On 21 June 2024, there was a report in the Vanguard newspaper tagged: Insecurity: Jihadists flooding Nigeria through Benin Republic, which it says was released by a Dutch think-tank, the Clingendael Institute, which has done extensive research in the Sahel. Other dailies later reported same story. It says an al-Qaida-linked group had crossed from Benin and settled in Kainji National Park in Niger state, once a flourishing tourist destination.
Visiting the organisation’s website, the 76-page report authored by Kars de Bruijne and Clara Gehrling, was released on 18 June titled:Dangerous Liaisons:Exploring the risk of violent extremism along the border between northern Benin and Nigeria, came from four quantitative datasets of over 70 interviews with key informants interviews (KII) along the border. The report is not only timely but a much-needed information that holds significant potential for enhancing our national security and resilience.
Immediately I saw the report, I went in search of validating it. I saw that among those who gave the research team support and advice in Nigeria was our own reputable professor of history, Murtala Ahmed Rufa’i, of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, who had done a decade of extensive research on armed banditry in Zamfara state that culminated in a published book,I am a bandit. In validating the report, I spoke with my academic contact in the Republic of Benin’s L’Universitéde Parakou with contiguous border with Nigeria’s Borgu who also confirmed the security situation in and around their borders from some security officials who are working along borders with Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Niger.
According to this contact, the three Beninese’s northern regions of Alibori, Atakora and Borgou are having mixed experience of the armed groups. Though Borgou was safe but Atakora bordering Burkina Faso and Togo was not safe from terrorist groups, and Alibori bordering Niger, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, which is the focus area in this context, is not safe from armed groups. Interestingly, the three sub-regions share some structural conditions that generate political violence and terrorism has become a systemic threat. The political instability in the Central Sahel’s Mali, Burkina Faso Niger that ECOWAS is also coping with is a direct result of armed groups. Military coups are toppling democratic governments, and thereby changing the geopolitical landscape of the region among global superpowers.
Thus, the latest inflow of terrorists and violent extremists is worrying and gives the border communities a feeling of déjà vu. The porous regional borders have proved a security curse since their creation in the colonialists, and a cog in the wheel of community integration and economic cooperation. The ECOWAS Community Citizens along the borders live in fear and despondency. There have been some inter-border community clashes and maltreatment of Nigerian nationals along the Segbana-Tsamiya border in Kebbi state.
In Nigeria in particular, the report is coming on the heel of excruciating pains and suffering of residents living along the borderlines and beyond from violence and maltreatment perpetrated by bandit groups in Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kaduna and Niger states. Many of their relations have been killed, maimed, displaced while their future plans and destiny distorted by criminals. Hearing that another sets of violent perpetrators have joined their colleagues is worrisome. The news makes me remember cross-border criminals like the Beninese Hammani Tidjani and Nigerian Shina Rambo who unleashed a reign of terror on Nigerians in the early 2000. The populations have suffered a lot from armed banditry that do not respect international borders.
According to Hindustan Times while referring to the report, “a lot is at stake as Jihadi fighters who had long operated in Africa’s volatile Sahel region have settled in northwestern Nigeria…” What that influx means for a decade-long insurgency in the northern region for the ordinary person is more violence, displacement and despondency. There are kidnapping, killing, displacements leading to food scarcity, exit of multinational corporations due to insecurity and ugly rankings by global security and terrorism ranking. The wildlife like lions in the park is at the risk of diminishing in numbers as a result of the fighters’ presence.
For the counter-insurgency, the arrival of the armed group portends more expanded operations for the military. The exponential inflow of criminals does not augur well for the counter-insurgency campaigns of the military. Ordinarily, the cross-border movement by criminals would have been nipped in the bud by the immigration service, the police and intelligence agencies. It does speak to our inability to halt armed groups, as it is emblematic of our national borders’ porosity and weakened policing and intelligence. It seems to me Nigeria is fighting a nationalist war while the invaders are fighting an existential war to destabilise the region and Nigeria in particular.
As the Nigerian military records daily successes on its anti-banditry and counter-terrorism operations by killing of insurgents and rescuing of victims, it is crucially important for all hands to be on deck to strengthen the border security efforts and enhance coordination among security agencies. This shines light on immigration and intelligence services. The infiltrations typically portrayed weak border management. I have once recommended in a study I conducted for the International Organization for Migration in 2009 (shortly before Boko Haram outbreak) on national security and migration that the Nigeria Immigration Service should be split into two. There are a lot of expectations by the people for the service to deliver.
The service is statutorily charged with the responsibility of controlling entry, exit and monitoring of the activities of non-Nigerians. Even as it is today, the service is overwhelmed with functions including border patrol and surveillance as well as making data and statistics of Nigerian immigration and emigration available to relevant agencies for use, and liaise with other stakeholders such as Customs, DSS and Police on immigration matters.
Only two agencies will handle these main functions – immigration and border patrol – efficiently and effectively. Bandits and terrorists do not respect borders, let alone e-passports. So effective surveillance with modern technology is the pathway to fortify the borders. There is constant need to prioritise intelligence and information sharing and prompt response to identify risks, threats and vulnerabilities. More emphasis should be placed on border management and true actualization of the ECOWAS Protocol of Free Movement. The protracted and bitter insurgency should stop.
Dr Babatunde, a fellow at Nigeria Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Abuja; writes via [email protected]