When the Boko Haram insurgency became much intensified in 2012, so many Nigerians especially the supporters of President Jonathan accused Buhari of supporting Boko Haram and using them to destabilize Jonathan’s government. Some have blacklisted him as one of the sponsors of Boko Haram. As a result of series of accusations against Buhari in relation to Boko Haram, I had to reposition myself and took a high angle view, wide view and close-up view of events surrounding Boko Haram insurgency and realized Buhari is not a sponsor of Boko Haram.
For those who accuse Buhari of being one of the sponsors of Boko Haram are indirectly accusing the State Security Service (SSS), Military Intelligence and other intelligence agencies for not doing their jobs effectively and efficiently by not gathering intelligence on Buhari and not keeping constant surveillance on him to find out if he is a sponsor of Boko Haram. I have seen Buhari’s name renamed on facebook and other social media as “Bokohari” linking him with Boko Haram.
The SSS, military intelligence among other intelligence agencies have the wherewithal to gather intelligence on any individual and organization effectively no matter how highly placed such an individual or organization might be. They also have the ability to successfully infiltrate any organization including terrorist organizations.
Intelligence is the product resulting from the collection, collation, evaluation, analysis, integration and interpretation of collected information. It is a specialized information product that provides Nigeria through SSS, military intelligence and other intelligence agencies with information required to further its national interests.
In intelligence gathering, information is knowledge in raw form. Intelligence is information that is capable of being understood; information with added value, and information that has been evaluated in context to its source and reliability. Analysis of either information or intelligence is the resolving or separating of a thing into its component parts; the tracing of things to their source to discover the general principles behind them and a table or statement of the result of this process.
The intelligence cycle is the process through which intelligence is obtained, produced and made available to users.
There are five basic steps in intelligence cycle which are: (1) Planning, Requirements and Direction (2) Collection (3) Analysis and processing (4) production and (5) dissemination
If Buhari is accused of being a sponsor of Boko Haram, this is information or knowledge in its raw form. For this information to be understood, to have added value and to be evaluated in context to its source and reliability, intelligence gathering has to take place. After such intelligence has been gathered, has been analyzed, processed and produced, it can then be finally disseminated to the public through the mass media by SSS, military intelligence among other intelligence agencies.
Even with less sophisticated intelligence technologies used by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Homeland security and the United States Secret Service among others, Nigeria’s SSS, military intelligence among other intelligence agencies have proven to be very effective considering numerous people they have exposed and cases handled effectively.
If there is any situation where the SSS and other intelligence agencies fail to gather intelligence on an individual or organization it will be considered sabotage or political influence and not operational, strategic, or tactical incompetence and ineffectiveness.
I want to make it clear that if Buhari were a sponsor of Boko Haram, there is just no way, our intelligence agencies won’t have known. Even if they knew and suppressed it, by now he would have been exposed coupled with his certificate saga among other issues to kick him out of the way to pave a stress-free way for Jonathan to be re-elected.
Please, until our security and intelligence agencies prove otherwise, Buhari should not be linked with Boko Haram without irrefutable evidence. Accusing Buhari of being a sponsor of Boko Haram is defamation of character and if he were to sue anyone in relation to this, what defense will the defendant have in a case like this? Anyone who is sure that Buhari is a sponsor of Boko Haram should publish it in a newspaper or say it on air and see where he or she will land without irrefutable evidence if sued for defamation.
We should be careful with our words because there is no ignorance in the court of law. A word is enough for the wise!!!
