WEST Africa is known to be one of the world’s major sources of resources
such as gold, uranium, diamond, bauxite, coal, oil and gas, cocoa, among others. It is also a volatile region characterised by poor governance, weak state structures, poverty, war, stagnant economy, corruption and disease.

For years, it has become a major transit for narcotics from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, as well as Latin American countries of Mexico and Columbia to enter Europe and America.

Prof. Victor Ariole

Most West African governments have neglected the national security implications of these activities, which are now haunting the region which Al-Qaeda wants to set up its operational base, to promote terrorism, hostage taking, drug trafficking, and export international jihad.  Not less worrisome is the War in Mali where the United Nations Security Council had to invoke Charter 7 on use of military force, to restore the political unity of Mali, its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

It is against this background that the security, peace and development have become the focus of the Vanguard Conference of Nigeria and other West African countries. To discuss issues are: Professor Ogaba Oche, Director of Research and Studies at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos; Associate Professor, Victor Ariole, Lecturer at the Department of Modern European Languages, University of Lagos; and Associate Professor , Fred Aja Agwu, Senior Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos.

They are joined by the Vanguard Conference Hall team led by Foreign Affairs Editor, Hugo Odiogor, Kunle Kalejaye and Mrs. Nkiruka Nnorom, both of the Business Desk of Vanguard Newspaper, Lagos. Excerpts

PROF. Oche let me start with you  Sir, how can the situation in Mali be dealt with, so that we can  have peace and development in the West African region and in Nigeria?

Well, this is something that is not within the ability of Mali to do. I think that so far so good, the region of West Africa has been assisted by the international community to beat back the Islamist rebels and I believe that it is on the right track.

Prof. Ogab Oche

I think that when peace is eventually restored in the troubled northern part of Mali, then, further steps should be taken in consonance with international forces and ECOWAS, to make sure that terrorist forces are rooted out. Again, terrorism is not something that you can fought through one tactic or strategy. It has to be fought through a multiplicity approach.

Multi-facet approach

I think the Malian state will have to adopt a multi-facet approach, but central to a long term strategy battle terrorism, is the need to strengthen the Malian state. I think the weakness of the Malian state, along with other states in Africa, are essential factors in the virtual success of the Tuaregs, who are fighting for liberation or independence. To deal with the crisis, a multiplicity approach has to be adopted against terrorist groups.

Prof Agwu: What is your perspective on this? You see, fundamentalism is a problem on its own; then the weakness of the state is another. When fundamentalism mixes with the weakness of the State or state contradictions and racism, that is when you have rebellion, as you can see in Nigeria,Mali or even in Algeria.

I say this because even in Afghanistan where it all started, when the Soviet invaded the Asian country in 1980, the West came and virtually fought against the Soviets in a proxy war,they made their mistakes.  There were some things that they did which  they were not supposed to do.

Prof. Fred Agwu

For instance, there was over reliance on Arab militants that flooded Afghanistan, to fight the Soviets, then there was over-reliance on Pakistan intelligence to deal with the Soviets but aboveall, the uncoordinated exit of the Soviets in Afghanistan was like abandoning the country to its devices. This created the vacuum which was filled in by people like Osama Bin Laden. I talk about this vacuum within the context of state weakness.

Now, it also happened in 1991, when another incident of state weakness, or political contradiction. That was the case of Algeria; where the military leadership in that country cancelled a general election that the Fundamentalist political forces were poised to win. This cancellation caused a civil unrest that shook the country to its foundation.  The Mujahedeen fighters from the Afghan war infiltrated into the North African country and started the Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb. Now the thing has moved down to Mali.

The Tuareg insurgency has been on for many years, but with the emergence of  Al-Qaeda, with its international jihadist agenda, coupled with the kinship relation between the Tuaregs and the other national groups in the Sahel, poverty and bad governance, have  made it possible for the Al-Qaeda to have a footing in Mali.

The initial focus of liberation struggle was distorted, especially, when one of the leaders of the Movement for National Liberation of Mali decamped to form the Ansar Dine, which is the fundamentalist arm that hijacked the Azawad movement.

Now in Nigeria, the problem we had on ground was mis-governance and perhaps poverty.This was before it was mixed up with fundamentalism. My position is that, for us to solve this problem, I align my self with the position of Prof. Oche that we have to adopt a multiplicity approach.

It is an approach that will not only deal with those socio-political contradictions, but it is also an approach that will address the fundamentalist part of it, which is not found in the socio-political and economic contradictions. When we talk about the Al-Qaeda,  that is the main Al-Qaeda, or the Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, we must look at the synergy in the world of terrorism, a synergy which is prompted by aspiration or inspiration to establish a theocratic state that is operated on Islamic legal codes. That is why any attempt to resolve terrorism problem, the onslaught of the Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb in Mali or the local incident of Boko-Haram must take the socio-political dimension into consideration as well as addressing the fundamentalist idea.

What is your reading of the matter?

Prof. Ariole:The military approach could not be the total solution because even before Mali got into its present state, AFRICOM has been in Mali; there was American presence in Mali, trying to train Malian officers, on how to handle terrorist activities. How come AFRICOM was not able to get these soldiers and officers to tackle the Islamists as they came? It shows that there was a missing gap that I don’t quickly understand yet.

Prof. Victor Ariole

The military approach is not likely to yield  a lasting solution. As you just mentioned, the cultural and human intellectual aspect have not brought in, to get the Malians to understand who they really are, and how best to face enemies coming against their nation. Mali is a country that is dominated by Malinkes, somehow called the Mandingos depending on how you pronounce it, and where you are from. They are confronting other ethnic groups who want to also dominate in Mali, but they are not the majority ethnic group. Groups like the Fulanis, the Tuaregs, the Shua-Arabs, they are all there and they need to be incorporated into the running of Mali or to be left alone, to run their own course.

Do not forget that the Saharawi issue is also within the periphery of Mali, Morocco and Algeria and that issue has separated Morocco and Algeria, because they don’t seem to   agree on establishing Saharawi as an independent nation.

The same has become the fate of the Tuareg who are not completely supported in terms of having their own independent state in West Africa, but they are supported by the Maghreb states who feel that having a belt that covers the Saharawi people in between the Maghreb country and the black West Africa, could be a lee-way into getting in to the West African territory.

So, it is a very dicey issue that cannot be resolved by military approach.  The Maghreb States will always support the Tuaregs, fighting to liberate themselves from West Africa just as Algeria did for the Saharawi and Morocco was against it because Morocco felt that they ought to be with them. So it is a long intellectual battle and it has to be solved by bringing everybody on the table to discuss how best to settle them, not necessarily, by allowing them to infiltrate the Malian nation and make it a useless nation, in terms of terrorist bargain , getting it and taking it out of West Africa blacks, which is basically what Gaddafi would have loved to see.

Whether we like it or not,  Gaddafi was in support of the Tuaregs and he had a covert agreement with them to see that something happened , that is to ensure that they get a country of their own.

We have to be  thinking along  the line of how best to stop that mind set, so that West Africa, will be in peace because it will touch the whole of West Africa whether we like it or not, when the insurrection is not stopped now.

What  kind of multiplicity approach should be brought into this situation now that we are already in a military combat?

Prof. Oche: That is  a comprehensive question, I will go back to what I said earlier on. The use of intellectual means of trying to at least reduce the intensity of violence caused by terrorism in  that part of West Africa. I think it is very important to counter the means whereby the fundamen-talist, extremist, the terrorist spread their views, ideas at that level; I think it is important to wage battle.

I am thinking of institution such as religious institutions, that is, mosques where they do their Friday preaching, where they carry out incendiary form of preaching. We must monitor those means whereby extremist ideas and attitudes, are spread in the society. We must watch out for those channels whereby they sell their ideas to other members of the society, a place where individuals who were neutral are converted to fundamentalism and extremism. It is essential to cultivate a kind of counter-narrative to views that contain extremism and fundamen-talism ideas and I think that will be long lasting.

Although it is necessary to use force, it is necessary; to wedge a short term battle, but the long term battle has to be at the level of ideas and thinking. If you can covert the more fundamentalist and extremist ideas into pacific ideas or pacific ideologies, pacific variance of Islam then, I think we will be heading somewhere then, it will be easier for the various ethnic groups that were  mentioned earlier, to live peacefully together if they embrace ideas that contain peace, and not necessarily extremism and combat.

After the Second World War, there was Marshall Plan which was put in place to rebuild Germany and reconstruct the entire Europe, not only in terms of infrastructure, but also to ensure that the ideology of fascism was contained and defeated, but here in Nigeria,  our politicians don’t seem to realize that there is an ideology that drives the Boko Haram insurgency and the politics of terror that is ravaging the country as well as the state of insecurity that is engulfing the Sahel region. Gentle men what are your views on this?

Prof. Agwu: I think the most effective approach that can be used to counter terrorism is intellectual means. Fascism is a kind of terrorism.  In the Marshall plan, the whole main fit even though the Marshall plan was a material intervention, that material intervention went side by side with intellectual intervention which was propagating the message against fascism and that message was democratization and opening the political space for more inclusive participation.

But now that we are confronted with terror, I think  our policy maker must focus on the issues which falls into three levels. One, you cannot wash away military dimension; terrorism uses military means and it must be countered militarily. After all, United States of America, for instance, used military strategy in Afghanistan; Russia used military strategy in the Caucuses, and many other places.

Second level of intervention

The second level of intervention, to counter terrorism, is the application of intelligence, which is the most effective, because when you apply intelligence appropriately, you may not need military force. Even if you are going to need military force, the use of intelligence will make for proper application of military force. I think it was the Israeli ambassador to Nigeria, who once visited us in NIIA, under our diplomatic briefing; who told us that if you have an effective use of intelligence, you surely don’t need the military approach.

For example, the moment terrorists plan a move to strike, if you  don’t intercept them at the planning stage, you will surely need the application of force to counter them, but if you can interfere in their activities at the planning stage with intelligence, you will neutralize them

Part of democracy is the ability of people to follow whatever faith they deem fit, but the content of what is preached is very important. Rather than directly going to counter those incendiary infringement, it is important at the level of civic education, to teach the importance of secularization such that people will have an alternative world view that is rational, not a world view that is physiological, where somebody will tell you that when you die you are going to heaven to have virgins around you and that there is an entourage waiting for you.

Counter message

We have to put a counter message that this is not a possibility or way of life or where any society can gain salvation. So that is the important of have a program of secularization or massive civic education in countering terror. That is the third point I think should be applied in addition to the military and intelligence level.

 What is your take on our concept of formal and civic education, but more importantly, the religious education fuelled by indoctrination?

Prof. Irele:The world has known some models of moving from geography to secularity. France at a given time was known to be the mother of Catholic. Their military personnel were fighting war everywhere to get everybody proselytized to be a Catholic. We have had wars going to Spain, the French people were going everywhere but at a given time in the 16th and 17 centuries, they have to come to reality that theocracy cannot be used to govern a nation, so they changed.

That is in the issue of theocracy. Now, in West Africa, Mali is an Islamic state, Senegal is an Islamic state, even Cote d’ lvoire would have been an Islamist state, if not for the approach of Houphouet Boigny. He provided the model that can contain theocracy. He is Catholic and even built a Basilica in his own village, Yamoussoukro, which is the capital of Ivory Coast,  but he was not willing in ruling Cote d’ Ivoire in a Catholic way. That is why the war that happened in Cote d’ Ivoire was not so devastating.

The killings were not too much there. People just saw it not as a north and south divide.  What am saying is that he was able to put in place values that are Ivoirians but not to see himself as a theocratic leader but as a citizen that believe in running Cote d’ Ivoire as a secular nation that will profit everybody. Don’t forget that Cote d’ Ivoire is bordering Mali, they are very close.