National Security Reform Agenda Coming, Says Azazi

Police To Establish Intelligence School

State Police, Not Immediate Answer, Challenge

Reform Not About Documents, Human Development Is Key

Civil Society To Participate In Security Sector Reform

Every Bombing May Not Be Boko Haram

A NATIONAL security agenda is in the offing, going by indications from the National Security Adviser, General Owoye Andrew Azazi.

This follows current enormous security challenges that have threatened the Nigerian State on all fronts, the prominent being the sectarian Boko Haram bombings and killings in northern parts of the country.

Interestingly, Azazi told The Guardian that all bombings in the country might not be ascribed to the Boko Haram members, whose leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was reportedly executed in July last year by some security operatives now facing judicial inquisition over the alleged act.

General Azazi assured that the Federal Government is addressing the security concerns, this time on a permanent basis.

He said the government was on the verge of unveiling a comprehensive National Security Reform that would at the same time fill hitherto absence of a national security policy.

Besides a separate school of intelligence that the Nigeria Police will soon establish, the reform agenda will address all facets of human capital development and indeed critical infrastructure in the sector.

Azazi was queried on security challenges, including demand for state police, whether all recent bombings should be ascribed to the Boko Haram sect, and if the security and intelligence community could do it alone, among others.

And below are excerpts of his responses on Security Sector Reform Agenda he hinted at in a recent gathering on security:

“Coming at a time when President Goodluck Jonathan is talking about national transformation, security sector reform is just appropriate.

“When I spoke at the National Defence College, I challenged them to produce a comprehensive security sector reform report because I’m also thinking of putting in place a new security strategy. .

“This security strategy is in the sense that as a nation, you must work within certain template, put the process together, and document it for people to follow up.

“We have security issues but we have not tried a comprehensive form where you bring all the issues together.”

Gen. Azazi said he believes that there is a lot more to security than writing papers. “My concept from the beginning has been that we should go beyond secrecy in security and accept public participation because at the end of the day, a security strategy should look at national objectives and how the nation could make progress without any hindrance,” he said.

“Security must focus on protection of the society and participation of everybody in the society. What I’ve done so far is identification of key issues and some of the ingredients and see how they can be put together as a strategy.

“I’ve talked publicly about putting in place a strategy to assess critical national infrastructure with the hope of having a plan, having standards as to how security could be put in place at that level.

“I’ve also talked about crisis management. If there is a crisis, who plays the role and the roles those elements and the society play in the whole procedure?”

He quoted a US General, who said when they were forming AFRICOM, that AFRICOM was like building an airplane while it was flying.

According to Azazi: “If you want to put a security strategy in place, there are contending issues that you have to address immediately.

“We talked of porous borders and maritime security. In addressing all these things, you don’t want to be in a hurry and not put all these things together. These are the basic issues.”

He said he was expecting the project from the National Defence College to come to him soon.

Gen. Azazi was also asked to address why the nation never had a national security policy in place as part of the new challenges. What happened?

“I know that General Olusegun Obasanjo, in his second time as leader of Nigeria, wrote something like Grand Strategy for National Security.

“But when you talk of national security, you must also talk of public participation. The enlightened civil society and the academia must contribute to identifying how we want to think of security as a nation.”

The first National Security Adviser from Southern Nigeria since Independence was asked to address how he intends to tackle inherent possessiveness in the security community.

Will current set of security operatives in Nigeria actually implement with their mindset, this envisaged assignment of public participation?

His explanation: “I think you are talking of two different things. If you are talking of security strategy, what you want to do is have people representing the security services, the media, academia, industry and civil society. It mustn’t be a crowd of 100 people. You could just select 10 people, who will represent these groups, who can also interact in the process of putting the strategy together.

“What we are talking about really is the level of professionalism of the security agencies. I can say categorically that there is a lot to be done, to ensure that you can stem the tide of violence.

“The current threats we have now, we’ve seen them on TV and read about them happening all over the world. But as a nation, have we confronted them the way we should (have)?”

ON possibilities that there is a relationship between the October 1, 2010 bombing in Abuja and what thereafter happened in Maiduguri, Bauchi, Suleja and again in Abuja; the former military intelligence chief said:

“You’ve heard about explosions in Port Harcourt, Warri, even in Maiduguri. They were far away. But when it happened in Abuja, like the one of October 1, 2010, my worry and those of a number of Nigerians was that it was going to continue.

“But I don’t believe there is a relationship between October 1st bomb explosions and other ones that had come along. There could be. But nobody knows at this point specifically. The first fear was, could there be copycats? And since then, we’ve seen what has happened: December 25th in Jos, December 31st in Mogadishu Barracks and so on.

“For the security services, in the interim, you have to quickly scale up skills to ensure you can meet up with what is happening.”

Gen. Azazi said nobody prepares for what hasn’t happened most of the time, citing the example of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

His words: “When 9/11 happened in the US, they re-jigged their security architecture; the same in the UK. And they really tried to readjust to get what they want.

“That’s what we are doing: train more policemen, view the deficiencies in the intelligence structure, in the information collection structure.

“Can we train members of state security system who could be more proactive? Yes, we can. It’s a process that’s going on and at the end of the day, it’ll be more effective.”

The Guardian also wanted to know what particular efforts were being made, for instance, in the Police Force, as there is a document about what to do to transform the agency. Some people have said that since the E-department was removed from Police to form the State Security Services (SSS), that the Police have had no intelligence unit that can address modern challenges. What is being done in this direction and do we have the resources for this transformation?

The General’s reaction:

“I don’t know about having resources. So many people are sharing the resources of the nation. But let me tell you a few things that are being done. The Police have a reform platform we must look at and see how we could transform the Police.

“We are talking of community policing and the Police have been working with DFID (Department for International Development — that leads the UK government’s fight against world poverty) and they’ve done it successfully in a few places. But what we must have a comprehensive plan in addressing the issues all over.

“There’s agreement between the Police, my office and DFID: that we must get together to make sure there’s a plan that we will work with.

“On the Police reform agenda, my discussion with the IG is that all the documents that you have, let’s put them together and think of police transformation, the structure, command and control, looking at the average policeman and making him more effective.

“If you don’t identify the individual policeman and train him to be more proficient, it is still a drop in the ocean. I think we are trying to see how the transformation plan could address the average policeman on the way forward.

“And the IG is actually planning to establish an intelligence school because he believes that when he sends policemen to other intelligence schools, they don’t satisfy their operational requirements.

“But they have a department for intelligence anyway. It is functional. It may not be the best of what you deserve; that’s why he is establishing an intelligence school.”

The NSA was taken up on the recurrent issue of State Police within the context of federalism, the synopsis, analysis and his fears.

Specifically, we wanted to know if this transformation in terms of structure and command and control look at the Police within the context of federalism, as some people are agitating for State Police.

The agitators point to the US, where we borrowed federalism from, as having even university police and they are coming here to train our police on community policing.

Recall that a police commissioner once said that the state governors had taken over the management and financing of the Nigeria Police, meaning that we, in fact, have State Police in place. Will this change involve looking at the structure that way in a radical manner?

The NSA was circumspect in his response: “When you have a problem, you think of the best way to solve it and I don’t think the solution to the problem should start from the police.

“The society must be ready to take a look at itself again. You can look at yourself and say what are the deficiencies? Where do you want to go?

“I was asked this question at the National Assembly and I replied that if you want state policing, you must put all cards on the table and discuss the best way for Nigeria.

“Even if you decide to have State Police today, there must be a gradual process. You identify our deficiencies and keep to the level that is acceptable for our security.”