MUSA CISLAC BOSS
The Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Ibrahim Musa, recently chatted with journalists in Lagos State, looking at several security issues confronting Nigerian society. Excerpt.
You said attempts by some governors to arm militia groups will lead to the creation of terror. Explain further.
Anything that is done outside constitutional provision, and without public discussion agreeing and disagreeing on it, will be unleashing terror. We are calling for caution because of the situation we are currently in+++++++. Even though we are very disappointed with the way and manner in which the federal government handles security in this country we cannot afford to encourage any illegal means of the so-called creation of militia groups in the name of responding to insecurity. Invariably, what you will be doing is arming citizens that are not properly equipped, that do not have the legal and constitutional mandate to carry out operations. The truth is that even security personnel that are being recruited, need intensive training, let alone militia groups that are formed by the government.
What can happen if these governors’ wishes are achieved?
They will begin to or are likely going to misuse such kinds of weapons against one another. We have seen similar incidences where politicians provide ammunition during elections to young persons and after the elections, they abandon them at the end of the day some of the young people who have arms at their disposal, use them for other things.
We think that whatever the situation, we must insist that security sector reforms are carried out in this country to ensure efficiency, to ensure that our security personnel is properly recruited, properly deployed, and given the necessary morals and incentives to enable them to carry out the work they were recruited for.
Don’t you think governors resorting to creating militia groups was to protect their citizens?
I think that some of the governors, we are talking about, know what to do because there are processes and procedures that we must follow to change the constitution and get these things done.
As far as I am concerned, up till now, we have not seen governors come together mobilise all the senators from their states, and mobilise the representatives from their states. Mobilise all stakeholders from their state to come together to demand that the constitution must be reformed or addressed in a manner that will enhance security and give security to the state police creation. You just don’t talk for the sake of talking. These governors didn’t follow due process and have not engaged even with their states, discuss to mobilise the popular sector within their states.
There is a difference between cheap talk and walking the talk to ensure that it is what the majority of Nigeria agrees on, which is to say that we need to decentralise security systems in Nigeria. We need to reform security systems. We need to have state police or community policing.
However, everything must be done within the legal framework, otherwise, if they say they are going to do this or that, they must tackle and engage the relevant stakeholders. As far as I am concerned, it is just cheap talk.
Cheap talk? How do you mean?
During the time of President Jonathan, we had a national conference in 2014. There were a lot of discussions around improving insecurity and the Jonathan administration set up the confab and did not even look at the report, let alone implement it.
This administration has been in power for seven years and we have been talking about security sector reforms, but they are not listening to anybody. This means that Nigerians must not get tired of demanding security improvement in the country because we are in a democracy. We have every democratic right to demand accountability on how security operations are carried out. There is no security accountability in this country, and that is why impunity is going on. A lot of billions have been budgeted for the security sector and yet Nigerians cannot see tangible improvement in their lives and safety.
Nigerians have become endangered species and a lot of Nigerians cannot move from one local government to another. What are they doing with all the billions budgeted in the name of security? A lot of governors are not able to explain what they do with the security vote. The security vote is almost like free money because it is not audited and is not accounted for. Many officials are using political and personal enrichment. We cannot talk about improving security when this kind of corruption is happening in the security sector.
You said journalists should interrogate Customs Service’s activities and arms proliferation.
Y.s, the Nigerian Customs Service has been very lazy in terms of detecting the proliferation of arms in Nigeria. The number of weapons we are seeing, no longer small arms, but big arms, are coming into the country. We have customs officials at the land borders, airports, and seaports. We cannot continue to expect an improvement in the safety of Nigerians while all these heavy arms are coming. The auditor general made mentioned in his report that over 164 arms and ammunition cannot be accounted for, they are missing in the hands of police. A lot of money has been budgeted for police to receive arms and ammunition since 2019, but to date, they haven’t received anything. We cannot afford to be siphoning public taxpayers’ money in the name of security yet Nigerians are not seeing any improvement in the security of their lives and property.
Every part of the country is vulnerable now. We cannot afford to be chasing citizens out of their homes and farms. Bandits and terrorists are taxing Nigerians to pay taxes before they go to their farms, and yet you are budgeting a large amount of money for security. Where is the difference between what you have budgeted and what you have not budgeted?
What are the solutions to these problems?
As far as we are concerned, the solution to the insecurity in this country is to have a sincere security sector reform at all levels, so that we have more decentralisation of the security sector.
We can no longer sustain this system, especially within the police. If anything is happening in a state, the state governor cannot call on the police to do anything except there is approval from the federal government, from the president, by that time people would have been wiped out, and people would have been killed. There is a need for us to have a holistic national discussion and dialogue about security sector reform, not for Nigeria or governors to be forming militia groups, not to use the so-called militia tactics to steal money and make lives miserable. We condemn any attempt to create militia groups that are not coming from the constitution or any legal framework that will guarantee the safety and security of Nigerians.
On the influence of small arms in the country, what do you think is the way to mop them up?
Firstly, Customs sometimes says it has arrested some containers of arms and ammunition question is; where are those arms and ammunition? Are they destroying them, or are they putting those arms into use? Secondly, the arms that suspects say they surrendered, who is in the custody of those arms?
Thirdly, the missing arms within the police, who are responsible for them? What have the police done to recover those arms and to discipline those officials within the police that connive with the criminals to rent the arms to them? We must be more serious about safety and security in Nigeria. We can’t simply be sweeping issues under the carpet. The National Assembly has a responsibility under its oversight function to ensure that they take an audit of all the money allocated which is supposed to be spent based on the Appropriation Act of the National Assembly. Why is it that the National Assembly and relevant committees are not able to interrogate the missing trillions of naira that are approved for the safety, protection, and welfare of Nigeria’s security, including the Army and Police?
We cannot continue to fund the interest of a few individuals at the expense of the lives and protection of Nigerians, that is why civil society will continue to draw the attention of the government and will continue to provide credible information on how government should go about dealing with issues of insecurity, and civil society organisation has been engaging in very productive and credible ways to provide information to government based on international comparison and experiences to see how we can improve in terms of insecurity challenges in the country.
But rather than listen to some of their officers who benefit from siphoning, diversion and stealing money in the name of providing security, they will not want to listen, but we have a responsibility as patriotic Nigerians to continue to demand accountability, to continue to ensure that Nigerians are protected because the consequences of refusing to secure the country are that we will continue to lose international investments.
Many companies are shutting down, and by implication, more Nigerians will be thrown into poverty because there are no jobs to keep their families. There are lots of consequences for refusing to take appropriate and timely action to secure the country and the people
In your earlier statement, you talked about schoolchildren
This government committed itself during the last election, in 2014/2015, they promised to secure the country, but as I speak with you now, a lot of children cannot go to school. Hundreds of them are being abducted, kidnapped by terrorists, impregnated by their kidnappers and married off illegally, yet the government is sitting down with the terrorists, engaging in what they call rehabilitation and mobilisation of repented criminals that have destroyed communities and killed people. No dialogue to let the community forgive that, and now you are empowering those criminals who committed those atrocities with trillions of naira, something is wrong with the policy that the Nigerian government is applying.
The same applies to negotiating with bandits and criminals. Nigerians are suffering, we need to do something, in other to restore the hope and confidence of the citizens that is why we are calling on the government to urgently embark on security sector reforms. Without reforming the security sector, the current security architecture is going to be difficult for Nigerians to be safe anymore.
To be clear, are you against the government negotiating with bandits and terrorists?
We cannot be pampering terrorists and criminals.
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