US Vague Terror Alerts and NSA Monguno’s Clarification
By Mukhtar Ya’u Madobi
They are out again to cause tension in our country. That is one of their tactics in ensuring the occurrence of public disorder in any of the Global South countries whenever they wish.
I am referring to the recent series of security alerts issued by the embassies of US, UK and some western nations about the impending terror attack on Nigerian soil, just as they opined.
After about two weeks of advising against travels to most parts of the country , the UK government recently updated its travel advisory on Nigeria saying Abuja is now relatively safe.
While the amber alert on the FCT is now green, its advice against travelling to other areas of Nigeria remains in place.
It noted that its travel advice exists to inform British nationals so they can make decisions about travelling abroad.
The British High Commission in Abuja will on Tuesday, 8 November 2022, resume normal operations and offer its usual services. It offered only essential services since the alert.
Could this new position a damage control to repair their integrity when they claim terrorists could attack the city? Nevertheless, Nigeria Security and intelligence services should remain at alert for catching a cobra feasting on excreta!
However, for the sake of ensuring that public order is maintained, the US and the likes should not have employed that irrational strategy in addressing the threat, even if there is really one. A more diplomatic approach could have been employed and adopted instead.
This involves working in collaboration with Nigeria’s intelligence communities and other security agencies towards averting the breaches.
It is interesting that the country’s intelligence organizations, i.e., the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Department of State Service (DSS) and National Intelligence Agency (NIA) have been very unrelenting in their efforts towards safeguarding the country and the entire citizens from internal and external dangers.
Also, the Office of the National Security Adviser, under the leadership of Babagana Monguno, a retired Major General has been providing policies aimed at ensuring and enhancing national security.
The ONSA is statutorily empowered by Terrorism Prevention Act 2011 to coordinate and support “all security, intelligence, law enforcement agencies and military services to prevent and combat acts of terrorism in Nigeria.”
Foregoing by the above mandates, it is crystal clear to note that the critical role of ONSA in entrenching security can never be ignored as such their attention ought to be called in case of national issues with this kind of magnitude.
While reacting to the unfortunate development on behalf of the Federal Government, Monguno frowned at the travel advisories issued by some embassies to their personnel in Nigeria, urging citizens and other residents to go about their businesses without fears.
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According to Monguno, the terror alert was needless as the hype and the sense of insecurity it created were unfounded. This is obvious especially at a point where security and intelligence agencies are not resting on their oars to ensure that all Nigerians and every part of the country remains safe.
”From the time this alarm story came out until now, about a week to 10 days, we can see that so far, the situation has been brought under control.
”The issue of Nigerians being made to panic is unnecessary, the situation in various areas, the federal capital territory, the situation has been brought under control.
”We are trying as much as possible to work with our neighbours and within the domestic situation to work with our foreign partners in a responsible way without giving the impression that Nigeria is setting on thin ice to explore.
”That has come to dispel any illusion about any sense of heightened insecurity.
”It is false, it is irresponsible for anybody to give that signal. We are working with our foreign partners in a responsible way and Nigerians should go back to their normal daily undertakings without being put in a situation of fear.” Monguno assured Nigerians while addressing State House Correspondents shortly after a security meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, October 31, 2022.
If the US government’s security agencies are so good at spotting terrorist attacks before they happen, how come they did not issue a terror alert in San Francisco lately when a man entered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home, shouting “Where is Nancy?” and then attacked her 82-year-old husband, Paul, with a hammer? Was the US State Department actually trying to issue a travel advisory in Frisco but it accidentally released it in Nigeria?
This is just a tip of an iceberg about the criminal activities that used to happen in US on a daily basis which will be difficult for an outsider to get to know about. And the main reason is about maintaining public order and to not heighten tension among the citizens.
Report indicated that there have been 314 mass shootings in the USA this year alone. The Washington Post revealed that not a single week passed this year without at least four mass shootings in the United States. 45,222 people died from gun violence in USA in 2020 alone, plus thousands of injuries.
How come the State Department did not issue an advisory to all its staffers to relocate from the USA to Canada or somewhere safer? All the terrible school shootings that took place at Sandy Hook, Columbine, Highland Park, Uvalde and other places in the past two decades, where was America’s vaunted early warning system? They couldn’t pick out a school shooter before he unleashed mayhem in Florida, when they could see an ISWAP terrorist crouching in the Abuja bushes?
The inventory for this terrorism acts on US soil are many. It is amazing that someone who couldn’t set his house in order is out to destroy another man’s shelter. The US and other countries should avoid and desist from such irrational and faulty approaches in managing security situations. Because, it may end up worsening the situation rather than surmounting it.
Mukhtar is a Staff Writer with the Emergency Digest
