|
Nigeria Internal Security Forces and Organizations
Between 1976 and 1986, internal security
responsibilities in
Nigeria were divided among the NSO, a central state
security
organ reporting to the president; the Ministry of Internal
Affairs; the national police force; and the Ministry of
Defence.
As noted, the army was called upon to suppress domestic
disorders
on several occasions.
Intelligence Services
The NSO was the sole intelligence service for both
domestic
and international security during its ten-year existence.
It was
charged with the detection and prevention of any crime
against
the security of the state, with the protection of
classified
materials, and with carrying out any other security
missions
assigned by the president. Under the Buhari
administration, the
NSO engaged in widespread abuses of due process, including
detention without charge and trial, arrests without
pretext, and
wiretapping.
The NSO's performance was bluntly criticized after the
1980
uprisings by the Maitatsine movement. It had penetrated
the
movement but failed to prevent it from instigating bloody
riots.
Fulfilling one of the promises made in his first
national
address as president, Babangida in June 1986 issued Decree
Number
19, dissolving the NSO and restructuring Nigeria's
security
services into three separate organizations under the
Office of
the Co-ordinator of National Security. The new State
Security
Service (SSS) was responsible for intelligence within
Nigeria,
the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) for foreign
intelligence
and counterintelligence, and the Defence Intelligence
Agency
(DIA) for military-related intelligence outside and inside
the
country. This reorganization followed a formal
investigation of
the NSO by former director Umaru Shinkafi.
Notwithstanding this rationalization and
depoliticization of
the national security services, they remained deficient in
intelligence collection and analysis capabilities; they
also were
poorly equipped to counter security threats, such as
covert
foreign operations, dissident movements, coup plots, and
border
violations. The integrity of the new agencies also eroded
after
the prosecution in 1988 of the director of the DIA and the
deputy
director of the SSS, for the 1986 murder of
Newswatch
publisher Dele Giwa.
In the government reshuffle of December 29, 1989, Vice
Admiral Patrick S. Koshoni, chief of naval staff since
October
1986, became head of the National Commission for the
Reorganisation of Internal Security; the Office of the Coordinator of National Security was abolished; and the SSS
and NIA
remained independent agencies directly responsible to the
president.
Data as of June 1991
|
