NIGERIA National Security Adviser (NSA) Mallam Nuhu
Ribadu's undiplomatic outburst against the Canadian embassy in Nigeria on its
refusal to issue visas to Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa and
his team to Canada is absolutely reckless and deprecating for a man who sits
atop the exalted office of NSA.
Mallam Ribadu was reported as saying, “Thank you for
the courage to say Canada denied you visas. They can go to hell.".
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu further cried wolf when he
exclaimed, "Even though it’s painful, it’s disrespectful, but we are
peaceful and strong and I agree with you that it is time to fix our country.
Yet, this is another reason we work hard to make Nigeria work.”
Ribadu's twitches were in response to the Chief of
Defence Staff's agony on how he was denied a visa, alongside his team, to
honour fallen war veterans. “Every disappointment is a blessing. Yesterday, I
was meant to be in Canada. There’s an event to honour our veterans, those that
were injured during battles, and we were meant to be there."
“We were invited with our team. Half has gone and half
has been denied. It’s very disappointing."
"The denial is a clear reminder that the country
must “stand on its own, stand strong as a nation and should no longer be taken
for granted.”.
Mallam Ribadu's arcane attack on the Canadian embassy
and the government, if anything, bordered on his revisionistic strategy in
dealing with the issues ailing the country he previously repudiated when the
shoe was on the other foot.
Ribadu, as the former chairman of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), investigated several high-profile Nigerian
politicians for corruption. Some of the notable ones include Bola AhmedTinubu.
Ribadu investigated Tinubu, the current President of Nigeria during his tenure
as Governor of Lagos State; Orji Uzor Kalu, a former Governor of Abia State and
a serving Senator; George Akume, a former Governor of Benue State; and the
current Secretary to the Government of the Federation for corruption and money
laundering and a host of others.
It's literally eviscerating that Ribadu is now in bed
with these kleptomaniac politicians he once criticized, denounced and ridiculed
for dipping their hands in the public till and looting the commonwealth of the
country shamelessly. Most disturbing is the fact that Ribadu has played more
politics with his office than given tangible counsel towards revamping the
comatose security architecture of the country. Who doesn't know that war
against terrorism in Nigeria is an economic warfare meant to keep the military
boys busy while the top brass are smiling to the bank?
Ribadu's recent secret meeting with the Ogoni people
sparked intense debate on his abdication of his statutory duties while
insurgency is spreading rapidly across the country, claiming top military
officers and innocent citizens alike. The meeting of the Ogoni Youth Federation
on the exclusion of some critical stakeholders aimed at the commencement of oil
exploration in Ogoni land shouldn't be Ribadu's business. Perceptive members of
the public suspect that the exclusion of the principal actors of Ogoni land
from the meeting with the NSA might be deliberate. The system is afraid that
critical stakeholders might mention names of bunkerers linked to some military
officers.
The question has been asked severally whether or not
Ribadu is truly deserving of that office due to his inability to use modern
technology to analyze patterns and predict potential insurgent attacks. A
powerful office such as that of the NSA with enormous resources ought to have
employed natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision to analyze and
process vast amounts of data from various sources, such as social media,
surveillance footage, and human intelligence, to combat insurgency seeminglessly.
Apart from a reward for an old favor for exoneration, there is no reason a
Ribadu should be appointed to the office of the NSA where eminent professors on
counterterrorism abound within and outside of the military establishment.
If by now the office of the NSA and the military,
headed by General Christopher Musa, is unable to deploy facial recognition
systems to identify and track insurgent leaders and their operations in record
time, then all the buzz about surveillance, reconnaissance, and combat
operations is a waste of the nation's resources. By the way, where is the
nanotechnology, cybernetics, comprehensive and integrated approach and enhanced
counter-insurgency promised by Tinubu's presidency? Where are the drones and unmanned
ground vehicles (UGVs) for surveillance, reconnaissance, and combat operations
with huge budgetary provisions?
No self-respecting and self-trusting country, such as
Canada, would willingly play host to a Nigerian military contingent, an
institution severally accused of high-profile corruption, human rights abuses
and enabling bunkering and oil theft in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The
matter of denial of visas for the Chief of Defence Staff and his team by the
Canadian Embassy in Nigeria ought to be a matter within the purview of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
We only hope and pray that such an episode truly marks
a learning curve for Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.
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