NATIONAL SECURITY; THE THREAT OF INDIFFERENCE

On Tuesday 25^th of October, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) called a press conference during which it called on the Federal Government to look into security threats being made against Muslim communities in the Niger Delta. The JNI was reacting to a one-week ultimatum given to all Muslims in the Niger Delta by a group which called itself the Egbesu Mightier Fraternity to leave the region. The group had, on the 10^th of October, 2011 dropped letters at mosques which were addressed to Muslim communities asking them to leave within a week, claiming that Boko Haram activities and the killing of Christians in the north have destroyed the basis of unity in development in Nigeria. The group had copied the letter to the Sultan of Sokoto.

          The Jama’atu Nasril Islam secretary-general said that the Muslim communities are under serious threats and as a result, some of them have started moving out of the region because it is no longer safe for them to live there. He regretted that government has not made any statement or taken any action to allay the fears of Muslim communities in the region; and this is fuelling fears that the threat may be credible. He also made references during the press conference to other threats from a group called Akwa’at in Kaduna State, as well as the reported demand by President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that all Nigerians should be allowed by law to own guns.

          The press conference by the JNI, and in particular the reference to the threat issued to the Muslim communities in the Niger Delta and the resultant movement of people should be taken very seriously by government. It is difficult to understand how an administration which claims that security is its top priority could have failed to react to the letters from the faceless group since the 10^th of October. Certainly, it cannot claim to be unaware of the letters dropped around mosques in the area. It cannot claim to know that the communities have not raised alarm over the threats. State governments know of these threats, and have been aware of the concern of the communities that they may be credible. Yet, until the JNI made public its concern, not one Governor from the South South zone made any statement or took any step to assure the communities that they are safe. Not one Governor from the north made any statement, or made any effort to seek clarifications from his counterparts in the South South over the credibility of the threats, or the authenticity of a group called Egbesu Mightier Fraternity. No spokesperson of Mr. President or any of the security agencies have commented on the threat, or advised the Muslim communities to ignore the threat if there is no credibility to it. Yet only a few days ago, the Vice President, Namadi Sambo said that security is the top priority of this administration.       

          The reported movement of people away from the Niger Delta as a result of the threat has the potential to compound genuine concerns that this administration’s security management strategy, if one exists, is defective, to say the least. It is elementary knowledge that movement of people as a result of crisis or threat tends to trigger more movements the other way. Considerable efforts are needed to assure, protect and prevent people from moving out of particular communities in large numbers either during crisis or out of fear of one. The movement of Muslim citizens out of the Niger Delta alone is capable of triggering movement of Nigerians from the Niger Delta away from Muslim communities. It will be worse if another faceless group, from other parts of the country also issues threats to people from the South South to leave the north. Fortunately, no group has done that; and this is all the more reason why state Governors and the Federal Government should have moved much earlier than now to nip this issue in the bud.

          It is even more necessary now that the Federal and State Governments should raise their levels of sensitivity and awareness to the widening and inter-related nature of the threats to national security. The continuing threat and activities of the Yusufiyya movement popularly called Boko Haram is capable of triggering other threats and crises, as we now see the Niger Delta. Regretfully, there is no evidence that the Federal and State governments are willing to go beyond the strategy of chasing individual shooting and bombing incidents perpetrated by suspected Boko Haram members. The Galtimari Report has been submitted, but neither the report nor its outcome is providing the basis of bold and imaginative initiatives towards dealing with the problem. This leaves citizens in Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Kaduna and Abuja exposed to continuing attacks. It also provides a cover for dubious organisations like the Egbesu Mightier Fraternity to seek their own solutions by telling all Muslims to leave the Niger Delta region. Many people of northern origin are beginning to experience unsettling profiling by host communities or security agencies,  on the suspicion that virtually every northern Muslim is a Boko Haram activist or sympathiser.

          By far the biggest threat to national security is indifference and incompetence by leaders and security agencies over breaches of security, from the most innocuous to the most visible and dangerous. It is quite probable that the Egbesu Mightier Fraternity is a name for a few people who merely want to put fear in the minds of some Muslim communities; and compound President Jonathan’s many problems with national security. But ordinary citizens will not know this. So they leave behind their livelihood and their right to live and work anywhere in Nigeria because they are Muslims, and because no one has assured them that they are safe. They return to communities which are angered, and look up to some type of authority to assure them that their kith-an-kin can return; and to stop them from issuing the same threats to others.

          If State Governors in the South South had moved quickly to investigate the threat to Muslims in the Niger Delta and assure them of their safety, their reported movement would not have been taken up by the JNI. If the Federal Government had been alert and sensitive to the implications of the threat, it would have conducted an investigation into the threat of the Fraternity, and informed Nigerians of its findings. As it is, simple citizens earning a livelihood far away from their home communities chose to play safe and move. This is a major indictment of those with responsibilities to give us protection. They pose the biggest threat to national security; and will be an even bigger threat if they do not act quickly and with some level of competence and commitment to douse this spreading fire.