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Israel Agents, Onovo And National Security

July 15, 2010

In April last year, when the US based research group EURASIA, one of the world's leading global political risk research and consulting firms, listed Nigeria as one of the failing states, we all rose with furious indignation in defence of our country condemning the group and dismissing its report as the ranting of those who did not mean well for us. But even before that report, the US National Intelligence Council had in 2005 sounded a warning that Nigeria was heading for disintegration.

In April last year, when the US based research group EURASIA, one of the world's leading global political risk research and consulting firms, listed Nigeria as one of the failing states, we all rose with furious indignation in defence of our country condemning the group and dismissing its report as the ranting of those who did not mean well for us. But even before that report, the US National Intelligence Council had in 2005 sounded a warning that Nigeria was heading for disintegration.
For their trouble, we told them a piece of our mind and what they could do with their “friendly” warning. Of course, we knew that the spate of criminal activities such as armed robbery, assassination and kidnapping, social unrest in form of religious and ethnic violence, militancy, insurgency and other forms of youth restiveness as well as collapsing infrastructures were symptomatic of the times when the doomsayers  were writing off Nigeria as a failing, if not an already failed, state. But our patriotic fervour would not allow us perceive our country as anything but dynamic, capable of sorting out its problems by itself without anyone telling us how or how not to go about it. This is why, sometimes even against our better judgement, we always give our leaders the benefit of the doubt whenever they promise to improve on their performance and give a good account of their leadership.

The revelation on Wednesday by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ogbonna Onovo that Nigeria has drafted Israeli security agents to assist the Nigerian Police in flushing out the kidnappers of the four journalists that were abducted in Abia State last week came as a double blow to our national pride. While confirming that Nigeria may indeed be a failing country, the IGP’s revelation, delivered in a way as if it is the most natural thing to do, has rudely pulled the rug from under the feet of all the chest-beating patriots who always swear on the sovereignty of Nigeria.

The Inspector General was reported to have told traditional rulers in Umuahia, Abia State that the Israeli operatives would help in the house-to-house search for the abducted journalists, saying, with apparent pride, that the operation would “signal a turning point in the fight against kidnapping in the state”. That sounds like the Israelis have come to stay in that part of the country and, possibly, any other place where the failure of Onovo’s men is obvious; which is everywhere. The harvest of grief on account of the commission and or omission by Police operatives defines the peoples’ perception of the utility of the Nigeria Police Force to the society.

But inviting the foreign intelligence agency of a nation known for its pathological dislike for anyone not of the Jewish race and its flagrant abuse of the rights of its neighbours to “assist” in a routine security operation, is clearly an admission of gross incompetence on the part of the Police as well as a mark of total lack of patriotism on the part of Nigeria’s leadership. Sharing your secrets with a nation that makes even legitimate entry into its territory a near impossibility is clearly pushing the boundaries of rapprochement to ridiculous limits. It is all the more condemnable given that foreign intelligence agency in question has the dubious distinction of being the most ruthless, insidious and fanatical in the world. Where as serious nations go to extreme lengths to guard their secrets, here we invite foreign nations to come and share our secrets.

If we have to resort to inviting the secretive Israelis to help us find the local criminals behind the kidnap of the journalists, then we may as well invite the Americans to take over the Presidential Villa and the National Assembly because of the criminal failure of the nation’s leadership, which is arguably at the root of most, if not all, of our problems. At least, the Americans would not be sneaky about it.

And since IG Onovo was courageous enough to admit that those behind the unprecedented spate of kidnappings are his kinsmen and women from the south-eastern part of the country, he should do the most honourable thing under the circumstance; resign from his post as this criminality in his home zone is tantamount to a no-confident-vote passed on him by his own people. A public office holder who is almost always in the news for the wrong reasons should have no reason remaining in that office, more so when his own kith and kin are in most cases responsible for the exposure of his incompetency. And while he is at it, Mr. Onovo should remember too to reject the national honour for which he was recently nominated, because accepting it would be the height of indecency. If however, the allure of the office would not allow the IG to take the path of honour, then it falls on President Goodluck Jonathan to steer him onto the path leading to the gate of dishonour and ignominy.

 

Labaran Malumfashi wrote from no.3 Majekondumi Crescent, Utako, Abuja.

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