(Lagos, Monday, 18/08/2025) The Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC), Nigeria, expresses deep concern over the recent communiqué issued in Abuja between Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State of Israel, outlining new frameworks for cooperation in counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing, security financing, and advanced training.

At first glance, such cooperation may appear as a bold move by the Nigerian government in its quest to combat insecurity. But on closer inspection, this agreement is fraught with peril. It threatens Nigeria’s sovereignty, risks complicity in crimes against humanity, and undermines the moral compass that has historically guided Nigeria’s foreign policy.

The Folly of Asking the Wolf to Guard the Flock

Israel is not a neutral partner in the global security landscape. It is a state under serious and ongoing international scrutiny for crimes in Gaza and beyond. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Israel to take measures to prevent acts under the Genocide Convention and enable humanitarian access, following overwhelming evidence of mass civilian killings, starvation, and destruction. Yet, Israel continues to pursue a military campaign that has turned Gaza into a graveyard for thousands of civilians, including women, children, and journalists.

To imagine that such a state – whose security doctrine is defined by terrorism, unrestrained violence, collective punishment, illegal occupation, and disregard for civilian immunity – will deliver solutions to Nigeria’s security woes is to embrace a dangerous illusion.

Nigeria Risks Being Stained by Genocide Complicity

International law is clear: states have a duty not to aid or assist in maintaining situations created by grave breaches of international humanitarian law. By contracting Israel for security assistance at a time when it stands accused of genocide, or by allowing Israel to deploy means and equipment tested on Palestinian civilians, Nigeria risks becoming entangled in the web of complicity. What does it say of our nation when, instead of joining calls for accountability and ceasefire, we extend a hand of partnership to the very state being investigated for mass atrocities? A nation whose leaders are currently wanted at the International Court of Justice for International crimes.

The Myth of Imported Security

No foreign state has ever built lasting security for another by proxy. From the Central African Republic to Mali to Somalia, outsourced security has created long-term dependence, financial drains, and weakened domestic institutions. Foreign contractors see insecurity not as a tragedy to be solved, but as a resource to be managed, prolonged, and monetized. Also, it is on record that Israel has habitually manufactured intelligence to justify illegal attacks on other nations, and the real challenge the Nigerian state must consider is not the violence Israel has inflicted on others through manufactured intelligence, but the capabilities it has acquired to manufacture intelligence for political objectives.

Israel’s interests in Nigeria are not altruistic. They are commercial, geopolitical, and strategic – a foothold in Africa, a new market for surveillance and weapons developed in the laboratory of human-guinea pigs called Gaza, and a testing ground for its security industry. Nigeria risks exchanging its sovereignty for dependency, its dignity for token assurances, and its future for imported “solutions” that will never address the governance failures at the root of insecurity.

A Sovereignty Undermined, A Precedent Set

The irony is glaring. Israel’s multi-billion-dollar defence systems could not detect or prevent the October 7th 2023 jail-break by Gazans. It couldn’t prevent Iranian missiles from striking Tel Aviv earlier this year. If the vaunted Iron Dome, David’s Sling and others cannot protect Israel’s most fortified cities, how can Nigerians be convinced that Israeli contractors will protect markets in Katsina, highways in Kaduna, or farmlands in villages in Zamfara? What we are buying is not security, but the illusion of it – wrapped in press releases, photo opportunities, fanfare and diplomatic smiles.

Worse still, Nigeria sets a dangerous precedent: that when governance fails, sovereignty can be outsourced to a foreign state – even one standing trial in the world’s highest court.

Nigeria’s Genuine Road to Lasting Security

In 2019, there were similar appearances and media announcements made of a new security partnership with Israel, to assist Nigeria defeat terrorists, and contribute to Nigeria’s counter-terrorism capabilities. 6 years after the first roadshow, Israel is back on the trip to bolster it’s own battered images in the world, with new false assurances. The Nigerian people deserve more than symbolic partnerships dressed up as solutions. Real security is not something to be imported; it is nurtured and sustained from within, through:

– Accountability and Justice: Ending corruption and political interference that cripple our armed forces and law enforcement.

– Institutional Reform: Strengthening police, judiciary, and intelligence agencies to restore citizen trust.

– Investment in Local Capacity: Properly equipping and motivating Nigerian security personnel to defend their homeland with professionalism and pride.

– Community Trust-Building: Rooting counter-terrorism in respect for human rights and the protection of civilians, not their violation.

– Engage Muslim Scholars and Community Leaders: Leverage sound Islamic scholarship and texts to dismantle hate and extreme ideologies.

– Community-based Initiatives: Support local initiatives promoting peace, tolerance, and understanding.

– Address Socio-economic Grievances: Tackle poverty, unemployment, and marginalization driving radicalization.

– Intelligence-led Policing: Enhance intelligence gathering and sharing to prevent attacks.

– African and Multilateral Cooperation: Working with ECOWAS, the AU, and UN bodies that share Nigeria’s values of sovereignty, peace, and justice.

These are long roads, but they are the only roads that lead to lasting peace. Anything else is theatre – costly theatre, paid for in blood and treasure.

Our Call to the Nigerian Government

On behalf of millions of Nigerian Muslims and people of conscience across faiths, MPAC urges the Federal Government to:

– Make public all memoranda of understanding (MoUs) and agreements with Israel for full legislative and public scrutiny.

– Incorporate binding human rights clauses in any security arrangement, with independent monitoring and suspension triggers for violations.

– Halt the execution of new security agreements with Israel until ICJ proceedings and UN inquiries into Gaza are resolved.

– Recommit to Nigeria’s traditional moral leadership by standing for justice, self-determination, and peace in Palestine and across the world.

– Insecurity is indeed a national emergency. But desperation must not make us blind. To embrace Israel as a security partner while the world watches it face credible charges of genocide is to tell our people – and history – that Nigeria has abandoned both principle and prudence.

We caution: when you invite a fox into the hen house, it does not become a guardian. It remains a predator. Nigeria must not sell its sovereignty, its dignity, and its moral voice for the false promise of imported safety.

Nigeria can, and must, chart its own path to peace – one rooted in justice, accountability, and self-reliance. Anything else is a betrayal of the trust of our people, and the memory of all who have died in the hope of a safer Nigeria.

-End-

Disu Kamor

Executive Chairman,

Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC)

kamor.disu@mpac-ng.org