• Home
  • Anti-Corruption
  • Fact-Check
  • Economy
  • National
    • Government
  • Security
  • Features
  • State
  • Event
    • PR Nigeria Award
  • E-Paper
Search
  • Home
  • About
  • Adverts
  • Contact
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
PRNIGERIA PRNigeria News
PRNIGERIA PRNIGERIA
  • Home
  • Anti-Corruption
    • Engr Abba Babagana Dalori

      Engr Dalori Forfeits Galaxy Hospital, Petrol Station, Properties & Cash

      Chinese nationals jailed in Lagos

      Court Jails Nine Chinese Nationals for Cybercrime in Lagos

      ASUU

      Tackle Corruption, Institutional Decay – ASUU Charges FG

      EFCC Arraigns Bauchi Accountant General Over N8bn Fraud as Court Sentences…

      PRNigeria logo fearured image

      EFCC Arraigns Ex-Convict, Other for Naira Abuse in Lagos

  • Fact-Check
  • Economy
    • Acting Controller General of Customs, Nigerian Customs Services, NSC, Ag. CG Bashir Adewale Adeniyi

      Adeniyi Inaugurates Lagos School Renovated by Nigeria Customs 

      Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada

      Customs’ Maiwada Named Among Nigeria’s 50 Most Influential PR Voices

      Acting Controller General of Customs, Nigerian Customs Services, NSC, Ag. CG Bashir Adewale Adeniyi

      Customs Exposes Scam Over Form M Migration to B’Odogwu Platform

      CBN

      The Facts About Nigeria’s Debts Burden Under Tinubu’s Watch By Zekeri…

      Ibrahim Yahaya Dandakata of Arewa Economic Forum AEF

      AEF Slams CBN’s New BDC Policy, Cites Threat to Northern Economy…

  • National
    • Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB arrested by Nigerian security services

      Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists

      NUJ election

      NUJ Urges Constitutional Backing for Journalists, Proposes Media Bailout Fund

      Tinubu Appoints IBB’s Son as Chairman, Bank of Agriculture, Names Heads…

      Bashir Adewale Adeniyi Customs Boss

      In Rivers, Customs Hands Over N20.5bn Worth of Fake Drugs to…

      Military Troops in Action

      COUNTER-TERRORISM OPERATIONS: Troops Arrest Terrorists Collaborators, Eliminate Scores, Seize Weapons, Rescue…

    • Government
      • IPRA GWA

        IPRA Calls on UN to Curb Misinformation from AI and Social…

        Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB arrested by Nigerian security services

        Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists

        NUJ election

        NUJ Urges Constitutional Backing for Journalists, Proposes Media Bailout Fund

        Tinubu Appoints IBB’s Son as Chairman, Bank of Agriculture, Names Heads…

        Late President Muhammadu Buhari

        Critique of Renaming University of Maiduguri after Muhammadu Buhari By Dr…

  • Security
    • Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB arrested by Nigerian security services

      Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists

      Nigerian Police Force

      Benue Police Nab Notorious Arms Traffickers, Recover Rocket Launcher, AK-47 Rifles,…

      Bashir Adewale Adeniyi Customs Boss

      In Rivers, Customs Hands Over N20.5bn Worth of Fake Drugs to…

      Military Troops in Action

      COUNTER-TERRORISM OPERATIONS: Troops Arrest Terrorists Collaborators, Eliminate Scores, Seize Weapons, Rescue…

      Lord Jonathan Marland, Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), and Ministry of Defence Perm Sec Ambassador Gabriel Tanimu Aduda

      UK-Nigeria Pact to Drive Defence Innovation, Joint Ventures

  • Features
    • Late President Muhammadu Buhari

      Critique of Renaming University of Maiduguri after Muhammadu Buhari By Dr…

      Late President Muhammadu Buhari

      Buhari’s Shocker: I look Forward to Leaving, and when it’s …

      Buhari: The Soldier Who Couldn’t Conquer Democracy By Umar Farouk Bala

      Gen Lucky Irabor and Muhammadu Buhari

      Beyond the Public Gaze: Gen Irabor’s Intimate Farewell to Buhari

      Vice Admiral Awwal Z Gambo and Late President Muhammadu Buhari

      Tribute to the Late Former President Buhari, By Vice Admiral Awwal…

  • State
    • IPRA GWA

      IPRA Calls on UN to Curb Misinformation from AI and Social…

      Nigerian Police Force

      Benue Police Nab Notorious Arms Traffickers, Recover Rocket Launcher, AK-47 Rifles,…

      Bashir Adewale Adeniyi Customs Boss

      In Rivers, Customs Hands Over N20.5bn Worth of Fake Drugs to…

      Nigerian Navy

      Navy Hands Over Seized 1,575kg of Indian Hemp to NDLEA in…

      Nigerian Police Force

      Notorious Bandit Kingpin, Abubakar Magaji Arrested in Sokoto, Gun, Ammunition Recovered

  • Event
    • Dr Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan of NCC

      APRA Secretary General Omoniyi Ibietan Named ‘PR Change Maker’

      Prof Saudat Abdulbaqi

      Prof Saudat Abdulbaqi Makes History as First Female Dean of UniIlorin’s…

      Late Oba Sikiru Adetona and Late President Muhammadu Buhari

      Oba Sikiru Adetona: The Day Ijebu Lost Its Lion By Tahir…

      President & Chairman of Governing Council, Dr. Ike Neliaku

      On World PR Day, NIPR Charts Bold Path to National Renewal

      Late President Muhammadu Buhari

      Northwest Governors Mourn Buhari, Declare Tuesday Public Holiday

    • PR Nigeria Award
  • E-Paper
Home Features As CDS Moves to End Security Agencies’ Rivalry
  • Features
  • Security

As CDS Moves to End Security Agencies’ Rivalry

By
Abdulsalam Mahmud
-
March 1, 2022
CDS Gen Lucky Irabor
CDS Gen Lucky Irabor

As CDS Moves to End Security Agencies’ Rivalry
By MahmudAbdulsalam

In recent years, security agencies in the country have always competed to emerge as masses’ favourite, or better still, the ones that are most effective, in terms of discharging their responsibilities.

They battle each other to assert superiority and dominance. The ones that war-war, instead of jaw-jaw, do so with the sole intent of not allowing their efforts to be undermined by rival security agencies.

But one of the main factors limiting the ability of security agencies to effectively tackle the current insecurity in the country is unhealthy interagency rivalry.

The inspector-general of police, Usman Baba, at a forum last year, said that unhealthy inter-agency rivalry was a major factor limiting the capacity of Nigeria’s armed forces to effectively contain the insecurity bedeviling the nation.

The IGP, who spoke at a three-day annual ministerial retreat with a theme, “Strengthening Inter-Agency Collaboration and Organisation Efficiency,” said: “This trend has been of concern to a cross section of Nigerians over the years. This trend, I must say, is not peculiar to Nigeria alone.

“In the United States, for example, weak inter-agency cooperation and collaboration, which manifested in the failure of strategic security institutions to share intelligence and work together to advance the national security interests of the country, accounted for the 9/11 terror attack which has been described as the worst but most preventable attack on their homeland security since the Second World War.

“In essence, the challenge of inter-agency rivalry must be seen and acknowledged as a global challenge which haunts internal security of modern states. Be that as it may, certain facts remain sacrosanct. Firstly, inter-agency friction constitutes a major threat to internal security and national cohesion.

“Second, it accounts for budgetary wastage, duplication of functions, mutual suspicion, and encroachment on each other’s legal and operational space by competing agencies.

“Thirdly, it exposes security agencies to public ridicule and possible loss of public confidence in the ability of such agencies to perform their statutory functions.”

To understand how dysfunctional interagency coordination could be even in developed societies, the March 2009 essay titled “America’s Broken Interagency” by Thomas A. Schweich who was U.S. Ambassador for Counternarcotics and Justice Reform in Afghanistan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, and Chief of Staff of the U.S. mission to the United Nations, will be a better guide.

In the essay, Schweich, painted a rather interesting perspective of interagency failings in Europe, Afghanistan and the US based on first-hand experience.

However, what is peculiar to Nigeria is a situation where senior officials of these critical agencies constitutionally responsible for protecting us would not only openly trade blames and damaging accusations, but would indeed seek to discredit one another in the media in a bid to score cheap advantage.

Globally, security experts and political scientists have long been concerned about the tension between institutional fragmentation and policy coordination in and among security agencies of many countries.

Read Also:

  • IPRA Calls on UN to Curb Misinformation from AI and Social Media
  • Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists
  • ‎FACT-CHECK: Was Obi Ever Pictured Having Coffee with Gen Sani Abacha at the Presidential Villa?

Cut to the bone, this situation translates essentially to the challenges of inter-agency co-ordination. To be blunt, much of this challenge stems from inter-agency non-cooperation.

Like other well-meaning organisations, and individuals, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Lucky Irabor, has also fingered rivalry among security agencies in the country as the cause of unabated insecurity in the country.

The CDS, who spoke at a summit organised by the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) for government security agencies, tagged: “Strengthening inter-agency co-operation for sustainable national security,” said the DHQ, in conjunction with the services and other security agencies, had been involved in several internal security operations, which are ongoing virtually in all the geo-political zones of the country.

According to him, the operations are aimed at combating contemporary security challenges, such as insurgency, armed banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling, farmer/herder conflicts, ethno-religious conflicts, secessionist agitations, oil theft and pipeline vandalism, among others.

There is need to point out that at the pace at which the campaign of violence and deaths is spreading across some states in the North has exposed the gap in the relationship among the various agencies.

Events in recent years, have shown that there is an urgent need to fix that gap. The absence of effective interagency cooperation has not only led to the death of hundreds of civilians in the hands of armed bandits, it has also claimed lives of scores of military, intelligence, immigration, customs, police and prisons service personnel.

This shows that it is not only in the interest of the nation that an enhanced interagency cooperation is needed, but also in the interest of each of these agencies and their operatives.

“From the NIA, which monitors issues of national security from outside the shores of Nigeria; the SSS which is saddled with gathering intelligence internally; the military which is tasked with protecting the territorial integrity of our nation and assisting in maintaining internal peace when needed; the police tasked with the responsibility of detection and prevention of crime; the Customs charged with preventing the flow of contraband, illegal arms and ammunition across our border posts; the immigration whose responsibility it is to ensure that suspected terrorists do not cross into our territory; the prisons mandated to ensure that detained suspects do not escape and convicted terrorists serve their terms; the FRSC that quickly indentify unmarked vehicles which may have been rigged with explosives; to the civil defence corps whose operatives quickly pass information to the appropriate agencies when unusual things are noticed around the country, the importance of enhancing interagency cooperation cannot be overemphasized,” this was the submission of Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, a former presidential spokesperson, at a lecture event, with the subject matter of this piece as the theme.

But as for this writer: “Inter-agency coordination can only be effective in an environment where each agency’s responsibilities are clarified; modalities for the sharing of information are provided and the operational guidelines that would ensure the realisation of the stated objectives are clearly defined.”

Mahmud Abdulsalam is Assistant Editor PRNigeria

VISIT OUR OTHER WEBSITES
PRNigeria.com EconomicConfidential.com PRNigeria.com/Hausa/
EmergencyDigest.com PoliticsDigest.ng TechDigest.ng
HealthDigest.ng SpokesPersonsdigest.com TeensDigest.ng
ArewaAgenda.com Hausa.ArewaAgenda.com YAShuaib.com
  • TAGS
  • CDS
  • General Lucky Irabor
  • Security
Previous articleCensorship: Cable Operators, Media Giants Block Russian News Channels over War in Ukraine
Next articleWar Room: Nigerian Army Commissions Ultra Modern Operations Centre
Abdulsalam Mahmud
Abdulsalam Mahmud

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB arrested by Nigerian security services

Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists

‎FACT-CHECK: Was Obi Ever Pictured Having Coffee with Gen Sani Abacha at the Presidential Villa?

Nigerian Police Force

Benue Police Nab Notorious Arms Traffickers, Recover Rocket Launcher, AK-47 Rifles, Ammunition

Bashir Adewale Adeniyi Customs Boss

In Rivers, Customs Hands Over N20.5bn Worth of Fake Drugs to NAFDAC

Military Troops in Action

COUNTER-TERRORISM OPERATIONS: Troops Arrest Terrorists Collaborators, Eliminate Scores, Seize Weapons, Rescue Captives Across N’East

Lord Jonathan Marland, Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), and Ministry of Defence Perm Sec Ambassador Gabriel Tanimu Aduda

UK-Nigeria Pact to Drive Defence Innovation, Joint Ventures

Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada

Customs’ Maiwada Named Among Nigeria’s 50 Most Influential PR Voices

Late President Muhammadu Buhari

Critique of Renaming University of Maiduguri after Muhammadu Buhari By Dr Umar Ardo

Late President Muhammadu Buhari

Buhari’s Shocker: I look Forward to Leaving, and when it’s time, I go to my Grave By Femi Adesina

University of Maiduguri

JUST IN: Tinubu Renames UNIMAID After Muhammadu Buhari

Nigeria Police Force Logo

Police Commence Disciplinary Proceeding Against 151 Senior Officers

Nigerian Navy

Navy Hands Over Seized 1,575kg of Indian Hemp to NDLEA in Lagos

Recent Posts

  • IPRA Calls on UN to Curb Misinformation from AI and Social Media
  • Nnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists
  • ‎FACT-CHECK: Was Obi Ever Pictured Having Coffee with Gen Sani Abacha at the Presidential Villa?
  • NUJ Urges Constitutional Backing for Journalists, Proposes Media Bailout Fund
  • Benue Police Nab Notorious Arms Traffickers, Recover Rocket Launcher, AK-47 Rifles, Ammunition
  • Home
  • About
  • Adverts
  • Contact
© 2020 PRNigeria. All Rights Reserved.
Latest News
IPRA Calls on UN to Curb Misinformation from AI and Social MediaNnamdi Kanu’s Threat to Break Up Nigeria Was Deliberate, FG Insists‎FACT-CHECK: Was Obi Ever Pictured Having Coffee with Gen Sani Abacha at the Presidential Villa?NUJ Urges Constitutional Backing for Journalists, Proposes Media Bailout FundBenue Police Nab Notorious Arms Traffickers, Recover Rocket Launcher, AK-47 Rifles, AmmunitionTinubu Appoints IBB's Son as Chairman, Bank of Agriculture, Names Heads of Key AgenciesIn Rivers, Customs Hands Over N20.5bn Worth of Fake Drugs to NAFDACCOUNTER-TERRORISM OPERATIONS: Troops Arrest Terrorists Collaborators, Eliminate Scores, Seize Weapons, Rescue Captives Across N'EastAdeniyi Inaugurates Lagos School Renovated by Nigeria Customs UK-Nigeria Pact to Drive Defence Innovation, Joint VenturesCustoms' Maiwada Named Among Nigeria’s 50 Most Influential PR VoicesCritique of Renaming University of Maiduguri after Muhammadu Buhari By Dr Umar ArdoFULL TEXT: President Tinubu Extols Muhammadu Buhari at Special FEC SessionAgain, FG Postpone Recruitment into Paramilitary AgenciesBuhari's Shocker: I look Forward to Leaving, and when it's time, I go to my Grave By Femi Adesina
X whatsapp