of the
desire of the merchants of death to
make a statement – of particular
interest is the attacks on Police
formations in Sokoto state, the home
state of the NSA.
Islam clearly prohibits fighting
(war) during certain months, the
Ramadan inclusive, so it is clear to
all discerning and objective minds
that those carrying out these attacks
are either not Muslims or do not
understand their religion very well.
My gut feeling tells me they are fifth
columnists with the intention of
giving Islam a bad name and in the
process achieve two things – both
very dangerous to the corporate
existence of the country. One, to
create a religious divide between
Christians and Muslims particularly
in the north; and two, two cripple
economic activities in the region.
They appear to be succeeding on
both fronts. Before the madness in
Sokoto, there was the massacre in
Plateau state, which ultimately led
to the death of a Senator and a
member of the state legislature.
This came almost immediately after
the visit of the new NSA to the
state. All these things appear funny
to me and doesn’t have any linkage
to religion nor could be
simplistically explained as a
reaction by northerners who are
bitter for losing power to the south.
Truth be told, if the government
and its functionaries are ready to
get to the bottom of the madness, all
they have to do is fall back on what
one of its own began and was
truncated midway.
When Major General Mungonu,
erstwhile Chief of Defence
Intelligence (CDI), beamed his
searchlight on “Boko Haram” he
came close to discovering those
behind the killers and before you
say ‘Goodluck’ he was removed
from office. But before he was
removed, he made startling progress
that points to certain politicians
from his home state as being the
men behind the masks. Of
particular interest was the
immediate past governor, Ali Modu
Sherriff. Mungono was threatened
to discontinue his line of
investigation or be removed, or
worse still, lose his Commission. All
these were made public in the run-
up to his removal. Sponsored media
articles against him appeared with
regularity in newspapers and the
threat finally came to pass.
Mungonu’s investigation pointed
directly to the former governor but
in a bizarre move that can only
happen in Nigeria, Mungonu was
removed as CDI and Sherriff was
appointed Chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the All Nigeria Peoples
Party (ANPP). While the General
was sent to the cooler, Sherriff is on
the way to rehabilitating his
battered image.
After Mungonu’s ouster, the spate of
attacks heightened with the
attendant loss of lives and property
because the tell-tale clues he was
pursuing were deliberately allowed
to fizzle out by redirecting the
energies of the intelligence agencies
to phantom suspects who couldn’t
be allowed to see the four walls of a
court room. To compound the
deliberate bungling, we have the
State Security Service (SSS) and the
Police working at cross-purpose on
the same case. The two agencies
always parade different suspects on
a particular case, or one service
contradicting the other as in the
case of the Radio House bomber.
Nigerians came to be cynical about
the sincerity of the security and
intelligence services and had the
distinct impression that somebody,
somewhere is lying to protect some
people.
A lot of arrests have been made
with each suspect branded as the
‘mastermind’, yet non of theses
‘masterminds’ was taken to the
courts for prosecution much less
conviction. Are Nigerians then to
believe that the government is not
interested in getting to the bottom
of this “boko haram” issue? What
happens to people like Ali Tishaku,
a SSS operative embedded in to the
boko haram hierarchy that was to
be denied by his employers after
‘coming in from the cold’ with a
report that was not in conformity
with the current thinking in the
SSS? He had to go to the court to
get his freedom from an employer
he served diligently. Where is he
and what happened to his report?
With Col. Sambo as the NSA, we
believe he will first of all bring to
an end this inter-agency rivalry and
pursue the real culprits and bring
them to court for all Nigerians to
see. The likes of Munguno and
Tishaku may be of immense help to
the NSA’s cause of bringing to an
end the mayhem and destructions
in the country given their past
participation in curbing the
madness. After all, Lamorde was
once kicked out of the EFCC, but
recognising his knowledge of the
Commission, he was brought back to
head the place.

#CONSENSUS 2015