Between Politics and Security

By Capt. Jauro Musa Liya (Rtd)

Security cannot be separated from good governance. It is therefore important to state here that without unity of purpose between politicians and security agencies, then every one on both sides will be left with bad taste.

Borno State has suffered for well over a decade from insecurity with its attendant consequences. I am writing as an indigene, a stakeholder and as one who served meritoriously in the Nigerian Army. Whatever we will say or do that will not bring peace, healing, reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation which the Nigerian Army is undertaking to ensure, is a crime against my people, my community, our state and Nigeria in general. When we are ready to tell each other the truth and put the nation beyond personal interest, sentiments and temporal partisanship, then shall we begin the journey to reclaim our collective destiny.

As Borno people, our ethnic cleavages are not just severe and enduring, they are our abiding source of conflict. As it is stated, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Until we appreciate the importance of working together as security agencies or politicians in our community, we will keep going round in circles of falsehood, blame game and denials as we cannot suppress the truth perpetually.

When an interest other than the security of the people is being pursued, it ridicule our gains and all the sacrifices so far made. Indeed, we may not be where we should be as far as our expectations are concern in Borno, but we cannot aggrandize our authority by talking down the gains made. It is an act of treachery to turn the sufferings of thousands of soldiers and other security agencies with some paying the ultimate price into a pecuniary political gain.

In as much as I join millions of Nigerians to condemn the attack on the governor of Borno state, I am also particularly happy that he came out unscathed. However, I will also use this opportunity to respectfully urge the governor to keep a tight reign on his emotions and unnecessary public outburst. As chief security officer of the state, having an open confrontation with soldiers does not make you a strong leader. It only win you a support that is not deep in the short run, but it exposes your weakness and portray you as one who is at loggerhead with those working at the risk of their lives to bring an enduring peace in Borno State

As chief security officer of the state, you are suppose to work as a team with the security agencies and not to be seeing to grandstand against your security agencies which are out there to serve you and our own people.

This development (open confrontation with security agencies) is worrisome and has far reaching consequences as insurgents and criminal elements get encouraged by infighting of the opposite side. Their aim is to instill fear through threat or act of violence, once the two partners in progress are at dagger’s end, which gives room or a fertile ground for the terrorists to carry out more havoc. It is therefore a poor strategy, except probably in the interest of politics to exhibit such outburst and unrestrained utterances before the world. For those of us who are trained in security and have practiced security at the highest level in this country, we find this ugly development as very scary and as a matter of urgency I urged that this trend should be resolved through internal mechanisms of dialogue rather than playing to the gallery, otherwise we will put Nigeria’s sovereignty, peace and security in a serious jeopardy.

It is worth a mutual respect to consider the sacrifices of the soldiers as a gag to unguided utterances and spontaneous reaction. By all means, it is for this effort and sacrifices that the governor is able to perform some of his functions and exercise his powers. Powers cannot be exercised in a vacuum, hence a governor cannot be a governor unless there is peace. This is why it is necessary to work together towards maintaining peace.