Kunle Olawunmi: Killing of Military Men in Delta Political, Intelligence Failure Caused By Politicians

Funmi Ogundare

A former commandant of the Defence Intelligence College, Abuja, Commodore Kunle Olawunmi (rtd), yesterday,described the recent killing of military personnel in the  Delta State as political.

He said such could make the federal government to fight on two fronts and collapse the central government, stressing that the failure of intelligence was mostly caused by the politicians.

Olawunmi, who was a guest on The Morning Show, ARISE News  Channel, expressed concern that the federal government was complicit in appeasing militants and terrorists, adding that Tantita Security Company has been shielding some militants in the area.

Asked why intelligence was always failing, Olawunmi, Head of Department, International Relations and Diplomacy, Chrisland University, Abeokuta, stated: “What people don’t know about intelligence is that the practitioners themselves don’t have problem.

“Intelligence are basic. Once you disseminate to the director, your job is done. It is always politics. There are so many processes that we have tried to take in the past that the politicians have killed.

“Once you finish from the defence headquarters and pass it to them, there’s nothing you can do after that. We have had cases when we were supposed to pick somebody up in Brazil, but the politicians killed the idea. It is not that we fail all the time, it’s just the political class.”

He stated that the political class was not as educated as they should, saying most of them were not worthy of the offices they hold and could not interprete the technical data being presented to them.

He added that there had been times when the politicians were provided actionable intelligence, but they would ask the military to stand down on it.

“Something will happen later that will become so disastrous and injurious to the nation. The intelligence failure and processes are something that has got to do with the political class, not the practitioners,” Olawunmi stated.

He, however, noted that the politicians in the Niger Delta area, should be scrutinised, adding that they were about to make a move that would provoke the army to make mistakes as they did in 2006 and 2007.