By Babs Oyetoro and Francis Ajuonuma
Following the release of the names of nine individuals and six Bureau De Change (BDC) operators financing terrorism in Nigeria by the Federal Government, a retired professor of Political Science, Femi Otubanjo seems to be unfazed about this development, accusing the Federal Government of treating the matter with kid gloves in the past.
The Federal Government had through the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) in a letter to The Punch newspaper revealed the identities of those financing terrorism.
Popular among them is Tukur Mamu, a Kaduna-based publisher, among the sponsors of terrorism. Mamu is the publisher of Desert Herald Newspaper.
Others include Yusuf Ghazali, Muhammad Sani, Abubakar Muhammad, Sallamudeen Hassan, Adamu Ishak, Hassana-Oyiza Isah, Abdulkareem Musa, and Umar Abdullahi
The six BDC operators were listed as West and East Africa General Trading Company Limited; Settings Bureau De Change Limited; G. Side General Enterprises; Desert Exchange Ventures Limited; Eagle Square General Trading Company Limited; and Alfa Exchange BDC.
However, according to Otubanjo, the sponsors are not new to the Federal Government.
In an exclusive interview with ThisNigeria yesterday, Otubanjo, a research professor at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), said, “It is a tragedy that 15 years since after Boko Haram started its operations we are just getting some kind of list.
“However tentative that list is of people and institutions that have been involved in sponsoring Boko Haram, it is a tragedy for our country. It is a story of Nigeria because it means that nothing has been done. These people must have been known for a very, very long time.
“Under (Goodluck) Jonathan, every effort was made to subvert his fight against Boko Haram. Under (Umar) Yar’Adua, he was too sick to have time to confront that problem. Obviously, (Muhammadu) Buhari was half-hearted in his approach to this insurgency.
“Of course, this was somebody who said before he became president that any attack on Boko Haram was an attack on the north.
“So, people just walked freely and subverted our country either through military means, through funding, and of course, there were so many vested interests, who didn’t want the war to end. Powerful people in the military, in politics, businesses-those who are supplying.
“I hope you remember the famous German General, who said that war is an admixture of politics by other means. War is an admixture of business by other means. Boko Haram is a big business for some people in Nigeria.
“Supplies of billions of dollars to buy equipment, planes, helicopters-mass investment. Money that should have gone into our development has gone into people’s pockets in prosecuting a war that could have been ended.
“It’s scandalous that we are talking about these people and as we talk now they are not in court. How many of them have been arrested? How many of them are facing treason trials because they are sponsoring a war against their country-that is treason?
“What are we talking about? We are still talking about the National Financial Intelligence Unit and identifying them. Do you want to go underground and stay somewhere waiting to be tried?
“So, we’ve not been serious in our response to terrorism and that is why the thing has refused to go away because people are benefiting from it.
“Most of the war in the world, if you look at America supporting Ukraine and voting billions and billions, the money is going to America’s military-industrial complex that’s all about. It’s about economics.
“The Israel war, everywhere, it’s the businessmen-generals that prop it and they will never want it to end. So, I don’t know what the Tinubu administration will do to stop this. He has to be determined to stop this and the way to stop it is to cut the umbilical cord of these terrorists, the supplies of oxygen to them through money and other means.
“These people that they have identified are just the tip of the iceberg. It is a mass network that has to be unveiled and destroyed? If we don’t do that we are still going to fight the battle in the next 10 years.”
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Also, a Security and Drug Prevention Specialist, Rekpene Bassey, commended President Bola Tinubu for publishing the names of the financiers.
He said, “By taking the bold step to publish the list of the names of 15 financiers of terrorism in Nigeria, an action which previous administrations were hesitant about, it marks the President out as a leader of great courage.
“Until now, it was all rhetoric and little action, if any, making it appear that the Federal Government was merely conjecturing about the shadowy characters working to subvert our national security.”
Bassey noted that the available report from the National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) was explicit adding that the characters named were so entrenched in terrorism, not only as financiers but were neck deep with radicalized elements of some dangerous terrorist groups in the world with deep-rooted clandestine cells within the country and in the Islamic Maghreb and the Sahel regions.
He revealed that terrorist groups like the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and the Vanguard for the Protection of Islam in Black Africa (ANSARU) were among the most dangerous terrorist groups in the world.
“They will stop at nothing, including overthrowing governments, to achieve their goals. It suffices it to note here that it is not enough to make these names public, the government must do everything possible to unmask their other collaborators, their modus operandi, and local cells, and deal with them decisively within the bounds of the law”, he added.
