News of Niger nationals nabbed gunruning arms into Nigeria is now so frequent the shock element is gone. Nigerians have become desensitized.
Effective border management is vitally important for the preservation of our security. This is not just a policy failure of this administration. This porosity has been exacerbated by the failure of succeeding governments to properly administer these borders.
All this despite the incredible leverage we have over our francophone neighbours. To draw our neighbours back into our sphere of influence Nigeria should sell them oil and natural gas at knockrown prices. Small gifts. Sustained friendship. Big ones. Create dependency.
Nigeria should use its economy to apply political pressure to francophone states from moving towards Paris. Nigerian subsidies accounts fir 18% of these countries gross domestic product.
The high level of Boko Haram/ISWAP longevity is largely due to the way our borders are administered and managed. Our borders are known for the limited security officials. The few that are deployed are poorly trained, poorly paid and work with crappy equipment.
The border communities themselves have little government presence to give them a sense of belonging to a country. No roads, schools, federal institutions, it becomes a no mans land, making it difficult for Abuja to leverage its position to curtail cross-border activities.
There are over 1,499 illegal and 84 legal officially entry routes into Nigeria. This bears testament to the very porous state of our borders, which permits illicit transnational arms trafficking
Why should a state like Adamawa have roughly 25 illegal routes into Nigeria from neighbouring countries? Terrorists and smugglers take advantage of this leakage to smuggle small arms and light weapons into Nigeria.
Its mean mentioned before, of the estimated 5 million illegal fire arms in West Africa, 80% of them find their way into Nigeria. Given the porosity of our borders, insurgents have devised methods of concealing and successfully trafficking these arms across and within Nigeria’s borders.
Sometimes one wonders if the Nigerian government is devoid of “think tanks” or foreign policy experts. We know the source of the problem and take no mtigating action.
During NATOs bombardment of Libya in 2011, the CIA, on several occasions sounded the alarm that Gadaffi’s huge caches of arms might fall into rebel hands and recommended the deployment of troops to guard the sites or at least destroy them. The CIA had good reasons to be concerned. Over the course of several decades Gadaffi had built what amounts to the 4th largest stockpile of arms in the world. We talking about
Hundreds of thousands of mortar rounds, 22,000 (Yes) shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles, thousands of light artillery pieces, anti-tank missiles, SAM-7 anti-aircraft missile etc Of most concern to the CIA was rebels having their hands in SAMS. Lockerbie comes to mind
The threat they could potentially pose to civilian aircrafts was just too grave to ignore. Surprising enough France kicked against the idea. Paris said putting boots on the ground will send signal to the world that NATO was an occupational force.
Political expediency and image took precedence over doing the right thing. The 4th largest stockpile of arms was looted by rebel forces and mercenaries, and majority of these weapons were never recovered.
Terrorist groups like AQIM acquired heavy weapons such as SAM-7 anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, transporting them back to the Sahel region.
Courtesy of NATOs inaction these arms have been transferred to terrorist groups, including Boko Haram, emboldening and enabling them to mount more deadly and audacious attacks.
Thus, the audacity of Boko Haram grew with the proliferation of weapons in the Sahara-Sahel region. The porous borders in Borno and Yobe States, which are the strongholds of the sect, made it possible for Boko Haram to smuggle arms into Nigeria.
Boko Haram has been able to smuggle arms into Nigeria via various methods such as the use of specially crafted skin or thatched bags attached to camels, donkeys and cows where arms are concealed and moved across the borders with the aid of nomadic pastoralists or herders.
Its members are known to connive with merchants involved in cross-border trade to help stuff their arms and weapons in goods that are transported via heavy trucks, trailers, and Lorries.
Given the huge size of the goods loaded on these vehicles, very little or no scrutiny is conducted on them by security and border officials.
The ECOWAS Protocol on free movement of persons, goods and services, has thus created a space that tgese criminals exploit to facilitate cross border trafficking. They exploit loopholes in monitoring cross border trade in the region and relaxation of national borders intended to enhance regional integration, to perpetrate their nefarious activities.
With the longevity of Boko Haram/ISWAP, hundreds of weapons including RPGs, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft missiles, and AK 47 rifles have been intercepted by security operatives in various locations in north-eastern Nigeria. These weapons found their way to Nigeria from Libya and Mali.
The activities of Boko Haram have cost Nigeria a lot in terms of human, material and financial losses. Over 49,000 killed. The Nigerian government has responded with different measures to weaken or defeating the group, of which military crackdown is the most prominent.
ISWAP/Boko Haram’s access to sophisticated arms have enabled its fighters to continue to occasionally mount deadly attacks. The porosity of Nigeria’s borders is an important factor in its survival, offering it a lifeline to external support from transnational groups in the form of weapons, training, radicalisation, and funding.
Thus, thorough shoring up of border security constitutes a critical component of any short-term measures to degrade the sect. The Nigeria government therefore needs to evolve a new approach to securing the border, one that includes an integrated mix of development interventions for border communities, trained and dedicated border officials, and enhanced border situation awareness infrastructure.
DefenseNigeria 