Wars are not only fought on the battlefield, with bombs, drones, missiles and rifles. A lot depends on what goes on behind the scenes. Intelligence and surveillance are key to victory.
In the terror war in Nigeria, as the armed forces are taking the battle to the enemy, so are the terrorists, bandits and insurgents planning and using undercover agents, informants and spies to ambush the gallant soldiers.
The police have now said that the terrorists are stepping up the war by engaging the services of spies, many of them children, women and renegade soldiers. Even traditional rulers. The alert from the police has now indicated that attacks could be launched on schools as children are just resuming from holiday.
While it is good that the general public is warned to be alert, a way of saying that all hands must be on deck, it is the primary responsibility of the Department of State Services (DSS), police detectives and military intelligence to device and mount a robust survey of the schools and build security around them.
This would not have been an emergency if necessary things had been done following support from other countries and world bodies after the abduction of the Chibok girls in 2014.
The Safe Schools Initiative was the response and funds were raised for the purpose. Schools around the most vulnerable areas were meant to have perimeter fencing to deter easy invasion. Cameras were to be installed to monitor movements and troops were to be on regular patrol, even in rural areas.
In cases where these could not be easily achieved as was the case in Borno State, such schools were to be moved to main towns. This was done in Borno, but not in many other states, thus paving the way to regular raids by the terrorists and insurgents.
We acknowledge the role played and still being played by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) that created a squad for the purpose. There is a need to upgrade the response.
Till date, full account has not been given of the funds for the Safe Schools Initiative, that the committee headed by former British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown, worked tirelessly to raise the needed funds for. What happened? How were the proceeds expended and where?
Had the plans been executed diligently, perhaps later day mass abduction of innocent school children could have been checked. The agents of terror have realised that whenever they successfully invade schools and ferry away children, some as young as two years, there is mass hysteria in the land and they tend to have what they want, if not from the government, at least from parents and guardians.
Whole communities are mobilised to pay ransom.
Another dimension is that the international community, especially the United States in recent times, is then fed with various narratives that tend to portray Nigeria in bad light. The enemies revel in this and it tends to strengthen their hands on mobilising misguided youths and raising humongous sums in ransom payment.
It is time to check this development. It is obvious that intelligence is at the heart of this war and it must be won at that level. This should not be limited to only schools or their resumption. It must be a whole community approach. As more boots are deployed by all security agencies, it is key to get the people involved in supplying credible intelligence.
It is the way forward if Nigeria is to attain peace.