In view of the country's current situation, and certainly in the future as well, diplomatic and military circles are called upon to evolve in constant interdependence. Furthermore, experience has shown that diplomacy played a primary role in mobilizing the international community against the sanctions imposed on Niger by ECOWAS and UEMOA following the military's intervention in the political scene (July 26,2023). Thus, the combination of diplomacy and the military can prove advantageous for the safeguarding and emergence of a State.
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It is in this spirit that I take the liberty of proposing, inspired by international realities, a framework or rather a "Nigerian Intelligence Community" for Nigerian diplomatic and military circles. The intelligence community is a tool that has proven its worth on the international stage.
In the United States, for example, under the name of the "United States Intelligence Community," the intelligence community has enabled American companies to win contracts and become global leaders thanks to the information gathered by the community. Thus, since the 1980s, the American administration has pursued an offensive strategy, massively using intelligence to gain or maintain a competitive advantage for its national economy.
In Niger, this concept would make it possible to develop and implement an offensive diplomacy serving the military and the economy. It would demonstrate a Niger ready to join the community of nations acting on the international relations scene, and not a nation on the lookout for conditional aid for development.
Extrapolating to our reality, the creation and animation of an intelligence community may seem impossible or even illusory to many victims of chronic social injustices, such as customs graduates of the ENA (graduates of a state school, in a state domain, and yet destined for unemployment). However, it is my patriotic duty, I presume, to disseminate knowledge and tools already utilized and exploitable in Niger or within the framework of the Alliance of Sahel States.
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If adopted, the Intelligence Community will provide our economy and the army with a major advance and a certain capacity to anticipate the actions of foreign companies, states, cross-border criminal gangs, and terrorists. A few weeks ago, Ivory Coast signed an agreement with the European Union aimed at promoting Ivorian production. This is undoubtedly an agreement comparable to a dumping practice against which the Nigerian Intelligence Community could recommend to the government retaliatory measures to protect the national economy, and national products potentially disadvantaged by the agreement between Ivory Coast and the European Union. There are numerous examples where the intervention of a specialized intelligence structure benefits the State's diplomatic actions for the defense of economic and security interests.
It is time for Niger to propose plans to state and transnational actors on the international stage, and it is up to Niger to define and configure the parameters of cooperation. Through intelligence, Niger will no longer be an observer but certainly an actor on the international scene, even an indispensable actor in the Sahel. Offensive diplomacy will favor the integration of state actors into national projects of international scope designed on the basis of information gathered and processed by the Nigerian Intelligence Community. As a final example of application, based on customs statistics and internal and military intelligence (army, police, gendarmerie, national guard...), the Nigerian Intelligence Community could definitively guarantee the security of borders and trade, greatly benefiting public revenues, but also ensuring the fight against the supply of combatants opposing the army in theaters of operations. Its applications are numerous, and the community can be configured within the framework of the Alliance of Sahel States and even with a view to a confederation of States.
What will be the composition of the future Nigerian Intelligence Community?
I advocate, following the example of the COLDEF, that it be a structure led by a committee composed of:
- An agent from the Ministry of Defense responsible for sensitive security information both inside and outside the Nigerian territory.
- An agent from the Army Chief of Staff responsible for tactical and strategic intelligence in current and future army theaters of operation.
- Two (2) agents from the Ministry of Finance supervision (DGI and Customs) who will be responsible for customs information and investigations, as well as intelligence on suspicious financial circuits.
- An agent from the Ministry of the Interior responsible for internal state security information.
Beyond essentially internal hierarchical control, the community will primarily fall under the executive power. It could be financed exclusively based on the results obtained. In other words, as in customs matters, it would receive a percentage on intercepted fraudulent financial flows, on confiscated goods and funds from cross-border criminal gangs, on services designed and operational (such as the AFRICA Corps designed by Russian intelligence services)...etc.
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The international diplomatic environment is characterized by conflicting relations. It is also constantly changing with often unnatural alliances, provided they ensure common interest. Niger must not isolate itself from the global chessboard of international relations, even if they are conflictual and changing. On the contrary, it must influence international relations and leverage the advantages of this critical environment under the influence of the future "Nigerian Intelligence Community."
With the Nigerian Intelligence Community, the State, the government, and the executive would draw inspiration from its reports to guide the State's economic and security policies. The framework could, for example, based on information gathered from espionage and counter-espionage activities, inform the government during international state-to-state negotiations such as those of the UN Security Council, bilateral agreements on the transit of goods, on the supply of weapons and ammunition, or on customs tariffs and international trade.
The Nigerian Intelligence Community will be the framework for consultation and planning of national security and territorial defense strategies, and also for guiding international defense agreements in consultation with the allied countries of the Alliance of Sahel States.
The community will provide information for the economic and security emergence of Niger, certainly through the pooling of intelligence. It is certain that economic and military intelligence is destined to become a high-growth industry in the world of intelligence in the 21st century among nations.
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