The recent happenings surrounding the terror alert raised by the United States, United Kingdom and Canadian Embassies in Nigeria have left a bad taste on the side of Nigerians, putting into question the sort of diplomatic relationship vis-à-vis rules of diplomacy that currently exist between Nigerian government and the said countries.
There is absolutely no doubt that the capacity of the United States, United Kingdom and Canada in terms of security intelligence gathering is unparalleled to what Nigeria possess, and that such capacity can be very well utilised by them to help developing countries such as Nigeria by sharing security and terror intelligence, that can go a long way in dealing a blow to sponsoredterrorism.
One would expect that when a foreign mission like the US is faced with such intelligence, it will channel such warnings and intelligence through diplomatic channels where adequate plans and provision will be made to not only avert the situation but also to apprehend the planners and sponsor of such act. Unfortunately, on this occasion the US decided to go public with terror alert warning its citizens to leave the capital city of Abuja and advising others to avoid travelling to the capital city and some other major states across the country. This singular act by the US embassy have caused a chain ofreactions of similar responses from other countries including UK, Canada Denmark and Australia all following suit inwarning their citizens to leave and or avoid travel to the capital city. These actions have caused an unprecedented fear into the lives of Nigerians especially those living in Abuja and could also weaken the moral of our security personnel’s.
As Nigerians, we the Citizens Stability Forum (CSF) would like to ask the following question, why did the US act in such a manner to Nigeria? Also, will the US act in such a manner in other countries such as Saudi, UAE, Turkey, Egypt etc? Most importantly does US act in such a manner in its own soil when faced with such security intelligence? We all know the answer to the last two questions is an absolute “NO”. It thus very unfortunate that the US went public with intelligencetype of warning without sharing any solid or useful information with Nigerian government, thus deliberatelycreating widespread speculation and panic, and creating undue anxiety among Nigerians.
Every country around the world has its own security challenges, which off course can be in different forms. The US for example has serious security challenge of gun violence and mass shooting which is so epidemic that school children are not spared. It has been reported that the security challenge due to gun violence and shootings have put many children and teens into serious mental health crisis, steadily eroding theirsense of well-being, safety, and efficacy known to be essential for healthy development. According to published statistics from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) there was 19,384 deaths in 2020 due to gun violence and mass shootings in US. One will wonder then with all the intelligence gathering capacity of the US, why have the US government always refrained from alerting the public whenever there is such potential terror attacks, contradictory to what they just did in Nigeria. Of course, the reasons are mainly to avoid public chaos, potential damage on the economy and worst alerting the terrorism planners to take to their heels before been arrested. Unfortunately, this sole act taken by US embassy in Nigeria will likely cause all the above-mentioned scenarios in Nigeria which will further worsen the livelihood of many citizens of Abuja and other states. Moreover, the act shows one thing and one thing alone “the US does not give a damn about what will happen to Nigerians not even arresting the security threat” that the only thing that matters to them even inside Nigeria are the interest of US citizens only. WHAT A SELFISHNESS. It is known that intelligence on security threats hardly comes in clear blue and black details. Most of the times such intelligence can be hazy with certain unclear definitions and connections, thus needs adequate study, analysis and interpretation particularly by home based or country-based security officials who are familiar with the insecurity terrain and challenges of the country.
While a lot of damage have been done, it is imperative for Nigerians and Nigerian government to draw the attention of the US government on the need to respect security protocols on intelligence sharing in this country. The US should be reminded that such public move by the US embassy in addition to withholding security intelligence sharing with Nigerian government will only embolden terrorists and worsen the lives of citizens and residents of this country. Inthe future, the US must go about handling such intelligence in a more constructive and productive approach by engaging and sharing such intelligence confidentially with relevant security authorities and officials. Moreover, such happenings of going for a public announcement regarding security alerts by the US embassy or any other foreign missions for that matter shouldbe avoided and not repeat itself again. Also, the federal government must also as a matter of urgency avail itself to collaboration and show readiness to act on intelligence shared by friendly countries and their foreign missions.
SignedSigned
Muktar LawalJohn Azi
Lead ConvenerCo-Convener
