Nigeria Is in Dire Straits When It Comes to Insecurity, But All Hope Is Not Lost - Ughegbe

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-03

[00:00:03]Now, joining us to discuss the DSS operation that led to the arrest of five suspected arms couriers connected to the Papery Catholic School abduction in Niger State, including of course the recovery of AK-47 rifles and ammunition.

[00:00:19]We have Lemmy Ughegbe. He's an analyst.

[00:00:22]Thank you very much for joining us on News Night. I want to believe you're a security analyst and not just, you know, I mean, because you you have the expertise.

[00:00:30]>> I'm just a concerned Nigerian and of security.

[00:00:36]>> Excellent. Excellent. Good to have you on News Night. I mean, based on findings in the last 3 years alone, not to talk of since 20 14 or so that Nigeria has been at the receiving end of activities of bandits, terrorists, and what have you. In 3 years, Nigeria has recorded 19,980 killings and 12,362 abductions. Now, add to that that Nigerians paid 2.23 trillion in ransom in 1 year between 2023 and 2024. This is huge.

[00:01:09]Apparently, this has become an industry in itself.

[00:01:14]But let's get your thoughts on the DSS arrest of five, including two foreign nationals in connection with the Papery school abductions. How significant is this?

[00:01:27]>> Well, I'll start by acknowledging your intro and saying that yes, we are in trouble as a country. We must admit that.

[00:01:37]The president himself admitted as much when he said he's even losing weight from concerns of insecurity. Even if we need glasses to see the weight being lost, the president at least admitting that he's losing weight, he's losing sleep.

[00:01:53]We are in dire strait when it comes to this matter, but all hope is not lost.

[00:02:00]For instance, this very remarkable feat by the DSS, uh if we understand it well enough, then perhaps public confidence is being restored by such an act. It shows that the DSS, allowed to do its job, equipped properly, motivated properly, has the potential the capacity not potential now to lead credible intelligence, actionable intelligence, that'll make them one intercept, infiltrate the network of these terrorists, intercept information, be able to stop transfer of arms from one cell to the other, which is what they achieved. Being able to capture these five terrorists, including two foreign foreign nationals, speaks volume to the fact that we are really hopeful, but there is a lot of work to be done. It speaks to the fact that yes, citizens themselves really would need to have some level of confidence in order to share credible intelligence, because the DSS officials are not spirits.

[00:03:16]They will not get information if you have people living with within your community and you do not know them and you are not raising an alarm, at least quietly giving information to say, "These ones are strange to our community." Because part of the problem too is that at some level there's so a level of complacency amongst us that sometimes it's not that we're aiding as citizens, aiding and abetting, but people are complacent. People are afraid to even ask the question. Many of us live in areas where we don't know who our neighbors are.

[00:03:50]And we dare not even say hello on the road and try to interrogate that. So, these terrorists themselves are living within communities. So, it's important that this kind of it happened because for those who are genuinely concerned about the issues of Nigeria, the insecurity, it will help restore their confidence and they will probably share more intelligence. However, the real concern should be to talk to the political class. Because in the kind of narrative that we have where people seem to be politicizing everything, politicizing everybody. If you have a position, you think that the opportunity is for you to use that to gain some political mileage. And so, you want to throw tantrums and all that. Where if we are all concerned about the state of affairs of Nigeria, then it's important for us to take examples from what has happened globally. When 9/11 happened in in the United States, they didn't go calling George W. Bush Jr. as president and saying he failed. They didn't go when Israel the Hamas attacked Israel and killed over 1,200. What they did was in the spirit of their country, they bonded together and began to speak with one voice. All they wanted was to re-secure their country. We need to get to a state where we drop politics.

[00:05:21]Can't we have real nationalistic people who would just think that, "Look, before politics, we must get our citizens secure. There can't be elections without citizens being safe."

[00:05:32]>> That's an important important question, but before we do get to where we begin to own our nation, uh we have this on our hands. And to be honest, uh while this is a significant arrest by the secret police and reinforces confidence, uh there are a lot of troubling things, I know, being exposed here. Now, we have foreign nationals who were coming to Nigeria and helped arms couriers to deliver arms to commanders of terrorist groups within our country.

[00:06:03]It's troubling enough. The fact that they also say they're traveling within states. I mean, the arrest ban Kaduna, Niger, Kebbi, that route.

[00:06:15]You want you you begin to wonder and I think my question really is, how is it that this group of people are able to transport such cache of arms undetected until now?

[00:06:28]>> The definitely, you know, the our borders are porous. You know that as a fact. We all know that as a fact. Then, the insecurity in the Sahel, this leadership crisis and the problem of the Sahel, we are not immune from it. And that is why we need to, beyond trying to secure Nigeria, we really cannot successfully do that if we also do not work in collaboration with our neighbors. And that's important. Some of the persons now, they too are even from Niger.

[00:07:02]>> Mhm.

[00:07:02]>> And that speaks volume. So, we have Niger, we have Chad. Our borders are porous. Then, even within states, and it's important to say this, we must deal with issues of welfare because even amongst the people in the borders, even from the immigration to the customs to the police, >> Right.

[00:07:23]>> at all checkpoints, you should Okay, we saw, for instance, the drug problem. Until the Buba Marwa took over the drug, we didn't know we had such serious problem. And that is the problem. There is a systemic problem that needs fixing and it needs strong political will where we get the right people in place that be ready to do the work and that's why I'm talking about people in really nationalist because when Italy was created if you lost of us if we have created Italy why don't we create Italians that means people who dream we must have Nigerians who really will not sleep we see the ordinary person sees this and is whipping you listen to radio program they are not connected to the people but they are whipping but you see our political leaders they want to play politics and that is part of the problem.

[00:08:22]>> Right okay I mean that's a very important point that you raised there we need a Nigeria with Nigerians.

[00:08:30]>> Yeah.

[00:08:30]>> Now [snorts] I'm curious about what former chief of army staff took over Buratai said I think today or so he says bandits can be located if if security agencies want to I mean that is a very curious statement because what it does the import of that is that maybe our security agencies are not full on they're not all out to tackle this headlong I mean the fact that these people were were arrested already shows that there is level of capacity he says they have the capacity too so if that's the case why are we not seeing more more arrests.

[00:09:12]>> Yes.

[00:09:12]>> we've been dealing with this since 2014 or so.

[00:09:14]>> Well you also know that a lot of them were arrested about 500 were subjected to mass trial by the attorney general of federation a lot of arrests are going on some of them not even really celebrated we hear about abduction we hear about kidnapping it's big news oxygen to the terrorist we are not saying that it shouldn't be reported because if you do not report it, how do people know that how does government even know that there's struggle? So, it's important.

[00:09:44]However, we must report it also in a way that also does not in any way celebrate or oxygenize the people the the terrorists themselves. Then, the Tukur Buratai, I'm on record even on Arise News to be a major critic of his tenure as as a service chief.

[00:10:06]He's saying this now.

[00:10:07]>> He was chief of army staff and chief of army staff.

[00:10:09]>> And chief of army staff but as a service chief, so he's saying this now. How much of those intelligence did he do to capture those people he's talking about now?

[00:10:18]Yes, it is true. We need technology. We need more capacity building for the security the state police especially and of course the police Nigerian police force.

[00:10:33]It can be done, but we need the government to be more brutal, to be more decisive, to forget about anything other than the safety of and welfare of the people of Nigeria. It is doable.

[00:10:47]>> Or even the so-called don't kinetic approach.

[00:10:49]>> to we need to also There's no shame in it. We need to get help. And as we are getting the help of the United States, I think we should do it at a level where there can be constant bombardment. This idea of doing it a little, then the people begin to run to Niger, run to Kogi, run. No, it's not good enough. So, we need to get to the level where we can have an understanding where that can be done.

[00:11:14]Yes, our security operatives have capacity. Our military among the best in Africa. We have the capacity. We also need the political will. We also need capacity building. We also need technology. And it's not the technology of going to put CCTV in Plateau State or any other state because CCTV cameras will not stop uh these marauders. And people play politics and say you can secure all the schools in Nigeria. I know until we get to state policing, until we get to community policing, which you know the DG DSS has always spoken about.

[00:11:51]And there are communities in Azare in Bauchi and Tafawa Balewa where the community policing is done and you do not hear issues of kidnapping and banditry.

[00:12:02]>> Ibrahim Gaidam was in charge when over 200 girls were kidnapped from Dapchi College.

[00:12:08]>> Absolutely.

[00:12:09]>> And many more abductions. We'd like to hear more from him. We're even providing this platform for him to come and tell us more.

[00:12:16]>> him know exactly >> he knows. Yeah. Uh thank you, Dr. Lemmy Gwaba, an analyst for being here. We do appreciate your time.