By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola has commended a curriculum development committee set up by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for a robust achievement.
The ministerial committee was set up to develop a standard curriculum for all courses taken at NSCDC training schools across the country for better service delivery.
It will also promote and place the corps in a more standardized position.
The minister said he wants the corps to provide the best education and training that is acceptable worldwide.
“The array of intellectuals in this committee shows the determination to acquire improved standards of officers and men of the corps.
“Education generally is the bedrock of human development which is the difference between animals and man”
“The use of knowledge for the improvement of man to improve one’s condition.
“I want to believe you have humanized our services in developing this curriculum, knowing that the corps must deal with citizens in civil ways to make them comply to laws.”
Earlier, Chairman of the committe and Vice- Chancellor of Nasarawa State University, Prof. Suleiman Mohammed, who presented on behalf of the committee members, told the minister that the curriculum and survey report is top notched.
Mohammed said that the curriculum had been established to further professionalise the Corps to meet present and future challenges, likewise to be of international best practices.
The committee recommended that in order to raise the standard of the schools to achieve higher professionalism, proper infrastructure, curriculum, staffing and funding should be adequately attended to soonest.
The chairman said that the committee identified the need for intensive training for all entry cadre in Katsina training school and recommended that the name of the college be changed from “NSCDC College of Peace and Disaster Management to Civil Defence Training and Doctrine College”.
He said there was also the need for specialised training on logistics, communication, intelligence and forensic studies.
“The committee realised that the senior officers’ cadre need to acquire strategic level trainings in preparation for higher command responsibilities.
“We recommend the training to be at Civil Defence Academy in Sauka which we suggest should be renamed as Centre for Civil Defence Studies,” he proposed.
According to Mohammed, the committee observers that there is no documented mandate for the establishment and running of the NSCDC training institutions.
“A common denominator in all the schools visited was the absence of C of O and survey plans on the land already acquired which will give the corps permanent and legal statutory ownership.
“During the visits, it was observed that most of the institutions lack adequate and competent professional instructors to manage the colleges.
“The Civil Defence Academy in Sauka, Abuja is uncomfortably sandwiched and hosted by NSCDC National Headquarters in a land space that is not enough for the corps to operate or function as headquarters.”
