Economic Interests, Not Faith or Tribal Ties, Fuel Insecurity in Sahel—Tuggar

Economic Interests, Not Faith or Tribal Ties, Fuel Insecurity in Sahel—Tuggar

JOEL OLADELE, Abuja 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar has stated that economic interests, not faith or tribal ties, are the primary drivers of insecurity in the Sahel region of Africa.

The countries in the Sahel region include; Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.

Tuggar noted this in his recent paper presentation at the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Headquarters in Abuja.

According to him, Nigeria must lead the way in providing accurate and factual analyses of events in the Sahel region to ensure a relatively safe and secure environment.

He added that the Sahel region is not an empty ungoverned quarter, but rather a dynamic region with one of the fastest-growing populations in the world.

The minister said Nigeria must abandon its reliance on exogenous and erroneous perceptions about the Sahel and instead adopt empiricism in analyzing the region’s complexities. 

He also noted that the region’s nomadic population is often mislabeled as terrorists or criminals, and that accurate taxonomy and labeling of groups are essential to understanding the root causes of insecurity.

“There is often an over-simplification that goes thus: the Sahel is sparsely populated by nomadic groups (Tuaregs, Bororo, Zaghawa, etc.) and many of them tend towards terrorism and criminal activities. A certain degree of laziness in information collection processes and the wholesale adoption of western taxonomy and labelling has often led to wrong decision-making. 

“A common syllogism is: There are jihadist and organised crime groups operating in the Sahel- many jihadists and members of organised criminal groups are Nomads- therefore all Nomads in the Sahel are Jihadists or part of organised crime groups. I am over-simplifying, but you catch my drift.

“Nigeria must therefore, as the hegemon in the region lead the way in providing more accurate and factual analyses and interpretation of events in the Sahel. It is incumbent on the NIA to pave the way through its information collection process. This would begin with more accurate taxonomy and labelling of groups. 

“Not every act of crime- kidnapping for ransom, attack on a community, smuggling of weapons must necessarily be ascribed to a stand-alone jihadi or tribal group. Quite often, such acts are driven by economic interests and not ideological or tribal association,” Tuggar stated.

He also highlighted the importance of repositioning ECOWAS to revert to its founding ideals, which emphasize economic development and social welfare. He emphasized that Nigeria must take a leading role in establishing the guardrails for peace, security, and stability in the Sahel.

“We have unwittingly been conditioned to feed into foreign “War on Terrorism” framing and narratives, and Mary Kaldor’s open ended ‘New Wars’ Thesis. We must develop our own insights to what is happening in our neighbourhood instead of relying on those of outsiders, in order to find the right pathways to peace, security and stability in the Sahel. Nigeria must lead the way in establishing the guardrails.

“And we have seen the disastrous outcomes of allowing others to frame the narratives in the Sahel; the open-ended War on Terror in the aftermath of 9-11 attacks and the adoption of the Democratic Peace Thesis as the central plank of the Bush Doctrine (of unilateralism, pre-emptive war and regime change) led to the toppling of Ghaddafi and disorder in Libya. 

“The external framing of the situation in Libya was wrong and we are still bearing the effects today. Deriving from similar erroneous framing, came the European Union’s 2015-2020 Sahel Regional Action Plan, in which it decided to kill what it perceived to be the twin threats of terrorism and irregular migration with one stone by securitising the region, thereby restricting movement in a region where seasonal migration is a life and death matter,” he said.

Furthermore, Tuggar highlighted the importance of framing and shaping the narrative down to the grainy bits of taxonomy and establishing usufructuary rights for nomadic communities.

He lauded the recent establishment of the Livestock Ministry by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, noting that the initiative will go a long way in addressing security challenges.

He also suggested that Nigeria must project strength and not weakness in engaging with fellow Sahelian neighbours and engage in strategic autonomy.

“So, what must Nigeria do? It must frame and shape the narrative down to the grainy bits of taxonomy. It must also push for the developmental advancement of border communities through inter-regional planning for development that would enhance cooperation among communities in the Sahel. 

“We already have existing cross-border governance instruments that we can apply towards this- Border Communities Development Agency, Nigeria-Niger Joint Commission, ECOWAS Cross Border Cooperation Support Programme, CEN-SAD and the Lake Chad Basin Commission. This would close the gap of borderlands as a place of contrasting sovereign policies and therefore infrastructural impoverishment.

“The establishment of usufructuary rights for nomadic communities in Nigeria and across the Sahel (to acquire the right to use land and facilities but not necessarily to own) is also key. Hear also, the Tinubu Administration is blazing the trail with the creation of a Livestock Ministry to address such concerns.

“Having said all that, we must also project strength and not weakness in engaging with our fellow Sahelian neighbours, particularly those that have experienced Unconstitutional Changes of Government. As Theodore Roosevelt once said, tread softly but carry a big stick. 

“Wholesale employment of a policy of appeasement is not what our neighbours expect from us, when they look to us to tackle the region’s big hairy problems. We should, by all means, leave the door open for reconciliation and for the AES regimes to return their countries to the ECOWAS fold. 

“At the same time, we must make it clear that replacing one foreign player with another will not solve the Sahel’s peace, security and stability challenges. The solution must be organic and homegrown. The path forward is strategic autonomy and the 4Ds,” Tuggar concluded.