The federal government has tasked security agencies to explore intelligence research in the bid to address the current security challenges bedevilling the country, which it described as ideological warfare than a physical war waged on the nation.
Minister of Interior, Honourable Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made this assertion on Thursday in Abuja during the public presentation and official launch of 12 books authored and co-authored by the Commandant-General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi and Prof. Tyoor Terhemba, Academy President, International Academy for Gender and Peace.
Tunji-Ojo admitted that Nigeria is faced with enormous challenges at the moment but assured Nigerians that there is now light at the end of the tunnel with the coming of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his renewed hope agenda.
He noted that the role of research in the enhancement of internal security could not be over-emphasised, stressing that security is a science and the ability to forecast certain incidents would determine the level of one’s success in eliminating threats since one could not “guard against what you do not know”.
The Minister said security has gone beyond “the barrack and the state running after the bad guys. If you are running as a state after the bad guys, that means you have not succeeded because it should be the bad guys running to catch up with the pace of the state”.
According to him, the internal security challenges Nigeria is faced with today is more of ideological warfare and require a higher ideology to defeat the enemies than to boast of the guns available to the security agencies.
“Knowledge is directly proportional to performance. You can not give what you don’t have. The battle ahead of us is more ideological than physical, and you can only defeat an ideology with superior ideology. What makes your ideology superior is nothing but superior knowledge, and knowledge comes from the place of learning,” he said.
The Minister, who was full of commendations for the NSCDC CG, directed that all the Commands and Centres of the Paramilitary agencies, even in remote areas, must have functional libraries and research centres.
He maintained that if the CG, who is the busiest person, could combine his work schedule with reading, research and writing, all other officers could do the same.
He also urged the heads of the paramilitary agencies under his watch to invest in the education of the officers, arguing that the best in them could only come out with proper education.
The paramilitary services under the ministry are the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Federal Fire Service (FFS), and Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS).
The Minister, who commended the academic prowess of the NSCDC Commandant General (CG), declared that personnel must upgrade their knowledge to qualify for promotions henceforth.
Tunji-Ojo said personnel of the paramilitary services under the ministry will no longer be promoted just for passing promotion examinations soon.
He stressed that the era of just writing examinations for promotion would soon be over for all personnel of the Ministry of Interior, saying promotion henceforth must be based on performance, excellence and other criteria that would be established in terms of proffering solutions to problems.
In his remark, Audi said he was motivated to write the books despite his crowded schedules to contribute to knowledge and his love and passion for reading and writing.
He disclosed that five of the books were written by him, while the remaining seven were coauthored, saying that books were all centred on security, which, according to him, would be research materials to help the nation address the current security challenges.
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