 Nigeria has overtaken Iraq as a country with the highest number of attacks by the Islamic State ISIS. This was captured in a global and cyber Jihad date published by Jihad Analytics. The company which processes data on global and cyber Jihad noted that half of the attacks claimed by ISIS since the beginning of 2022 were in Africa. Jihad Analytics also said the Islamic State in West Africa province iswap and affiliate of ISIS is now more active in Nigeria. While Nigeria has recorded a total of 162 ISIS operations since January 2022, Iraq has recorded 120. Joining us now, former Assistant Director of the Department of State Service Dennis Amakre. Good evening Mr. Amakre. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. I can hear you. Okay, so where does this new report take us to from where we were before this report came up? Well, the new report is telling us that there is a concentration of iswap activity in Nigeria. And then I think it's a good sign for us to now rearrange our house, put our house in order, so to say, to deal with it. Because after Iraq, Nigeria is becoming, you know, the major area where iswap is going to operate means a lot. And it means that for the objective of ISIS in West Africa is succeeding in the attempt that they now recruit a lot of people and at the same time they also want to take over certain places, if possible, take over lands, you know, which they call caliphates. But put our house in order, you say, Nigeria has sent a whole lot of attacks, you know, on her citizens and the security architecture of the country has been questioned repeatedly by Nigerians home and abroad. And what I would like to find out is you are the former assistant director of the department for state service, the DSS. To what extent is the DSS involved in the security of the country? Well, the DSS is the primary security agency in Nigeria. The primary law enforcement agency is the police. And I've been the primary security agencies, they are responsible. That means that's the DSS responsible for gathering information and then, of course, converting it into intelligence and then, of course, preferring countermeasures for other services to carry out as actionable. Primary security agency. So you're saying, as Nigerians are saying and feeling and seeing that the military has not been able to protect them, that the DSS is also culpable? Well, the DSS is doing their job. And I will also tell you that the military is also doing their job. The problem here, or who dropped the ball, is the politicians. It's a chain. The military cannot stand up today and go and do certain things. They will say it's a coup. If the DSS provides intelligence, it cannot go and operationalize it. So we have the political leadership. Which, you know, as far as I can see, has even abandoned the security sub-sector and are busy with campaigns and elections. Instead of going ahead and seeing that this particular security problem we have in Nigeria is solved. So you're saying that Nigeria does not have the political will to fight, even though the security, the military, the DSS, the police are willing to. So on whose desk is this failure falling on? Is it the presidency? Well, you know, we have the commander-in-chief, of course. And then, of course, we have the governors, too. And all of them are in executive positions to do certain things, you know? And the security agencies and the military law enforcement have been doing all they can. And if I let me remind you, there are too few, either. There are very, very few. They might not be able to cover all the problems that a 200 million population country is facing, you know? So in fact, they are doing their best. They are doing their best, because I remember when somebody sees mechanics dealing with broken down vehicles. It only takes the ingenuity of a good mechanic to put a broken down vehicle on the road. And I think that's what the security agencies are doing. OK, well, this latest report by the Jihad Analytics, which says that the Global Terrorism Index also named the ISIS as the world's deadliest terror group replacing the Taliban. And Nigeria are ranking the sixth place in the growing spate of insecurity. Should we be looking in the direction of getting foreign mercenaries involved in this, in this fight? I strongly don't believe in mercenaries, because I don't know which other special training they have. The United Nations have not been very positive in dealing with mercenaries, because they don't believe in human rights. They don't have rules of engagement. They will come and do the job for you, you know? And of course, there are some countries that have actually engaged them. The United States have engaged them. Even Nigeria has engaged them. But at the end of the day, there are abuses. And that's why many people want to stay away from them. And now for one, let me tell you, the Nigerian military is one strong military in Africa. And they can do whatever any mercenary will do. But as long as they are not empowered, as long as they are not jingered to moralize, to do what they want to do, we are not going to get anywhere. So instead of looking for the foreign mercenaries and paying them that huge sum, give it to the security agencies and the military, and let them go and do the job, because they can. Well, let me serve as an advocate for the Nigerian military somewhat. How do we empower them to see to it that they do what they are supposed to do and what they want to do? We've had of budgets. We've had of monies allocated for the procurement of special sort of ammunition and all of that. Did they get stolen? Is corruption an issue here? Well, the military are not from outer space. We, in fact, this is public information where even a general was caught with 400 million Naira. And of course, I think it's having a jail term right now. So of course, corruption will come into play where certain Nigerians will want to corner what is meant for the public good, instead of using it for what it is meant to. But I believe strongly again. When we say political will, and when we say command and control, this command and control should be one where people are giving key performance indicator, whereby if you don't keep, if you don't perform according to the given rules, then you should be sanctioned. But I don't think we have any KPIs for the military or for any law enforcement agency Why don't we? So something is wrong with the architecture then? Well, of course, definitely something is wrong with architecture. Otherwise, we should be able to, we would have been able to take care of this problem long time, 10 years ago. So how do we fix it? The way we have to fix it, I think it's for us to be honest with ourselves, come to the drawing table, get all the military chiefs, the service chiefs to sit in a room. And then of course, forget about tribes and terms, which are different, you know. And then let everybody be in Nigeria and say, okay, this is a problem we have to solve. And I can assure you, everybody sitting down there and saying that look, without any interference from politicians, because politicians have their different agendas, you know, without interference from politicians, the security agencies can go ahead and do what they have to do. Without interference from the politicians, the security agents can go ahead and do what they have to do. Yes. Sometimes I wonder, who did they owe allegiance to? Is it to the Nigerian people that they have, you know, they have sworn to protect all the politicians with the pie, so to speak? Ah, well, I don't want to go into a long history with you, but one thing you have to also realize here is that when the military and the police and the DSS, which was originally the Nigerian security organizations, all of them were formed. And if you look at the present constitution of Nigeria, you know, where they look at the objectives and you will see that all these bodies were formed to report to the president of the federation. You know, in other countries, like the United States, you have a situation where the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the CIA, all of them have their allegiance to the constitution of that country. In our own, our allegiance is to the president. It's like the department of the presidency. So you have to, you cannot go ahead and do any other thing except what the president tells you. But if you have, if the constitution itself has been amended, whereby the military will still be under the president, of course, because that is one of his major thing against foreign invasion. But the police and the DSS should be seen as independent so that no politician is going to use them. And they will be there to carry out their job according to the national interest. And these are some things that many people are not aware of. So you can blame them sometimes for not doing their job, but they cannot do their job outside the purview of their boss. So until the constitution is reviewed to give them the hand to do what they are supposed to do, their hands remain tied, remain tied, as we say in local parlance, their hands get tied and remain tied. So right now, their arms are tied. They can't do beyond what we see them doing, even though they tell us, oh, we defeated Boko Haram. And then two days down the line, we hear some striking Kaduna or Yola or somewhere. And Nigeria has been taken for a ride. I don't think so. I don't think so. I think it's a Nigerian issue. I don't think that because they are not independent, they still do their work. And let me tell you something. If the security agencies are not doing their work, we cannot be sitting down and having this interview right now because they still do their work, whereby the country is secured, where people can wake up and go to work and come back. But we have problems, where when coming back from work or going to work, you could be attacked. So what we want to do is to eliminate that area where you will be attacked, when going to work or going to work for work. So the security agencies are still working, but we need to give them more powers in doing their work. Indeed, the Nigerian military had received accolades for their international feats. They're among the best in the world. There's no doubt about that. And that's why people like us are clamoring for them to be better equipped so that they can do what they are known to do well. So thank you so much, Mr. Dennis Amakere. Mr. Dennis Amakere is the former assistant director of the Department of State Services. Thank you for your time. Thank you for having me. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.