A top security expert, Jackson Olalekan-Ojo, has warned that the 2027 general elections may suffer a major setback owing to rising insecurity in the country.

Dissecting the nation’s security challenge, Olalekan-Ojo blamed the political class for the prolonged insecurity Nigeria has had to contend with in over one and a half decade despite the robust resume of the nation’s military as one of the best during peace-keeping missions outside the shores of the country. In this interview, he calls on authorities to further tighten and sanitise the procurement process of military equipment to guard against issues arising from arms and ammunition made available for the military.

Nigeria’s battle with insecurity has lasted over 15 years. What does this suggest about the government’s seriousness to fight insecurity?

Just very few of our soldiers went to Liberia and other areas on peace-keeping assignments and they were rated among the best on multiple occasions. But how come we are struggling to fight our own battle now? I will not blame it on our men. Rather I will blame it on the Nigerian government. The government has not demonstrated enough political will to fight insecurity in this country. Our politicians have failed to see the war against insecurity as a collective battle. The ruling party and the opposition do not see insecurity as a collective challenge that must be tackled together. If there are any security lapses in any area and the opposition knows the solution to it, the opposition will rather hoard such information because it will see it as a way of helping the ruling party. There is no way Nigeria can defeat insecurity with such mindset and division. We can only defeat insecurity when we are united. More disturbing is the fact that the division even permeates the ranks of the military and para-military. There is ethno-religious sentiment in the military. There are allegations that soldiers from certain parts of the country are posted to volatile areas while certain tribes are posted to relatively peaceful places. Secondly, what is the strength of our soldiers? A good number of our soldiers that would have assisted in fighting insecurity are now being used to guard expatriates and politicians despite the fact that the President has announced the stoppage of this practice? A senator had a function in Ondo State recently and we saw the number of soldiers, police and civil defence personnel that were on ground to secure the venue of the event.

When the APC had its national convention recently we saw helicopters hovering the environment. How many of such helicopters have you seen in states with serious security challenges? Where are these security personnel when Nigerians are being killed in Zamfara, in Borno, Kwara, Niger, Kebbi and so on? There is no seriousness in fighting insecurity. If the war against insecurity is based on the command and control system, they will definitely succeed but when you have the Commander-in-Chief, you have the National Security Adviser that must give instruction to the control room, it is always difficult. Look at what happened in Kebbi State. That goes to show that Nigeria does not punish major offenders anymore. Till today Nigerians are asking the question about who withdrew the security personnel minutes before the attack? Look at the case of the general that was killed recently. The terrorists are taking the war to our military installations; they are fighting offensively but we are responding in a defensive manner. It is not normal. Where are the Tucanos of this world? Where are our military helicopters, where are the drones, the unmanned aerial vehicles? What type of military equipment are they providing for our soldiers? Is it obsolete? The world is moving on a fast lane when it comes to technology. We cannot afford to rely on obsolete equipment any longer. In most parts of the world technology is renewed every three to six months while the obsolete ones are shipped out to other countries. What stops our defence industry from producing? We need up-to-date technology for our intelligence gathering. Unfortunately, our politicians are more concerned about those decamping to their parties. I am afraid insecurity may not allow us to run any election in 2027 if the situation continues this way.

Having established politicking between the opposition party and the ruling party as one of the factors working against the cooperation needed to tackle insecurity, what would you say about the escalation in attacks, as being witnessed, even as we inch closer to another electioneering period?

Our politicians are culpable. Wait until election days, you will discover that there will not be any attack anywhere. Do terrorists recognise public holidays? If they cannot recognise Easter period and do not recognise Salah period how do they recognise election days? Recently, the Chief of Defence Staff said that terrorists should be seen as the prodigal son. The biblical prodigal son only lavished his inheritance; he did not kill anybody nor destroy people’s property. So, if the Chief of Defence Staff could say that, what signal is he sending? The Minister of State for Defence openly said not all the bandits are criminals. Then what is the meaning of bandits? That is to say there are bandits that are loyal to some key individuals and because of that they are not seen as criminals. Curiously, that man is still occupying his position till tomorrow. When it comes to the issue of security, all hands must be on the deck; we must be united in fighting insecurity. But what do we see here? The ruling party is always taking every security advice as criticism so because of that some people will choose to be quiet. Majority of the politicians are not bothered because they have 20 to 30 security personnel going everywhere with them. I know a particular politician who has three police Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) stationed in front of his house despite the fact that he doesn’t live in that house. But there are some states in Nigeria that do not have up to three APCs moving around their states. But because our politicians and their family are secure they do not see any reason why they should be concerned about the security challenge. Not until every politician in the country takes security as a collective responsibility, there may not be improvement in security in Nigeria.

Former President Obasanjo recently picked a hole in the arrangement where the military is in-charge of procuring military equipment. Do you share his view?

In the military, we have the armoured division and the procurement division. I am of the opinion that the end-users of this equipment should be allowed to go for the procurement because they are the ones to use them. In a situation where those who order the equipment do not even know the need of those that will use them; where they do not know if what they order is the latest version or not, those who will use them will always be hampered. The military should be allowed to go for what they want; then the appropriate authorities should supervise and monitor the procurement process to ensure that the money released for the procurement is properly and judiciously utilised.

Don’t you think the allegation of corruption which often dogs the procurement process and the claim of lack or inadequacy of weapons and ammunitions could be properly addressed if things are done differently?

That is why I submitted that the end users should be allowed. Even if they are not the ones that will buy it directly, they should be part of the team that will procure the equipment. They may not necessarily be part of the bargaining. Their preoccupation is to be able to ascertain the quality of what they are buying. The most important thing is value for the money. Most of the time we don’t get value for the money the government released for the procurement of military equipment. That is why somebody must take responsibility. Then there must be two or three layers of supervision in the process in order to ensure that our military gets the right equipment to prosecute the war against insecurity.

How helpful is the call that Nigeria should seek international help in addressing the security challenge in the country?

It is not a bad idea. It is even better if the call is coming from Nigerians. If you are beating your child while the door is locked, there is a point you will get to and your neighbour will be forced to break your door to rescue the child. You didn’t invite him but he knows that he has the responsibility to rescue the child at that moment. If we do things properly nobody will call for foreign help. Under Obasanjo did we call for foreign help? As bad as Jonathan was, did anybody call for foreign help? Why are people calling for foreign help now? It is because Nigerians are suffocating. The hard economy is contributing more to this because it has made our youth more vulnerable to being recruited by these satanic groups.

In view of the rising wave of banditry do you not think Sheikh Gumi’s suggestion that the government should negotiate with the bandits in a similar fashion that culminated in the amnesty programme in the South-South be considered?

Sheikh Gunmi does not understand the difference between the Niger Delta militants and these terrorists. Niger Delta militants are fighting for their rights: thei’ land is degraded, the seas are polluted because of the lackadaisical attitude of the multinational oil companies. These are the people that the black gold is coming from their land, the treasure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is coming from their land but they are impoverished. They can’t go to their farms nor drink good water. They were rendered jobless due to all these. Based on these, they became agitated and voiced out their grievances. They started by protesting but they were ignored. They had to increase the tempo, went to another degree without killing human beings. They were attacking the economic resources without killing human beings and that was why they were not proscribed as terrorists. You can negotiate with agitators but you can’t negotiate with terrorists and chronic bandits. General Babangida said during their time that any little threat they would approach the judiciary but when it became a very bad threat they would send the person to their maker. I think Buhari said the same thing. I don’t see any reason why we should negotiate with bandits, they will always be unrepentant satanic agents, so why should we negotiate with them? Did America and Afghanistan negotiate with them? Do they negotiate with them in the Middle East? Nobody negotiates with terrorists because they have their own understanding and beliefs which nobody can wean them off. I think Sheik Gunmi is doing that so that at the end of the day if the federal government takes the suggestion he will be appointed as the negotiator. And there are some percentage he will be taking being the middle man. If somebody even has undue sympathy for these terrorists or bandits, the person is a suspect. In saner climes, Sheik Gunmi won’t be a free man by now. He would have been behind the bar.

Ransom payment continues to serve as an incentive to kidnappers. What should the government do?

There are some professors today in some universities whose salary is just about N500, 000 per month and N6 million a year. Some of these bandits kidnap and will be demanding N200 million and people will give them the money. If they are about 20 that means each of them will go home with N10 million. So how do you expect them to stop this lucrative crime? I think the government should make things more difficult for them. If they know they are taking the biggest risk of their lives, I think a lot of them will be deterred from doing it. But if they are doing it and none of them is caught there is no way anybody can dissuade them. You can’t discourage them and there is nothing you can do. But if they are caught and neutralised that will serve as a deterrent to others. But how many of them have been neutralised? We still pay bandits and they are being enriched by paying them and encouraging them to make others vulnerable because they will have money to convince and recruit more people because they have more money to buy more ammunition and take the best medical treatment they need. I have never seen anywhere in the world where you empower your enemy or allow your enemy to be empowered. (The Sun)