THE commander of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), General Carter F. Ham, dispatched to Nigeria by President Barack Obama to get first-hand information on Nigeria’s defence and security-related challenges, arrived in the country on Monday.
The arrival of the army chief was confirmed to the Nigerian Tribune by the US Embassy in Abuja. He took over command of AFRICOM on March 9, 2011.
The itinerary of General Ham revealed that he will hold a high-level meeting with Nigeria’s top military chiefs, including Minister of Defence, Dr Bello Mohammed and the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin.
General Ham, who is on his first visit to Nigeria, is also scheduled to meet with the leadership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Peace and Security Directorate.
The meetings, according to findings by the Nigerian Tribune, will provide the visiting General insight into the US-Nigerian military relations as well as Nigeria’s military priorities for the future.
The US Embassy further confirmed to the Nigerian Tribune that such a visit ensures that military cooperation is well coordinated between senior leadership and provides General Ham an opportunity to hear directly from Nigeria’s leaders to better understand their defence and security-related issues.
It noted that Nigeria remained an important contributor to regional security and a valuable peacekeeping partner worldwide.
According to the embassy, “US Africa Command participates in military-to-military engagements with the Nigerian Armed Forces at the request of the Nigerian government.
“Joint exercises and training activities help build capacity and improve military interoperability between the two nations and within the region. US military partnership with the Nigerian Armed Forces also emphasises professional development and the shared belief that an apolitical military, which is subordinate to civilian leadership and respects human rights, is an important component of a democracy,” it added.
Meanwhile, as the Federal Government tackles the Boko Haram menace, more facts over the challenges facing the security agencies have emerged, as the issue of the best strategy to adopt is reportedly dividing the services.
Nigerian Tribune investigations showed that the agencies suffer from issues ranging from coordination to apportioning of responsibilities and strategies covering hard intelligence work and enforcement of law and order.
The affected security agencies include the State Security Service (SSS); National Intelligence Agency (NIA); Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and The Nigeria Police.
It was learnt that the increasing focus on enforcement rather than intelligence operations and gathering was seen within the security community as being responsible for the inability of the agencies to curb the Boko Haram menace.
While some believe more emphasis should be put on intelligence gathering, another group reportedly believes that the challenge is now at the level of enforcement, requiring mostly overt rather than covert operations across the northern states.
There are indications that those who favoured the enforcement option appear to be having the upper hand, leading to insufficient intelligence databank on the Boko Haram and other fundamentalist movements in the country.
“The consequence is what we are having now — free field, for the islamists to operate,” a top retired intelligence chief said.
Nigerian Tribune was told that almost all the security agencies were scrambling to perform enforcement duties in the fight against Boko Haram, a situation said to be generating conflict, especially with the Nigeria Police and the Nigerian Army, which are statutorily empowered to perform enforcement duties.
Further investigations showed that the National Security Adviser had been struggling to introduce collaborative reforms within and among the agencies but his effort was hampered by statutory limitations.
Unlike in the United States of America, the Nigerian National Security Adviser has no legislative backing, which makes the American NSA a very powerful portfolio with statutory supervisory powers over the nation‘s intelligence community.
Unconfirmed reports indicated that heads of some security agencies are protecting their territories in line with laws setting them up, a situation said to be hindering the drive of the NSA to enforce harmonisation of strategies in the fight against Boko Haram.
Despite the limitations, the NSA, known to be a close ally of President Goodluck Jonathan, is said to have read the riot act to security chiefs recently, directing that intelligence gathering and enforcement activities should be carried out in related proportion and in line with the statutory responsibilities of each agency.
Meanwhile, as the military observes the rule on minimum force in its internal security operations, its failure or delay in the use of maximum force could lead requirement of more force to bring certain situations to normalcy.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Azubuike Ihejirika, who disclosed this at the Nigerian Army law seminar in Abuja, on Monday, noted that in the US, the “Patriots Act,” which was passed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, permitted security agencies to, among others thing, electronically eavesdrop into the conversation of suspects.
He said military law was made to ensure high standard of discipline and obedience necessary for the accomplishment of tasks, adding that there was no gainsaying that discipline was the bedrock of the military profession.
The Army boss noted that for laws to effectively remain an instrument of social engineering, they must continue to reflect the dynamism of human society, as there was the need for laws to be periodically reviewed to reflect current realities in the society.
He charged the array of legal minds at the seminar to examine aspects of military laws that would require amendments to bring them in line with current challenges.
In his keynote address, the Minister of Defence, Dr Mohammed Haliru Bello, represented by the Minister of State, Chief (Mrs) Olusola Obada, noted with satisfaction that the Armed Forces were getting used to the observance of the rule of law and thereby subjecting themselves to civil authority as required by the laws of the land.
He noted that the theme of the seminar was apt, considering the fact that for quite some time, the army had not been engaged in conventional war, but in internal security operations and external peacekeeping operations in the West African sub-region, Africa and the world.
Also in his remark, the Administrator, National Judicial Institute, Justice Umaru Eri (retd), said military law, as well as military operations, enabled judges and lawyers to understand the intricacies involved, especially in the current democratic dispensation.
According to him, judges, legal practitioners and, indeed, other stakeholders in the justice sector needed to have understanding of military law and operations.