If I Were The NSA?
Mon, 16/07/2012 ? 1:57am | IKE WILLIE-NWOBU Opinion Comment & Opinion
As I write this, my hand just left my mouth?my teeth in fact, nearly bleeding with the grazing of its outer surface by profuse biting. I applied for the job of the National Security Adviser in my patriotic bid to contribute my own quota to instil lasting peace into the terror-battered polity and environment of my beloved country. But for my concerted efforts, lobbying and all the entire scramble for the office demands, all I got for my trouble was the cheering news that the job had been handed Col Dasuki Sambo, a friend of General Andrew Azazi, erstwhile NSA and in-law of General Aliyu Gusau. Short of being bitter, you would naturally agree that I would be angry, sorry and sore. But bitterness over this matter is a pleasure and privilege I certainly wouldn?t give myself. And I have a lot of reasons not to, in the light of the way and manner the present security chief has pounced on his job, apart from the innate spirit of sportsmanship that frowns at such feelings in the event of defeat.
Colonel Dasuki Sambo?s opening approach to his mandate of stemming the Boko Haram tide is highly plausible, tactful and strategic. He began by visiting Borno and Plateau states, two of the worst-hit hotbeds of the crisis. This manner of assuaging wounds and pacifying flaring tempers has endeared him to me first off, and will make me consider writing off my claims of compensation on him for plagiarizing my agenda. This is the simple but hyper-effective approach this problem has been yearning for, but was naively starved of by the penultimate security regime.
A good study of the roadmap and tool of thinking provided by the Book of Nehemiah and Ezra interfaced with the Book of Daniel and Esther will further prove the veracity of this fact, and its profound relevance in this parlance. Jos is in trouble, Kaduna is disjointedly groaning in pain, Kano is at war, and Borno, for example, in its strategic position as an important Trans-Saharan route, has been economically, socially and even spiritually demoted. Other zones like Yobe, Taraba, Niger and even the FCT which have had their fair scoop of the insurgent dish are not even mentioned here.
It is heart-warming that the new NSA saw and understood, like I have been opining in my pieces, that the solution to this impasse has never been, and will never be in the proliferation of arms and ammunition, but a conscious effort at not only promoting the resilience of the people, but a cultural, political, social, ethnic and religious power balance and negotiation. In the light of that realization, I would have advocated that the over 900 billion naira voted for security under the NSA should be managed by me for proactive employment and empowerment projects, incorporating mobile health projects among other people-oriented programmes. That would probably put paid to any recurring feelings I would have concerning filing for my compensation.
In most climes and democracies, the office of the National Security Adviser does not belong to the Police or the Armed forces or any other security outfit. As a result, they cannot issue them orders, and of course it does not have the monopoly of wisdom, thinking and process in the tackling of security issues and challenges. The office is meant, like I have repeatedly stated, for purely advisory applications, and a probably little logistic functions of organizing and interfacing the security paraphernalia in the country. The Nigerian operation of that office, as we can clearly see from the previous administration, was a marked departure from the installed functionalities of that office.
I would call on the media, civil society and the generality of Nigerians to support Sambo rousingly, but watch him closely for any tell-tale signs of derailing from the status-quo and manifesto. That is one of the dividends and beauty of democracy, at least being able to voice out and challenge any erring system. In Nigeria, we can see that violence has been democratized, from the recent goings-on.? Azazi is not the problem, but people have erroneously arrogated him unnecessary attention and power. Sambo has demonstrated readiness to confront this menace head-on, and he would do with recruiting the right field men, and not certificate-wielding bureaucrats to assist him.
Population behaviour, effective decision making process and successful use of power has always remained a major determining factor in activating and energizing our seemingly complex but simple security problem.? The government has just realised the negative impact of the Libyan crisis on us.???? To my dear new NSA, he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. You have beaten me to this job, but it does not at all mean I have given up, and so goes for so many others. A lot of people are looking for that job, so you had better deliver on that mandate.? Only two options are available to you: excel and exist, or fail and fall out. As a Nigerian from the Igbo ethnic extraction, having interests, of course economic, across the nation, being major stakeholders and support structure in the Nigerian state, we stand a better position to support the Nigerian dream.? Happy time in office, my dear Dasuki Sambo.
?Nwobu wrote in? from Maitama, Abuja
