Could the national assembly be sensationalising national security?

BY FRANK OKEKE

The security situation in Nigeria is one that many people in the country take with utmost seriousness, and which provokes much concern and worry, considering the climate of fear in which most of us live – even as our law enforcement keeps making spirited efforts to contain the situation. Yet, a regular rehash of our national reality, across many of its geographical spaces and communities, evokes narratives of numerous violent crimes, theft, carjacking, alongside the activities of militant groups, kidnappings, and also terrorist attacks by Boko Haram and similar franchises.

Many of these manifestations of insecurity spawn gory statistics that also find expression in numerous travel advisories pointing to alarming risk levels, and safety concerns that make many urge travel cautions to those close to them or within their spheres of engagement, on visits to Nigeria that are non-essential. Or even when essential, many are advised to take the strongest possible safety measures when in the country.

We keep witnessing the unfortunate fallouts of this climate of fear in the restraint of investors from coming in to explore Nigerian markets, coupled with the recession of crucial foreign direct investments (FDIs) that could have eased our balance of trade situations, the pressures on the naira, and pervasive inflationary trends.

Hence, anything that could trigger further alarm around the country’s security situation should be really avoided. Which is why one was deeply alarmed about the recent mismanagement of information coming out of the National Assembly, particularly the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, which had raised a seeming outcry about the so-called missing 3,907 firearms from the armoury of the Nigerian Police Force.

In an environment in which the security services are presently stretched thin in their struggles to contain the level of national insecurity, this is disconcerting news, as one immediately imagines that these arms would have found their ways into the hands of criminals who would use them in pursuing nefarious activities, especially at a time in our national life when the country is undergoing a serious economic crisis that has left many people in deep need and desperation!

Similarly, many will recall that one of the very significant factors that exacerbated the security situation in Nigeria’s North-East and strengthened the hands of various terrorist actors across different franchises, alongside other conflict merchants, was the destabilisation of Iraq, in North Africa, by Western governments, leading to the pouring in of arms and ammunition into West African through the Sahel. This gave oxygen to many criminal groups and actors that was used in prosecuting the insurgencies across the Sahel, into Northern Nigeria.

This is one memory that many will give anything not to have a reprise of in this time, which is why the information management around the purported missing firearms is quite dangerous.

But what could really be the facts of the situation? Is it that firearms from the Nigeria Police are really missing, or that they are unaccounted for, according to the explanations of the Nigeria Police Force?

In the first instance, according to clarifications now widely available in the public space from the police authorities, questions around the 3,907 firearms that were unaccounted for within the Police Force stem from a 2019 audit report by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF), which were actually not “missing,” as recently speculated or suggested.

And, according to a press statement issued a few days ago by the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, “when auditors conduct visits to our armouries, they may not find all arms present at the time due to the issuance of weapons to personnel for operational purposes, many spanning to months depending on the nature of such operations. Consequently, this may lead to misconceptions regarding the accuracy of audit reports.”

Also, the authorities explained that, “It is important to acknowledge the challenges faced by the police during periods of civil unrest, during which several Police Officers were killed and their arms carted away, and some attacks and looting of police facilities and armouries, resulting in the loss of arms.” More importantly, “However, every effort has been made to account for the arms that were taken, while many have been recovered back to the arms holding of the force at the moment.”

The statement went on to elucidate upon the management of firearms by the Police through its own internal processes: “Furthermore, the Nigeria Police Force has a statutory and annual internal auditing process in accordance with the provisions outlined in the Police Regulations, administrative instructions and standard operating procedures (SOP) which include stringent measures to ensure controlled movement and proper accountability of arms. Throughout our audits, there has been no outrageous record of unaccounted for or missing arms, as speculated in the 2019 report of the AuGF, despite some incidences that have been documented and managed.”

No matter the degree of ire one may bear against the Police authorities – and there is quite a spectrum of this out there, yet unresolved due to the lingering lack of trust between the public and law enforcement in the country, despite efforts being made towards pacifying this – we need to be careful with the way information is uncritically processed and disseminated in the country, so that we don’t deepen the climate of fear and create panic.

It is instructive to also heed the advice that came with the statement of the police authorities that, “It is important to note that the proliferation of misinformation, especially against Institutions like the Nigeria Police have far-reaching consequences, including compromising public safety, damaging reputations, and hindering the NPF’s ability to effectively maintain law and order.”

More than just individuals and other social actors, institutions like the National Assembly need to be a lot more restrained and careful with information around national security that its members and committees put out to the public, so as not to exacerbate anxiety. It is, however, good that its committee still seeks to critically engage the questions raised on the unaccounted firearms at its subsequent sittings. And, the honourable thing to do thereafter would be to counter any negative information they might have inadvertently put out, towards allaying public anxiety.

Okeke writes from Jebba in Kwara state.