Security scholars criticize CDS’s Call For UN Investigation Into Terror Funding
Prof. Olawale Albert, a security scholar at the University of Ibadan (UI), along with Oladayo Ayoola, a lecturer in the Department of Criminology and Security Studies at Lead City University, Ibadan, expressed their criticism on Thursday regarding the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa’s appeal to the United Nations (UN) for an investigation into the financing and training of Boko Haram.
Musa, in an interview with Al-Jazeera, had called on the UN to probe the funding and training of the Boko Haram terrorists.
Musa said there was international flow of funding for the terrorists, stressing the need for the UN to come in to trace and track it.
Reacting to the call, Albert said such a call would create the misleading impression that the Nigerian security system lacks the requisite capacity.
The professor said: “General Christopher Musa is one Nigerian military officer I have a lot of respect for. But I disagree with him on this very one of asking the UN to help Nigeria investigate the funding and training of Boko Haram terrorists. This creates the misleading impression that the Nigerian security system lacks requisite capacity.
“Let’s address the funding issue. Musa said the terrorists captured are always with substantial foreign currencies. Are they dumb and deaf during interrogation to say where they got the money from? What is the job of the Department of State Services (DSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Nigerian Police Force Intelligence Bureau, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and office of the National Security Adviser (NSA)? Can none of them do what we ask the UN to do for us? What did we do with the intelligence provided by our neighbours (Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Benin Republic)?
“The UAE once provided us with a list of those funding Boko Haram. Where is the list, and what did we do about it? What did we do with the intelligence the rest of the world provided? Our problem is a lack of readiness to use the available intelligence to keep the country safe. The UN is busier than being dragged into this white goose chase. There are many Resolutions of the UN Security Council on terror funding. We should read and act on them as expected of all Member States.”
On his part, Oladayo Ayoola said: “It is not the mandate of the UN to do that, but we need to tidy up our home. We need to look inwards rather than play to the gallery. Nigeria has a lot to do”.
Adding his voice, another security scholar at UI, Prof. Oyesoji Aremu, said the call showed the limitations of Nigeria as a country which ought to have been addressed by the presidency.
Aremu said: “Funding of terrorism is a widely known issue, especially in large-scale asymmetric warfare. It is also referred to as terrorist financing. Mostly it is in support of big organisations promoting terrorism. The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) given his vantage position and intelligence at his disposal correct.
“However, terrorism financing may not necessarily be in the provision of either local or foreign currencies. It also includes mass supply of arms and ammunition and logistics (which include surveillance services).
“This was also made known by the CDS. His call on the United Nations to probe the sources of the funding, however, shows our limitations as a country which ought to have been addressed by the presidency.
“It is also very sad inferring from the statement credited to the CDS that the war against terrorism is far from being over technically or otherwise.
“And again, the truer fact is that more splinter groups are coming up arising from crises in the Middle East and Sahel Region; and of course because of the seemingly cold bilateral relationship with countries like Niger, Chad and Mali. This makes our territorial borders to be more difficult to secure.”
