The chairman, Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Professor Ango Abdullahi, in this exclusive interview with Daily Trust Saturday in Zaria, spoke on the recent approaches adopted by governors of northern states to tackle the spate of insecurity in the region, as well as his opinion on the situation in the North and Nigeria as a whole.
Recently, you called for synergy between state governments mostly affected by insecurity and the federal government. What necessitated this call?
If you look at the entire country and ask most people their main concern today, I guess most of them would mention security. Most others will also indicate that the economy is a major concern, especially in terms of the wellbeing of the population on a day-to-day needs, cost of things etc. So, I think the economy and security are major front burners at the moment. They are very closely related, if I would say so.
The economy is usually related in so many ways to the issue of security or insecurity, as the case may be. If you take the simplistic term, the relationship is that they always say that a poor or hungry man is an angry man. And if you extrapolate, you find that the chances of a poor person being involved in one criminal offence or another are higher than one that is comfortable on a job or has other legitimate sources of income. So there is this very close relationship. But occasionally, we try to separate the discussions between what is a pure security matter and economic matters.
I understand that here, we are likely to concentrate more on the security question rather than the economic issues that are very much interrelated with security.
Most prominently, security has been on our lips for a long time, especially when you identify certain areas of the country where people are experiencing security challenges. You can start with Niger Delta disturbances, for example and soon after, you talk about Boko Haram, mainly in the North East some 12 to 15 years ago. Now, there is a lot of concern about security in the North West, mainly by what people commonly refer to as banditry.
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So, all over the country, security is a major issue now. And most people understand that until this matter is properly handled and eventually resolved, so many aspects of the country’s management will be difficult to manage. For example, if the farmers in the North West cannot go to their farms because of insecurity, there would be trouble because I believe that 80 to 90 per cent of Nigerians living in the North West are dependent on agriculture. And agriculture means engagement in production, whether it is crops or livestock in whatever form.
Even before the issue of banditry, the North West had difficulty with agricultural development for several reasons. Those of us who worked professionally in the system over many years knew all that. For example, the growing season in the North West is generally more dependent on rain than any other source of water to grow crops, which is short. The average growing season for farmers in the North West is between three and a maximum of four months. This means that for eight months, most of the farmers are underemployed or unemployed. When you add this with the natural situation of the rainy season pattern and soil conditions and put it on top of the difficulty the farmers may have in even going to farms, there is a problem. And insecurity will not allow them to go to the farms. That is the major reason why, for anybody responsible for the development of the country, specifically the development of the North West region, or if you like, the Sahel region of northern Nigeria, agriculture should be in the forefront. And agriculture would not be in the forefront until two issues are resolved. The first issue is water, which means that apart from rainfall, there should be facilities for irrigation. The second issue is security, where it will be possible for somebody to go to his farm at night or early in the morning, do his work and return home safely without any concern. Unfortunately, this is not the case now. So, the natural situations are complicated by the security questions that are already well established in the North West zone. This is why I think it is important for people who are responsible for governance, whether at the federal, state or even at the lower level, to really put these questions to themselves and determine which way forward.
How would you react to reports that some states in the North, especially Kaduna and Katsina, have already started taking measures by recruiting youths to fight insecurity?
I am excited to hear that virtually all the states in the North West, especially the new governors, are quite appreciative of the need to really put their heads together to take a hard look at the security situation in the zone and at the same time relate it to some of the policy matters they have to design for people to truly have means of income and livelihood, particularly those of them who are dependent on farms. I am happy to hear that virtually all the governors of the five or so states in the North West are already discussing this. In fact, some states have already started.
My understanding here is that it is agreed that they will recruit civilian security operators. And the definition of these security units will perhaps become clearer in terms of not only the state but also in terms of the relationship between them and other security operators in the country generally.
I represent the Northern Elders Forum in full support of this new initiative. We understand that each state is in the process of recruiting not less than 7,000 young people from anywhere outside their home areas. This is a policy of getting security men not only on ground but also as part of the community. Obviously, it gives you an advantage in terms of how to deal with security situations at any given time. Let me give you an example. If I live in a village in Katsina or Kaduna State and a police officer comes from either Rivers or Calabar and he cannot communicate in Hausa while in most cases the people living in these areas cannot speak English, or even if they try, they cannot be fluent enough to explain situations clearly, what would you expect, particularly when you are dealing with security matters.
So, this is really important. The governors felt there should be this additional effort to help; there should be security men that are part and parcel of the community itself so that they would also have a stake in the security of their people.
Those against this initiative are looking at it in terms of the political motives of these governors, saying they might use such community security to achieve selfish aims; what is your take here?
What aims? The first aim of any political leader is to secure the wellbeing of the people where he is in charge. And without getting this security assured, I can’t see him really comfortable as governor or somebody who can come out of his house and go to any village he wants without any escort.
Even in those earlier days, there was this accusation that the Native Authority police were being used by the party in power to suppress opposition parties. But this is a matter for people to have correct political education. There is nowhere in our laws where a governor is given the power to abuse the legal process. So it depends on awareness and the level of education of the electorate.
Currently, of course nobody is happy with the level of lack of political education that took place in the last elections. It takes political education for somebody to understand that he is being given a meal for a day to make a wrong decision about who is going to mismanage the affairs of his area, state or the country. That’s why people are complaining. And that’s why all the members of the National Assembly would rather ask for expensive and luxurious cars, forgetting what the people they are supposed to lead feel.
How do you think the federal government can come in to complement the security initiatives of the North West governors?
The first requirement will be for the governors to collectively adopt this policy, which in itself is excellent. And they should continue to share experiences in terms of what is happening in their various states. I also understand that they are keeping the federal government fully aware of what they are trying to do; and they are giving sufficient explanation. The basis of doing this is simply to complement the efforts of the federal security forces. I think there is no disagreement, especially at the highest level, that this is going to help the country.
What would be needed is a design that would make sure that the existing security architecture would not work against the initiative of the governors. There must be somewhere along the line where the Nigeria Police Force would work in tandem with this initiative because they know that they have not covered the country effectively, so they require a complement. I can’t see any reason why there should be any conflict at all, particularly in terms of authority.
To what extent would the deployment of both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches be effective in tackling the security situation in the North?
To effectively address these challenges, it is crucial to adopt a comprehensive approach that combines both kinetic and non-kinetic strategies. While kinetic approaches involve the use of force and military operations, non-kinetic approaches encompass diplomatic, economic and social measures. However, the use of force can lead to civilian casualties, destruction of infrastructure and potential for escalation. Moreover, kinetic approaches tend to focus on short-term solutions, failing to address the root causes of conflicts and security challenges, while non-kinetic approaches, on the other hand, offer a broader range of tools to address security situations.
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