Interior Minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo yesterday blamed the infiltration of Nigeria by foreigners, kidnapping for ransom to fund terrorist activities in other countries on the porous nature of the borders
The minister noted that Nigeria is in the same situation the United States (U.S.) was before the September 2011 terrorist attack on World Trade Centre (WTC) with so much information and yet, not knowing what to do with the information.
He spoke just as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, drew a nexus between activities of some foreigners in the country and the growing insecurity, saying the nation must begin to look into such activities.
He said: “When you look at some of these laws, it is like we set up agencies to fail. If you look at the 2025 Budget, how much do you set for border security? The capital budget for the Nigeria Immigration Service is less than N10 billion and you want to protect over 4024 square kilometre of our border space. Are we joking?
“We are geographically challenged. Let’s call a spade a spade. If you look at countries that shares similarities with Nigeria… see what they do in border governance, you will be shocked.
“If you look at country like Turkey, if you look at what they spend, because they know they are between Asia and Europe, they know the challenges and Nigeria is so challenged.
“In Nigeria, we are in two geographical areas; we have part within the Sahel. And you know what happens within the Sahel. On the other side is the Gulf of Guinea. We are in between – the maritime side, from the Sahel, and anything that happens in all these countries,… the end point is Nigeria.”
On economic crimes and terrorism financing, he said:
“Most of what we have in Nigeria today is economic crime. Most of these people come to Nigeria to kidnap, raise funds to be able to fund insecurity in neighborimg countries.
“So, there is a lot we need to do. If we continue to pay lip service, we don’t really look at the issues on ground, we will just be joking. Again, in reviewing our laws, we can’t deal with insecurity and not talk of terrorism financing. We must look at the EFCC Act and strengthen it.”
“We must look at the issue of our border. Nigeria is at a point now that the U.S. was before the 9/11 attack. After the attack, the US sat down. They looked at emerging threat.
“When we talk about internal security, the first thing that comes to mind is the military. That is a sign of failure of our internal security agencies. Let’s tell ourselves the truth. For me, the police in terms of adequate funding, I do not see a reason the police should even rely on budgetary
“When you are fighting internal security, you must mobilize your citizens. We must sit down and look at our laws. With the attention we are paying to cyber security, we are still living 20 years behind. You cannot continue to run cyber security architecture on an ad-hoc arrangement. There must be proper security framework.
“Let’s look holistically at our challenges; let’s anticipate broadly and look ahead; look at emerging security threats and proffer solutions to them.”
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