War Against Terror And Information Management

The military of any nation is mostly heard only where actions in favour of such nation is paramount and in such a case, it would mainly tell its country’s men and women of its readiness to secure the country’s territorial integrity. In doing this also, it is supposed to keep strategies to attain such successes secret. This is what obtains the world over, except in Nigeria where the strategies to combat terrorism and insecurity are in the public domain even before those to carry out the operation begin to plan.

Recently, a statement issued by the Ministry of Defence quoted Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, as saying military was seriously considering the counter-insurgency experience of the Sri Lankan military with a view to identifying those areas that could be operationally beneficial to Nigeria in its battle to defeat terrorism.

The military also claimed it knows the whereabouts of the over 200 kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls but would not use force to rescue them in order not to endanger their lives. This sensitive information was not supposed to be made public. It should have been kept under wraps to prevent the abductors of the girls from relocating them. It was an intelligence blunder that should never be repeated. Almost a month after that information was made public, the girls have not been rescued and their fate remains unknown, if not precarious.

We are sure the Chief of Defence Staff stated this to show the passion he has for the fight against terrorism especially considering the intensity of the war. Just like every Nigerian, we are desperate to see the end of terrorism in Nigeria. We are however worried that exposing whatever strategy to be adopted by the military would be counter-productive to the anticipated successes of the military in this fight.

We all remember that at the beginning of the quest by the United States of America to track down Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, its military reeled out much information about its efforts, but soon realised that such information were counter-productive. It adopted other clandestine strategies afterwards and continued till they got him. All it did was only to tell the world that it efforts to get bin Laden were on.

Sri Lanka and most of the other countries that have experienced terrorism or near-terrorism acts never made their strategies known before carrying out their counter-terrorism actions. That was how Tamil Tigers, a terror group in Sri Lanka that wreaked havoc for several years, were successfully defeated by that country’s military.

We know that Nigerians are very anxious for information on the counter-terrorism efforts of the military. We are not proposing a total information blackout from the nation’s security authorities. The advice is for the military to be very tactful in churning out information especially the ones that could give the terrorists an edge.