An Assessment of the Cybernetics of Intelligence and National Security in Nigeria

Abstract

Security is a fundamental goal of all states in contemporary world affairs; and to support the search for security, all states need to collect intelligence. Indeed, the ability to acquire, collate and evaluate information that is required for policy and decision making is critical in the area of national security. In Nigeria, however the spate of security challenges confronting the country such as ethnic and religious conflicts, election violence secessionists agitations, terrorism and banditry suggest a disconnect between intelligence and national security. This paper, examines the nature of Nigeria’s intelligence system vis-à-vis the cybernetic linkage of intelligence and national security. The paper begins by examining the conceptual and theoretical nexus between intelligence and national security. It then goes on to examine the nature of Nigeria’s intelligence system and identifies a number of factors including rivalry amongst intelligence agencies, the lack of modern intelligence technologies and the politicization of intelligence which have posed challenges to a cybernetic linkage between intelligence and national security in the country. The paper further argues that the multiplicity of intelligence and security agencies in Nigeria have been associated with an apparent lack of effective coordination and synergy and this has confounded the imperative of national security. The paper thus, recommends a modernization of the intelligence agencies and processes as well as the creation a central and strategic coordination of the various intelligence processes in Nigeria as a major step towards addressing the security challenges confronting the country.