About three weeks ago, news broke that sensitive documents had been found at a bus stop in Kent in England. Most of it from the Ministry of Defence. Some as recent as high level information from a week before. I was gobsmacked.
I lived in England many years ago and I knew how orderly they were in keeping records, managing data and keeping security information. The jury is still out about how those documents got there. In fact it had information about a decision for the UK to move into Afghanistan after the NATO led US troops leave. Also, the 50 page document information about a peaceful passing of the HMS defender innocent passage through Ukrainian waters and what the Russian reaction might be. It considered that it might be aggressive. And indeed it was a few weeks later when that passage happened. The HMS defender is a type 45 destroyer and is part of the UK ‘s carrier strike group currently carrying out missions on the black Sea according to the UK navy’s online information.
Classified information is exactly what it is. Classified. It is not for all eyes.
They may concern how a nation prosecutes a physical or non- physical war with an enemy nation. It can be how to protect troops in a certain region. It can be about how to secure a nation. It can be about how to catch a big time Yahoo boy. It can be plans to rout kidnappers and or child traffickers etc. Only those involved should see these documents lest the enemy gets hold of it and foils the plan. No one is safe if everyone including criminals can access classified information. The challenge is securing these documents.
Let us be mindful of who we hire, how we hire and get them to understand that they cannot be sharing information under their belt anyhow either verbally or on the Internet
Note must be made that when an anonymous citizen handed them to the BBC, the broadcaster decided to broadcast some but not all information therein in order not to “endanger the security of British and other personnel.” Let our media understand national service and national security. Not everything is a scoop. Not everything is competition. Not everything is for social media. Some things are in the national interest.
While Britain is still reeling from this mishap, let’s take a look at how we handle classified information.
Let’s start small. Rising one day from one of the many boards I serve, I was shocked to find that discussions that held behind closed doors had become subject for organisation-wide conversations. In fact some junior staff had come to thank me for speaking for them at board. Like seriously? We tend to talk a lot with no discernment. We think we are doing everyone a favour by spilling the beans.
Let’s move from there into the national mainstream. Now that bribery and corruption has become a national ethos where we are being cited up and down in African papers as a result of this disease, how do we ensure that classified documents are not bought and sold in the black market? This would be of course be by staff who think they can make a quid or two from these documents.
In the same vein, we are now seeing a ridiculous trend. Britain is up in arms because of an incident where the officer mislaid sensitive documents and self reported the incidence. He is even being investigated Really? There is even a full-scale investigation on this matter. In Nigeria however, classified documents are showing up as wraps for the sale of “Akara” and “masara” on street corners. Our office messengers and clerical assistants are selling classified documents to corn and bean cake sellers as wraps for customers. Because I love roast corn, I am always encountering these papers signed by top ranking officials at these places. Add that to the fact that you can now find signed documents from the office of a Chief executive or even a permanent secretary on whatsapp or Instagram. Merde! So, something signed from an intelligence office, instructions from our security operatives to secure us, information that there might be a bomb scare is all out in the open. Our enemies understand our underbelly and take advantage of the cracks. And you say insurgents and bandits should not find us. Let us help our security operatives by being more discerning.
We have to do better with sensitive information, data collection and intelligence information. Let us be mindful of who we hire, how we hire and get them to understand that they cannot be sharing information under their belt anyhow either verbally or on the Internet. Britain is embarrassed by what has become routine in Nigeria. It may not be documents from Nigeria’s Defence HQ but very little is sacrosanct these days.
Nigeria deserves better.
I say no more.
