Intelligence and Security: Ingredients for Stable Polity, Food Security and Sustainable Growth.

Abstract

The evolution of Intelligence and Security services in Nigeria is similar to that of other third world countries, its development has been slow and it became a veritable instrument of oppression in hands of governments who were mostly militaryliitical and tyrannical until the ascendancy of pro-democratic governments in Africa from the early 1990s. In Nigeria, intelligence, especially military intelligence became like the Gestapo of Adolf Hitler during the regime of General Sani Abacha. Their allegiance was blindly to the government of the day, constructive intelligence gathering and Analysis was relegated to the background. The country became stagnant and moved backwards in political and economical developments, the intelligence agencies could not take advantage of modern innovations in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
However, the return to democracy and relative rule of law in 1999 has brought some positive development to the practices of Intelligence in Nigeria; the military institution itself has laid emphasis on professionalism and combat readiness. Intelligence personnel are being trained abroad in exchange programmes and exposed to sophisticated surveillance techniques and other strategic equipments used in espionage and information accessibility. The American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is in close collaboration with the relevant agencies in Nigeria as it repositions for the defence and security challenges of the 21^st century, which will ensure stability and development in the country. Few researches had been conducted on the intelligence services in Nigeria; this paper critically examines the roles of Intelligence services in security and, more importantly, that of stability and growth. The method employed is both the historical method and descriptive analysis. The paper made use of data from journals, textbooks, government policy documents and newspapers with the use of Control analysis method, which is an objective and systematic examination of the content of secondary data like internet, text books, newspapers, journals, recorded information and so on(Mbachu,2005:89).

Key words: Inteligence; security; political stability; food security; sustainable growth