By Dan Abia

In view of the escalating insecurity in the country, Nigeria has been described as a victim of foreign forces who want to dominate its affairs through the sponsorship of terrorism and other heinous crimes. In this interview with Vanguard, Elder Statesman, former Security Adviser to Rivers state Government and a chieftain of PANDEF, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, gives an insight into the fight against terrorism and the best way to end the menace.

 What do make of the current escalation of insecurity across many states of Nigeria? 

Unfortunately we don’t do things right in the country. What is going on in Nigeria is terrorism. Terrorism is not like other crimes where police are deployed to tackle them. Terrorism is like a war and a different technique must be applied to handle it.

Proper advice, if listened to, will curtail the budget of some persons who are linked to terrorism. Terrorism is fought in a manner that applies modern technology and the key components of this are surveillance and intelligence gathering. You don’t fight terrorism with your mouth or by sending troops to go and kill people.

 Facets of terrorism 

Terrorism in Nigeria has two facets: political and economic. It also has both international and local sponsors. If you want to fight terrorism, the key thing to do is to know the source which is table one in the hierarchy. If you shut out the source, terrorism will end. 

Economic terrorism implies that Nigeria, for instance, is endowed with so many mineral resources. There is no part of this country that does not have mineral resources. Our government is only interested in oil and gas exploration. But the international community that is interested in other resources invade the place and begins to tap. They armed and equipped the militias and while the militias are fighting the government, these foreigners are busy tapping the resources. This is what happened in Burkina Faso and other West African countries. That is why you can see them dropping arms, food and other items for them in helicopter inside the forest to distract the people and government. That is economic terrorism. 

 Black Sand: Untapped goldmine in S/South 

Let me use this opportunity to warn South-South governors. There is a goldmine in the coastal region, which nobody sees. It is called the black sand. The Chinese are exploiting the black sand along the Atlantic coast. A kilo of black sand goes for between N18,000 to N45,000. But they are paying the communities between N1600 to N2000 per kilo.

When the local communities realize what these foreigners are doing, they will then recruit the militias to fight them. From the black sand, you can produce jewelries and other things. It is a hotcake in the international market. If the governors of the region are not careful, there will be more problem in the South-South than we had seen before. That is economic terrorism. You see that in Burkina Faso and other West African countries where France and America have been driven out. Now, you see that Russia and China are trying to come in. Nigeria is so indebted to china and they want to be directly involved in our affairs. That is why government is handicapped. 

Political terrorism 

The other aspect is political terrorism. In 2015, this was used against former President Goodluck Jonathan through the Chibok girls kidnapped saga. When this sort of a thing happens, the electorate will be so scared to go out to vote. Politically, a certain group of persons may decide to blackmail the government so that they can have their way. Terrorism is to inject fear into the minds of the people. Terrorism could be used within the government. For instance, a department or ministry whose budget is insufficient can deploy an act of terrorism so that money could keep flowing in. 

In fighting terrorism, only one person is exempted and that is the president. A president cannot fight to unseat himself. Even a vice president of a country can also promote terrorism. 

From all studies, the chief terrorists are those who are close to the government. They are those who dine and wine with the president but are not happy with him. To track this set of people, government must set up CTU (counter terrorism unit). The director of this unit should report directly to the president only. That is why we have problems with our security agencies because they are being tele-guided. 

In Nigeria, the judiciary, legislature and the security agencies are loyal to the commander-in-chief. They are not fighting the terrorism battle independently without interference from different sources. 

How to fight terrorism 

There are different processes of countering terrorism. There is a method called the pigskin. The blood of a pig is an offence to the Muslims. When they go out on a jihad, they want to be holy and not defiled. But the Nigerian government does not take advice. Sambisa forest is not bigger than Nigeria and so google should be able to tell you what is going there, who is planning what and where they are coming from. The master minders of terrorism are on table 2, table 3 and table 4. They are not seen. I can tell you that table 3 does not even know table one and so on. That is the organogram of terrorism. 

Foreign sponsors of terrorism 

We have foreign sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria. We have the locals too. When you want to fight terrorism, deploy the chip method. Call those you suspect for a meeting and chips will be placed to monitor their activities. Soldiers are trained to fight physical war. We need more than that. We must check the sources of terrorism funding and stop them.

We have less than two years to 2027 general elections, do you insecurity hurting the polls? 

I have said that political terrorism is to over throw and take over government during elections. But do we really have elections in Nigeria? They told us about BVAS and Server, did you see those things deployed during the elections or did they even work? In 1983, September, I contested for the state House of Assembly under UPN. NPN was in power then. The election was massively rigged and I was angry and I threatened to go to court.

But Chief Obafemi Awolowo told me not to go to court that the government was weak from the foundation and would not stand. Some of them were jailed for 100 and some 200 years when the military struck. The judiciary in the country is weak. That was why what happened in Rivers State happened. A democratically elected governor was unconstitutionally removed from office without any reason. National Assembly is compromised. Some members took money and kept quiet. There is a case on this in court. The governor has since returned to office but up till now, the court has not fixed a date for the case. We have seen what is happening in West Africa, we don’t want that to happen in Nigeria. 

 Dangerous signals 

There are a lot of dangerous signs in the country. Even the case of Nnamdi Kanu has put Nigeria on a dangerous spot.

Do you think going by what is happening in the country now, President Tinubu has a clear chance of winning re-election in 2027?

Well, we don’t know what happens after now, two years is still far away. In this country, we had seen a situation where all the political parties adopted late Gen Sani Abacha. At the end of the day, Abacha died. We cannot talk as if the world belongs to us. I fell in love with Jimmy Cliff as a young man then. But today he is dead. Let us wait and see what happens hereafter.

 We have seen several coups in West African sub region. Just recently, it was Guinea Bissau, what message is this gradual shift in governance sending to Nigeria? 

I want to thank God for the likes of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who made the Nigerian Army to lose interest in politics. He destabilized the military from interfering in politics. The world is going the direction of democracy and we should not take that for granted.

The symptoms in the country do not point to true democracy. But we just have to be careful. That does not mean that the military should take over power. No. Democracy should be allowed to thrive. But politicians should also do what is right. They should not provoke the people who voted them into power. God has been helping Nigeria so far. What has happened in this country, if they happen in other countries, they will break up.

We have witnessed several kidnappings in the country involving school children and churches in some states of Nigeria, why has a state of emergency not been declared in those states as was declared in Rivers that did not exhibit any of such crimes?

It was surprising that the judiciary that was supposed to interpret the law did not do so. The legislature was also compromised in the process. They became appendages of the executive arm of government. What happened in Rivers State was surprising. It means that there is no democracy in Nigeria. If there was, the President will not just get up and suspend a democratically elected governor.

The so called sole administrator came here and did as he liked and boasted that nothing will h toh him. Truly, nothing happened to him. Nigeria does not need a coup. But we must work on our democracy. America has its own crisis but their democracy has stabilized. We should stabilize our democracy.

Give us your view of how 2027 elections will look like in view of the strength of  political parties like the APC, PDP and ADC? 

I will not want to predict anything. Something can happen that will change the entire dynamics. We don’t own tomorrow. Yes, we have seen governors and other politicians defecting to the APC. Do you really know whether they are going there to sink the party? Do you know whether there will be an implosion there? Tomorrow will take care of itself.

But I can tell you that with the way things are going, we need to just hold ourselves. Something may happen between now and 2027. Who believed that PDP would experience what is happening to it now.

Do you believe there is a Christian genocide in Nigeria and what do you make of Donald Trump’s threat of sending troops to the country? 

What I know is that there are economic and political genocide. There are those who make sure that a particular government leaves for another to come in. The economic aspect of it is that some persons just want to distract the government while exploiting the resources. Nigerian economy depends on China. America is losing its position in the scheme of things and will want to fight tooth and nail to come back to reckoning and to have dominance.

China is already in the Niger-Delta. We are sitting on a keg of gun powder. We should be very careful of what we say and do in this country. That is my take on that.

Vanguard News