Senator Ibrahim Ida was the chairman of the Senate committee on defence in the 6th Senate. His committee processed the Nigeria Maritime Security Agency establishment bill which sought to establish a special outfit that will provide security to Nigerian Ports. In this interview, the ex-Senator explains the intent of the bill. Excerpts:
What does the Marine Security bill seek to bring in the security system in the country?
I should say very clearly that there have been a lot of misconceptions about this bill. Generally, the thinking is that it is a private members’ bill promoted by certain interests to weaken our security system or to compromise the existing set up. But that is absolutely untrue. It is an executive bill brought to the legislature by the President. The reason it was referred to our committee on defence is to ensure that there is no conflict between what the bill seeks to achieve and the constitutional role of the armed forces of the federation, especially the Nigerian Navy. So what we did was to subject the bill to a wide level of exposure, allowing the armed forces, especially the Navy, to make input, to study it and highlight those areas that will be in conflict with the provisions of the law, either the constitution or the armed forces management act and other extant laws.
At the end of it what the bill seeks to do is to provide a framework for the security of our jetties and other installations that have bearing on marine safety and activities of the nation especially the ports and other civil installations. Therefore there is no conflict whatsoever with what the Navy is doing or, for that matter, what any arm of the armed forces is doing.
We have gone through the bill and wherever there is conflict we highlighted and recommended the deletion of such areas, so that at the end what emerges is a framework that will seek to secure our civil installations and provide internal security, leaving the armed forces to maintain the territorial integrity either at the land level, at the sea level or the air, in that order. So there would be no conflict.
So what is going to be the personnel structure because there are reports that the coast guard is being formed to absorb ex-militants?
I want to say that there is nothing like coastal guards. If there is any need the President has the constitutional authority to propose a legislation that will seek to either expand the armed forces or confer on it a role. The agency which the marine security bill seeks to establish is a civil authority that will have the power of recruiting staff as guards or as other functionaries. There is no provision in the bill that seeks to make the staff carry arms. This means, very clearly, that they would serve as any other staff of any government agency.
Then how is the recruitment process going to be like?
The law provides as all laws do for the agency to recruit staff and that is open to all Nigerians irrespective of their location, places of origin or whatever. I want to say that there is no specific provision for any set of people from anywhere to get any preferential treatment. The recruitment is open to all Nigerians irrespective of their creed, places of origin, religion or political affiliation. The constitution of Nigeria is very clear; and any law that is in conflict with the Constitution is null and void to the extent of that conflict.
The bill that we are talking about does not make any specific provision for ex-militants. They are as good Nigerians as you and I and they qualify to seek and obtain employment in any agency, be it new or existing one. They are not to be discriminated against nor are they to be favoured in any way. There is no such provision in any part of this particular bill.
Why are stakeholders in the marine sector still against the bill?
The bill was subjected to very wide publicity with the various stakeholders allowed to make input. As I said, it is an executive bill, so really I believe that Mr. President in the process of preparing the bill was mindful of the interest of other organs of government in activities that are related to what the agency seeks to perform. When the bill came to the National Assembly we subjected it to wide publicity and my committee’s recommendation to the Senate took into consideration all of these. Don’t forget ours is to recommend to the Senate, as a body, and when the Senate goes into committee of whole for clause by clause consideration; which unfortunately has not been done by the sixth Senate and I hope the Seventh Senate will take it on from there, every clause would be subjected to discussion and liable to amendment if need be. So, what emerges will take care of national interest as well as accommodate the interests of the various stakeholders who have been given opportunity to make input.
Was it in anticipation of its passage that a budgetary provision of about N5 billion naira was made?
I am not aware of that but it is possible that the activities it seeks to perform are being undertaken informally, so for the purpose of financing such informal activities, budgetary provisions may have been made. When the agency comes, all it means is that rather than all these activities being performed by various bodies, some will now be confined to the agency. So, I do not think budgetary provisions were made for an agency that does not exist in law.
In view of some of the security challenges in the country now, from your experience what manner of people will you want to see being appointed to head the various ministries that have to do with internal security?
First of all, I want to say that the prerogative of determining who holds which ministry is vested in Mr. President. And there is internal mechanism that first of all evaluates appointees after which Mr. President will subject them to his personal evaluation then in accordance with the requirements of the constitution forward their names and their CVs to the Senate for scrutiny and confirmation. I would like to believe that we have come a long way because at one time the requirements were for political stability, so emphasis were made on politics and politicians. But later it transformed into requirements for action, so emphasis were placed on technocrats. Now, we have reached a level where we need a combination of politics and technocracy, and I want to say Nigeria has now developed wherein we have individuals who have both the political and technocratic clouts for Mr. President to make his choice. So my advice is let those who will be chosen be committee and patriotic people.
Will you advocate that the kind of amnesty given to Niger Delta militants should be extended to militant groups in the north?
Militancy had affected our production of oil so much so that it tells a lot on our economy but by the stroke of good luck, the Yar’adua/Jonathan administration came up with the amnesty even when nobody believed it would work. So no amount of money invested to sustain that is too much. The money budgeted is not just to give them but to train them to become better people.
In the north now, we have serious insecurity but it does not mean that it has to be handled like the one in the Niger Delta; it has to be handled nevertheless. There is now need for a dialogue; it takes amnesty; it takes investing in social…because we have to address the remote and immediate causes, and a lot of them are social issues. We have to subject the northern environment to a searchlight. What are the social issues? There is unemployment, particularly among the youths, they have gone to school but there is no job. Not only that, the infrastructure is so destroyed to the extent that there is no basis for them to engage in self-employment. We have no electricity so you cannot become a welder, carpenter etc. Secondly, we suffer abject poverty.
We have to address it through empowerment, not through dolling out money to people but creating avenue for them to be on their own. We need a form of marshal plan to address the issue of Almajiris. We also have to allow democracy to go from down up; let people be allowed to express themselves democratically. Let our election process be free and fair, and let us educate people that everybody has the right to vote for whom they want, and it means that to win election you have to be accepted by the majority of the people from all over the country. You have to respect the choice of other people and not insist that your candidate must be the one. That was the problem we had in the last election. In places such as Borno and Bauchi, we have to understand why our brothers are behaving the way they do. These people may not want money; they may want to be understood, to be appreciated and to be allowed to practice their faith in the manner they want. But we need to tell them that it must not be injurious to others.
The almighty Allah himself made religion to be a thing of personal choice for mankind. Let the individual decide but those who do should not antagonize those who don’t. If the system has done something to them that is wrong as was done during the last Maiduguri uprising where people were shown to have been killed unlawfully, we have to look into those things and punish those who perpetrated them. But if we continue to leave them, these people will feel that the system cannot address it, therefore they will do it themselves.
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Link:
Coast guard not for ex-militants, won’t bear arms ‑ Sen Ida