What is your take on the menace being cause by suicide bombers in the country?
I think the people who constitute themselves as suicide bombers are not normal human beings. In law, the crime of taking ones life is quite clear. If you take somebody’s life without the authority of a court of competent jurisdiction, then, you have committed murder.
I think people who are doing this thing have been brainwashed and they do not know what they are doing. They might have been subjected to the intake of hard drugs that makes them not to know the consequences of their actions.
Otherwise, how would one agree to get involved in an exercise that leads to your death? I believe these insurgents are criminals and murderers. I also think this heinous act is rampant in the north because of the high level of abject poverty, illiteracy and ignorance among the people of the region. Most of the people there do not go to school, they are not learned, not exposed and hence, are easily deceived that if they kill, they would go to heaven.
But, how do you think this heinous act can be curbed?
I think consistent public enlightenment of the people has to be carried out. But apart from conducting public enlightenment, it is the duty of the security agencies to penetrate these areas and know the people. During our hey days in the police service, in a situation like this, we penetrate such people pretend to be like them, get all the information about them and pass same to the headquarters.
With such information, we get them arrested. But today, such is not done because the police themselves are afraid for their lives. They easily dangle their identity cards for identification as police officers. Under normal situation, the police are not supposed to be easily identifiable, especially if operating under cover investigation. Now the force is corrupt by not doing its job properly. The officers today, are only concerned with what will benefit them and not what will benefit the nation.
Do you support the call for the ban of wearing hijab among muslim womenfolk considering that other neighboring countries have done so in a bid to curb suicide bombings?
No! I do not support the ban. This is because hijab is a traditional mode of dressing for Muslim women. We cannot because of the security situation, ban its use since it is in line with the teaching of Islam. It is wrong. I think the people have to be rather more observant and vigilant. If you see a woman wearing hijab, observe her critically.
How Islamic are the Boko Haram members?
Well, I said it before and I am saying it again that the Boko Haram sect are not Muslims. They are criminals and murderers. If they are Moslems, they will not kill the way they are killing. If they have grievances, they should state what their grievances are, and I believe government will tackle their grievances.
As a security expert, would you say the country has enough strong laws to curb terrorism in Nigeria?
No, before I didn’t think so. Because in the past, our government ignored security, but now that President Muhammadu Buhari is on the saddle, hopefully, between now and the end of his tenure, the security situation will improve. In the past, security votes were used in getting and sourcing for security information but today security votes are being diverted to other uses like hiring of political thugs, buying of vehicles and so on. I think government should use security votes for the purpose it is meant for.
Do you have any suggestion on how best the insurgency can be combated?
First of all, the number of policemen we have in this country is very low compared to the daily crimes that occur. Government should increase the number of police; and then, carry out training and retraining of police personnel, provide them with adequate working materials and give them incentives. When these things are taken care, their performance would surely improve. Without good incentive for the police, how then do we expect them to perform well?
How do you compare the effort of the present government in the fight against the insurgents and the immediate past administration?
I think this government has done extremely well because you can see that the Boko Haram insurgents have been thrown into disarray. They have been destabilized and that is why they have emerged from their holds to come and throw bombs anyhow. With the effort of the military, I am sure that by December of this year, the whole Boko Haram sect would be reduced to pocket attacks here and there. I think the present government has done better than the previous one. The previous government was only playing lip service on security issues. The people then were only making money out of the situation without doing much.
Recently, the suicide bombers struck in Abuja killing scores of people. Don’t you see the latest attack as a sign that the insurgency is escalating rather than reducing?
Well, I wouldn’t say it is escalating but rather we are just not being security conscious. I would say Nigerians should carry out “operation know your neighbor”: try to identify strange people in their midst. Identify visitors and we should know areas that pose security threat. I would suggest the use of plain-clothes security operatives in ‘cloudy’ places. Government should do any thing that will enhance better security in the country.
The military authority recently alleged that some Northern leaders are Boko Haram sponsors, what is your take on this?
Well, they are in the best position to know. It may be they got this information from intelligence gathering, I do not know. But I do know that in this country, anything is possible and can happen.
Today in this country, military uniforms are indiscriminately sewed and used. But I am happy with the recent pronouncement that camouflage uniforms used by para-military agencies be withdrawn. It is a good decision. We should be more security conscious and security should be the business of everybody, not the government or security agencies alone.
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