The Department of State Services (DSS) has called on stakeholders to address the current situation among Nigerians, whereby security and intelligence organisations are viewed as fiends rather than friends.
Delivering the 2025 distinguished personality lecture at the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, the Director-General of the DSS, Mr. Oluwatosin Ajayi, stated that such a development affects the quality and quantity of intelligence produced and, by extension, impacts peace-building and national integration.
The DSS DG, whose lecture was titled “The Roles of the DSS in Security, Peacekeeping, and National Integration,” called for the strengthening of institutions like intelligence agencies, reorientation on their roles, and a rethink on recruitment and staffing.
Represented by the DSS Deputy Director, Mr. Patrick Ikenweiwe, the DSS DG said that despite the constraints mentioned, the secret agency continued to leverage collaboration with sister agencies and engage with stakeholders to navigate identified challenges.
In his capacity, Mr. Ikenweiwe said that, if he had his way, the best academics and graduates in the country should be compelled to join the DSS and serve the nation to tackle security challenges.
“Like, I know in Israel, they have one examination that students take to gain admission into the university. The moment you score above 70 marks, you have no option but to be sent to the university there.
“Tell me, how would a ‘Dundee’ (dullard) be able to keep security in a criminal gang that consists of First Class people? You know, it takes intellect to track criminality.
“So, if I had my way in this country, and we keep praying that we do the right thing, the academia should be able to supply us, sincerely, the details of students who have excelled in their various fields of study so that they would be compelled to serve this great nation,” he said.
The lecture, which also provided an overview of prevailing internal security challenges in the country, identified traditional threats to national security as including sabotage, subversion, and espionage.
He said, “In the last two decades, however, terrorism and insurgency have threatened internal security like never before in the nation’s history. Other threats of national security dimensions extend to separatist agitations, militancy, illegal oil bunkering, farmer-herder clashes, ethno-religious hostilities, economic and cyber crimes, political violence, and sundry violent crimes, such as armed robbery and kidnapping.”
Discussing the overview of the DSS mandate, he said that the Service’s internal security responsibilities are accommodated in the NSA Act CAP N74 LFN, 2024, and SSS Instrument No. 1 of 1999.
“The former summarily mandates the Service to prevent and detect any crime against internal security of Nigeria as well as protect non-military classified national security matters, while the latter, promulgated by Abdulsalami Abubakar (Gen/GCFR), mandates the Service to, among others, prevent, detect, and investigate threats of espionage, subversion, sabotage, terrorism, separatist agitation, law and order, and economic crimes of national security dimensions.
“The Instrument also demands that the DSS gives timely advice to the government on all matters of national security interest. Most importantly, the Service is empowered by the aforementioned legal frameworks to execute other functions as may, from time to time, be assigned by the President, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.”
In his address, the Director of the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, Professor Abdulganiyu Jawondo, said that the Centre was established in 2008 with the core mandate of producing manpower to tackle the various crises and conflicts of resource management confronting Nigerian communities and the globe at large.
“The Centre also offers short-term capacity-building training in those areas. Quite a number of officers from the Nigerian Armed Forces, other security agencies, as well as officers of other nations, have benefitted from the programmes, graduated, and are doing well in their callings,” he said.
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