It was the on-line news outfit PREMIUM TIMES which broke the story; the Jonathan administration, was “violating lawful contracting procedures”, in awarding a $40M contract to an Israeli firm, Elbit Systems, “to help spy on citizens’ computers and internet communications under the guise of intelligence gathering and national security”. When such a system is in place, the over 47million Nigerian internet users will become easy targets for surveillance, intimidation, threats and become prone to death, under the national security project that Jonathan is secretly putting in place. It is instructive that he chose an Israeli firm, because the Zionists have come to occupy an increasingly influential place in Nigeria’s security procurements in recent years. And who better to employ for such a dubious project, than one of the most vicious security states on earth, the Zionist Israeli state?!
The monitoring of the internet communication of citizens has become one of the main contradictions which faces the democratic process in the world today. Hiding behind the need to fight terrorism, many states have gradually eroded the provinces of citizens’ freedoms and strengthened very undemocratic or anti-democratic procedures within national security systems. Jonathan wants to play Big Brother in the Nigerian setting. But there are many reasons why we should be wary of Jonathan’s intentions in the security scene. Security has become the omnibus platform for the appropriation of trillions of naira. Jonathan has ceded Nigerian maritime security to thugs sworn to an active subversion of Nigeria. These thugs now rake in billions of naira from the coffers of Nigeria.
And when presidential advisers are threatening “DIRE CONSEQUENCES”, if Jonathan doesn’t win re-election, in what direction will the security spending lead us? There are ever-expanding conspiracy theories; threats of stockpiled arms and plans for secession. Too many things are just not right and the secret contract with an Israeli firm represents another piece in the jigsaw of portents that should scare all of us! Democratic forces, patriots and civil society organizations must thoroughly interrogate these security moves while the National Assembly must also ask pertinent questions. The report of the Nigerian Army Corps of Intelligence which investigated the theft of arms from the Nigerian Army and their sale to Niger Delta militants, is available on the SAHARA REPORTERS website. In one of the concluding remarks, it warned of the consequences of political power falling into the hands of groups, politicians and tendencies that do not believe in Nigeria’s continued existence or might be working from within the state apparatus to destroy the country. That worries me a whole lot when I analyze a lot of the subterranean movements in our political system today.