It is time to rethink our national security architecture. The current security architecture in place today was created by the military and largely upheld by the 1999 constitution.
The 1986 reform of the security agencies was in line with the character of the Gen. Babangida regime, which was bold in thinking and reform-minded. The security architecture of that time was a direct response to the challenges of that time and served its purpose for many years. Today it is no more fit for purpose.
By 2003 the first signs of stress arising from the Niger Delta agitations and militancy began to rear its head. The rise, growth and mutation of the militant groups appeared to have caught our security services napping as they held the nation at the jugular. It led to President Obasanjo meeting with militants at the Presidential villa advertising the helplessness of our security agencies. President Yar’ Adua had to cobble together an Amnesty program to contain the embarrassing situation of weak state capacity.
In 2010 Boko Haram rose to national consciousness with the killing of the sect leader and the subsequent terror unleashed by the group. Again, the growth, evolution, radicalisation and militarisation of the sect caught the national security system pants down. The war, this time unlike the Niger Delta agitation, found manure in religious fundamentalism that could not be appeased with an amnesty. The story of Boko Haram and its terror machine is well known, but the lessons of its emergence and sustained war machine needs interrogation.
My take is that the security architecture designed in 1986 and the institutional framework created by the 1999 constitution are inadequate for today’s security challenges. The trajectory of crime, national security challenges and cross-border crimes cannot be understood and dealt with by yesterday’s institutions.
A redefinition of our concept of security in line with new trends and mutants is sorely needed. Time is running out.
Osita Chidoka
Sept 2021
- Chidoka is a former Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, and ex-Minister of Aviation in Nigeria
