By Anan Geolengs
The Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa, said the federal government is working assiduously to strengthen interagency collaboration.
Musa stated this on Friday in Abuja, while delivering remarks at the launch of a book titled “Nigeria’s Security Dilemma: Rivalries and Implications Vol. 1,” authored by Dr Olusola Odumosu, the Federal Capital Territory FCT Commandant of the NSCDC.
Represented by Rear Admiral Olusanya Bankole (retd), Musa said he personally reviewed a draft of the book about two weeks ago and noted its treatment of interagency rivalry.
He assured that the federal government is working to strengthen collaboration among security agencies.
He stressed that “the stability of Nigeria is more important than the ego of any agency.”
Also speaking, Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, has advocated a review of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps NSCDC Establishment Act.
He averted that the word “civil” in the agency’s name no longer reflects the realities of the threats its operatives confront.
Oshiomhole said the concept of a “civil” defence corps implies a force without firearms, yet operatives are routinely deployed against heavily armed criminals destroying public assets and engaging in illegal oil bunkering.
“If the criminals you have to fight carry a sophisticated weapon, you who is fighting them, your weapon should be nothing less than sophisticated”.
He added that the current arrangement leaves operatives “civil” while confronting “hardened criminals.”
The lawmaker also called for stronger collaboration among security agencies, insisting that intelligence sharing should not be treated as optional.
He recommended that the Department of State Services DSS work closely with the Police and the Army, feeding them intelligence to act upon. Oshiomhole cited his experience as a former state governor, where military escorts provided firepower cover for operatives executing intelligence-led raids against kidnappers, resulting in the arrest of “many” suspects.
He, however, lamented that successful arrests were sometimes undermined at the prosecution stage, citing instances where judges granted bail or discharged suspects despite the effort invested in apprehending them. “It’s dangerous if they are found to be discharged,” he said.
On interagency rivalry, the senator stressed that national security must rise above partisan or institutional interests. “When it comes to security, there is no PDP, no APC… we need to understand that,” he said, urging operational heads to ensure that directives given to field commanders are matched with adequate equipment, morale and welfare for personnel.
Also speaking, the Deputy Commandant General, Zakari Ibrahim Ningi, in charge of Technical Services, who represented the Commandant General of the NSCDC, Prof. Ahmed Audi, said insecurity had become a global phenomenon affecting every sector of human endeavour, of which Nigeria is not an exception, adding that the timing of the book’s launch could not have been better.
On the motivation for the book, the author, Dr Olusola Odumosu, said no single security agency possesses all the answers to Nigeria’s security challenges. “No one agency has it all. There is a need for a united front because security is not what one agency can do. No one has a monopoly of wisdom,” he said.
Odumosu identified interagency rivalry as the bane of a coordinated national response to security threats.
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