UNMASKING THE ENEMIES OF OUR NATIONAL SECURITY

For quite some time, our nation has been bedevilled by a very high level of insecurity, in the magnitude that has never been experienced at peace time throughout her chequered history.

The dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram has been fingered; not only that, the group has accepted responsibility, for being responsible for a series of bombings and violent attacks on innocent people, especially the security forces –police stations, the United Nations country headquarters building in Abuja, the nation's federal capital, churches, and lately, media houses and universities.

Many lives have been lost, while scores of victims of the sect's attacks have been maimed or displaced. Never in the history of our nation has any other group given our nation the magnitude of worries that the Boko Haram group has given it so far.

The group has been a torn in the flesh of our nation; it has made life unbearable, unsafe and unpredictable to the residents of the northern part of the country.

As a result of their seeming ubiquitous nature in the north, it has been difficult nay, impossible for the security forces to curtail the excesses of the group, at least up till now.

The Boko Haram group has turned into a sort of a jinx that must be broken at all costs and by all means; in the north where it has been unleashing terror on the residents, the fear of the group is the beginning of wisdom.

The more the security forces go after the group, the more daring it becomes, and as things currently stand, the government and the security forces seem to be confused and frustrated.

Sometime ago, our own very dear President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan publicly declared, ostensibly out of sheer frustration, that Boko Haram dissidents had infiltrated the rank and file of his government and even the security forces.

At the time that the President made that comment, the entire country was actually shocked that such a grave “unpresidential” revelation could be made by him. Many public affairs commentators derided the President for making that comment, while some others felt that the President's statement was highly loaded and as such needed to be investigated.

So far, all efforts geared towards unmasking and checkmating these acclaimed and accredited enemies of our national security, have proved abortive. Instead of the bombings and violent attacks of the dastardly group abating, they have rather increased with greater intensity.

With the upsurge in the violent attacks of the Boko Haram group and the seeming helplessness of the government and security forces to curtail their excesses, not a few people felt, and rightly too, that the government needed to look inwards in its quest to demystify the mystery surrounding the Boko Haram group with a view to permanently stopping the group's orgy of violence which it has been unleashing on innocent citizens.

It is in the light of this widespread opinion that the statement that was made by the National Security Adviser, General Owoye Azazi (rtd.) at the 2012 South/South Economic Summit held at Asaba, the capital of Delta State, needs to be thoroughly analysed and investigated.

These were Gen. Azazi's exact comments at the summit: “...And I would like to say this, though the P.D.P. people will not agree with me; they would like to attack me, but I hope they do it in private. P.D.P. got it wrong from the beginning by saying that Mr. A can go and Mr. B cannot go, and these decisions were made without looking at the constitution. Is it possible that somebody was thinking only Mr. A could win and if he could not win, there would be problems in the society?...”

What a buck-passing, careless, mindless and reckless statement by a so-called National Security Adviser!

How could Gen. Azazi make this reprehensible and sordid statement? To whom was he passing the buck of insecurity in the northern part of the country?

If really he was passing the buck of insecurity in the nation to the Peoples Democratic Party-P.D.P. as it appeared in his statement, then he is totally wrong.

What he said without any ambiguity whatsoever, was that it was as a result of the choice of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as the Presidential flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party-P.D.P. and ultimately his election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that gave rise to the Boko Haram phenomenon and insecurity in the country.

Granted that there were indeed high level intrigues, underhand dealings and other sharp practices at the national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party-P.D.P. where the President was elected as the party's flagbearer at the 2011 Presidential elections, were they really enough for the faceless Boko Haram group to take up arms against the Nigerian state and unleash mayhem in the form of agony, pain, tears and sorrow on innocent citizens in the magnitude that the nation has witnessed so far?

Now the apparent “upper cut” question: Were the high level intrigues, underhand dealings and other sharp practices witnessed in the party's Presidential primary election that produced Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, not also witnessed in the party's Presidential primary election (and ultimately the Presidential elections) that produced the late President, Alhaji Shehu Musa Yar'adua of blessed memory?

Did the late President not confirm this himself with his own mouth that the 2003 Presidential elections on which crest he rode to power, was greatly flawed? Did the south take up arms against the Nigerian state as a result of the emergence of Alhaji Shehu Musa Yar'adua (of blessed memory) as the President of the country?

Gen. Azazi seems to be a poor student of history, though as a retired senior military officer occupying the very high position of National Security Adviser, he should be good in the subject.

The import or implication of his statement is quite clear: That he is not, and have not been, on the same page with the party that is controlling the affairs of the country-Peoples Democratic Party-P.D.P. and by extension, the Federal Government led by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan; yet he has been occupying the exalted position of National Security Adviser. What a paradox!

Given that he has been grieving over the emergence of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as the President of the country, he should have rejected the position of National Security Adviser, to show that he has a good conscience, just as he wanted the world to believe through his reprehensible statement.

What else can we call backstabbing if this is not? As things stand now, public affairs analysts who advised the government to look inwards if it really wanted to unmask the real enemies of the nation's security and by extension, the Boko Haram elements within the government, seem to have been vindicated.

Gen. Owoye Azazi should know much more than he has revealed to the nation through his statement as the real reason behind the insecurity of the country, and he should be made to tell the nation more than the little that he has revealed, that is, if he is not untouchable. It is ironical that the National Security Adviser , General Owoye Azazi, seems to be one of the enemies of our national security.

Given the fact that Peoples Democratic Party-P.D.P. disappointed Gen. Owoye Azazi by choosing Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as its Presidential flagbearer, which choice, to him is the real reason for the insecurity in the nation, and it is impossible to undo that act, he should honourably resign his appointment as the National Security Adviser, as he has lost the moral justification to remain in the position.

BY OCHIABUTO KALU OKORIE.