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Security Expert Advises Tinubu on Solutions to Insecurity
As Nigeria’s security forces continue to engage kidnappers, bandits, terrorists and other violent criminals in a battle of wits, a security specialist, Mr. Matthew Ibadin, has called for the urgent establishment of what he described as Arms Control and Licensing Authority to deescalate the increasing circulation of small arms and light weapons in the country.
In a press statement e-signed and released to the National Association of Online Security News Publishers, NAOSNP in Lagos on Wednesday, the Badison Security Chief Executive Officer noted that kidnapping of Citizens in the last nine years has become the order of the day with an increased frequency and intensity of such abductions across the country in the last two months of December 2023 and January 2024, especially in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
According to him, the Federal Government through an Act of the National Assembly should establish an Arms Control and Licensing Authority to be in charge of documenting all illegal arms intercepted by the Nigerian Customs Service or those recovered from unauthorized persons, the army, police and other security agencies.
“All arms collected or seized from criminals should be in the custody of the Arms Control Agency and Authority with a view of ascertaining at any point in time the number of illegal arms recovered from various parts of the country. The Arms Control and Licensing Authority would be saddled with the responsibility of also conducting a total audit of all weapons in the custody of the military, the police and all other arms bearing security agencies on behalf of the government, so as to ensure accountability and global best practices on arms management. It should be headed by a civilian security expert who can carry out due diligence without fear or favour”.
While commending the various security agencies particularly the military and the police for doing their best, he pointed out that a lot more was expected from them.
Going forward, he suggested that the focus should be on evolving a detailed security architecture with the police being at the nucleus of co-coordinating all anti kidnapping operations in the country.
The Badison Security boss also emphasized the need for police personnel across all ranks to continuously engage in training and retraining with a view to technologically upgrade themselves.
He mentioned the need for the acquisition of tracking equipment and training on the tracking of stolen phones should be made available to the Nigerian police, divisional and outpost personnel and private security companies. The police should collaborate with cyber security experts, private investigators as it is obtainable all over the world. A situation whereby kidnappers are asking for ransom to be paid in bitcoin makes the situation so complicated that if they are not trained for it, they can not solve the challenges.
He stated that as long as we have this single digit security architecture whereby the police are under the exclusive legislative list, we can never solve the security challenges confronting the nation. The present policing system is reactive instead of being proactive. Therefore, we need to dismantle the present inefficient policing architecture, where it would be expunged from the exclusive legislative list, and moved to the concurrent and residual list enabling state governments to create and manage their own local policing architecture. So we can hold the state government and local government chairmen responsible instead of calling out the federal government for local security affairs.
On the issue of the existing centralized police structure, Ibadin posited that decentralization of the existing federal policing structure was long overdue and must be holistically pursued with patriotic vigour in contemporary time. Amotekun, Hisbah, Abube Agu and other state self help will not work unless the police architecture is reformed to operate at state and communal levels.
While rooting for a decentralized police structure which in other words is currently a federal police structure. Ibadin who did his post-graduate studies at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Kaduna stated that the poor remuneration, low training and lack of modern digitized training for the Nigerian police personnel has helped to dampen the morale of the average police officer. He further stated that he believes that the Nigerian police despite the unfavourable conditions they have to work with are rated in his own words as the best in the world because they are working without the necessary tools.
He urged the National Assembly to urgently take a proactive legislative step that would remove policing system from the exclusive list to the concurrent and residual list adding that for effective policy implementation, the state government, local government and communities must take the lead at creating and managing a police system that is fit and customized for their peculiar local needs.
While the political class delineated voting to the ward level, the government should also apply this same strategy by giving every ward in the country a functioning police station which is closest to the people. This would curb the crime rate to the minimum because the current policing structure does not allow the people to report crime as at when it happens because the current divisional police headquarter and outposts are far from the people.
Due to a lack of trust in the current policing structure, the people are scared to report criminal issues to the police, because it is not a community based policing that protects their interests. Citizens in transit need to reach the police easily in any crime situation. Therefore, operational hubs for police should be established at all the former toll gates and create additional ones across the federation, equipped with sophisticated weapons detection systems because we have a lot of concealed weapons in transit across the country, due to porous border and insecurity in the Sahel region. Furthermore, “The state should enact a law that makes it easy for the police to secure a warrant to search any house in their states.
To assist in solving the current operational logistic challenge that police often encounter, the security chieftain suggested that all vehicles seized by the EFCC, Customs and even the police should officially be given to the police and must be branded and documented at the zonal police headquarters.
He also recommended that to address the issue of low morale currently pervasive among police personnel, a minimum wage of N250,000 should be approved for the police, explaining that such gesture would invariably attract high quality recruits into the Nigerian Police Force.
As a measure towards finding an all embracing solution to insecurity in the country, he also advised the government to license Private Investigators (PI) as it is obtainable in other parts of the world even as he enjoined them to under-study African nations like Kenya.
“It is instructive to note that it is also in the Police Act that Private Investigators should be licensed to operate. Ibadin also advocated that, responsible citizens should be allowed to bear arms as a first line of defense in our national security architecture.
He said, “Senior Citizens, Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Executive Directors, Managing Directors, Security Consultants, licensed Private Investigators, senior civil servants and lecturers, local government chairmen, Counselors, captains of industries, traditional rulers, clerics and their security personnel should be profiled and allowed to bear arms. Furthermore, traditional institutions should have a legislative security role to protect their subjects in collaboration with the local police.”
The Badison boss noted that private security outfits in the country should be licensed to carry arms to protect VIPs and to help state governments to secure communities . He advised that they can also be involved in the fight against banditry and kidnappers since they operate at grass root level. The Nigerian police has been largely persecuted by the citizens and civil society groups, forgetting that they were created by the law to execute it.
Therefore, for us to resolve the prevailing situation in the country we must go back and amend the laws that created the Nigerian Police force. I expect the civil society organizations, Nigerian Bar Association (N.B.A.), the Nigerian Labour Congress (N.L.C.) and her affiliates and student union bodies of tertiary institutions to show more sympathy and support for the police asking the government to better care for the Nigerian police.
He said that “all police personnel should be kitted with ballistic vests and other gadgets that would enable them go after kidnappers in the bushes and flush them out.
With respect to the correctional intentions of government for all convicted and imprisoned criminals, Ibadin posited that the Nigerian correctional centers need to be reformed to mitigate the current situation of producing hardened criminals instead of reformed citizens after they come out of the system.
The security chieftain also posited that as a matter of urgency, President Bola Tinubu should look into the idea behind the military’s recruitment of ‘repented’ Boko Haram elements into the Nigerian armed forces “with a view to ensuring that they do not act as conduits of sabotage”.
He noted the exemplary efforts of some Nigerians towards fighting insecurity in the country and said that the Lagos Trust Fund and notable Nigerian businessmen like Mr. Femi Otedola and Mr. Aliko Dangote should be appreciated for their enormous efforts at supporting the police regularly.
He concluded by expressing his sympathy with the current Inspector General of Police and security chiefs, stating that the police is currently a single digit system security architecture which can not solve the insecurity issues it is facing alone as the system is operated at the federal level omitting the state, the local government and communities because crime is local.
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
It’s impossible for any mortal person to claim that he has not at one time or another felt envious. In other words, everyone somehow has wished they have something other people; friends, partners, siblings, colleagues or even family members, have. It is worthy of note that the Creator of heaven and earth designed the universe in such a way that everyone needs to depend on one another for survival. Nobody has it all.
While one person may be gifted in singing, another might be gifted in praying, healing, speaking or writing. Yet another might be gifted in playing soccer, while another might be gifted in sprinting, tennis, swimming, and more.
As a Human Capacity Development expert, I have come to realize that we all have different strengths and weaknesses. The mistake most people make is to chase what is not chasing them instead of focusing on developing themselves.
When you develop yourself, it will be easy for other people to appreciate and support you, but when you focus your energy on being jealous of what other people have, you deprive yourself of attracting blessings and opportunities to your life. As a Life coach, I always tell my tribe, major on your major and work on your weakness.
Envy is not only when one is jealous of what someone has, it also means greed when one is not satisfied with what one has. Isn’t it true that greed makes a rich man poor and contentment makes a rich man poor. It is important to note that you can’t attract what you hate. If you see anyone thriving, please if you can’t support them, please leave them the way you are instead of pulling them down.
One of the best ways to succeed in life is to know oneself. According to Socrates, “man know thyself”. When you understand who you are, you will understand what’s unique about you, and you won’t be concerned about the activities of others. The benefit of self-discovery is priceless. Self-discovery will help you to make the right choice, it will assist you to unleash your potential, and it will ultimately help you to be intentional with your life.
One of the reasons why envy is paramount is that we don’t practice gratitude and appreciation. Most often, we look towards what we lack instead of looking at what we have. There’s an adage that says, it is because the philosopher was too busy to get to the promised land that he forgot there’s a ditch in front of him and he fell inside. That’s the philosophy of envy.
It’s instructive to note that envy is not only deadly, but also “cancerous” because when it envelops someone, it blinds the person not to see the good in others. Envy, if not properly managed, can cause more than damage.
There was a story about two friends- John and Paul. John woke up one morning to a gleaming new model Toyota Camry in Paul’s garage. He went green with envy, and by the next day, he had the same brand of car in his own garage to prove a point. Unknown to John, he didn’t know that Paul’s car was a gift from his wealthy father-in-law. John on the other hand had to exhaust all his savings to buy his own car just to prove whatever point he had in mind.
At the end of the day, Paul was smiling well and living his best life, but John was experiencing financial challenges that threatened his marriage because of his pride and greed to prove a point. The moral of this message is to desist from competing with people, rather compete with oneself by being better than you were yesterday.
One good reason why envy and covetousness are such terrible afflictions is because what is right for others may not be right for you. If your motivation is to have what others have, your decisions will be targeted at the wrong or goal. Your goal must be self-geared and not to keep up with the neighbors.
It’s instructive to note that we are not on earth to impress anyone, except God. Yes, it’s good to impress our boss at work, our friends, family members, mentors, and benefactors, etc., it should be done with moderation. What is important is for one to know the intention behind whatever they are doing. This is because when you try to please man, you’ll fail, but when we try to do the right thing, everything will fall in place. According to Bill Cosby, I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone. Moral: Just do you and everyone will be fine because at the end of the day, those that care, don’t matter and those that matter don’t care.
In conclusion, as you journey towards life, please avoid envy, run from it and be satisfied with what you have.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
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WAEC Dismisses Viral Letter on Deployment of Security Personnel to Exam Centres As Fabricated, Fake
By Eric Elezuo
A statement signed by the Ag. Head, Public Affairs, West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Office, Yaba, Ms Moyosola Adesina, on behalf of the Head of National Office, has denied and dismissed a letter purportedly issued by WAEC, and making the rounds on the internet, as forged, fake and fabricated.
The statement stated categoricrally that ‘the Council has not issued any such directive regarding the deployment of security personnel to individual examination centers as described in the rogue letter.’
The Council urged schools and examination centres to disregard the letter and it’s content as ‘it did not emanate from the office of the Senior Deputy Registrar (Test Administration) or any other department within WAEC Nigeria’.
Below is WAEC’s statement in full:
The attention of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Nigeria, has been drawn to a fraudulent letter making the rounds in the media space.
The fabricated letter, dated May 27, 2026, bears the reference number L/SED/12/DIST/VOL. 4/460 and is addressed to “The Proprietor/Principal of schools.
The forged document falsely claims that the Council has finalized plans for a “comprehensive deployment” of personnel from the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to all WAEC examination centers across Nigeria, effective June 1, 2026. The letter also features a forged signature of the Senior Deputy Registrar/Head (Test Administration), Mr. S.D. Kum.
The Management of the West African Examinations Council wishes to state categoricrally that the said letter is fake, as it did not emanate from the office of the Senior Deputy Registrar (Test Administration) or any other department within WAEC Nigeria. Similarly, the Council has not issued any such directive regarding the deployment of security personnel to individual examination centers as described in the rogue letter.
Furthermore, WAEC recognizes that this letter is the handiwork of mischief-makers and fraudsters aiming to create unnecessary panic, disrupt the smooth conduct of the ongoing examination, and mislead school proprietors, principals, parents, and candidates.
On this note, school authorities, supervisors, invigilators, parents, and the general public are hereby advised to completely disregard the contents of the said letter.
The Council hereby wishes all registered candidates for WASSCE for School Candidates, 2026 the very best in their preparations for the examination.
The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) has continued to deepen, as the President Bola Tinubu’s daughter, Mrs. Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, on Wednesday, called for the disbandment of the influential Justice Forum and Mandate Movement groups over alleged manipulation of the party’s primaries.
Tinubu-Ojo, daughter of President Bola Tinubu, specifically faulted the conduct of the House of Representatives primary for Mushin Constituency I, Agege Constituency II, and Ojokoro, alleging that the mandate of aspirants in the constituencies was stolen and handed to “a non-winner”.
Speaking during the weekly meeting of market leaders and stakeholders at the Iyaloja-General’s office in Alausa, Ikeja, she condemned what she described as political shenanigans and warned against attempts to subvert the will of party members.
She also decried the alleged marginalisation of traders by political office holders despite their contributions to the growth and electoral success of the APC in Lagos State.
The Iyaloja General cited the cases of Mutiu Olaide Oladeebo in Agege Constituency II, Seye Oladejo in Mushin Federal Constituency, and Olotu Emmanuel Ojo in Ojokoro, insisting that the aspirants won their respective primaries convincingly before moves were allegedly made to alter the outcomes.
She said: “We have to cry out now; let the APC cancel Justice and Mandate Forums because our governorship candidate belongs to the Justice Forum.” Everybody is now joking at the Justice Forum because that is where our incoming governor belongs. Are we not Lagosians? When he becomes the governor, he will not be the governor for the APC alone; he has to balance it. Even when you are the governor, you have to lead both your friends and foes. It is saddening that when a Mandate Forum aspirant wins, he jumps to Justice Forum; it is saddening. It is a way of telling us that hard work doesn’t pay in politics.
“Something must be done on that because it is important.
We are sure that Seye Oladejo won in Mushin Federal Constituency and Olotu Emmanuel Ojo in Ojokoro won in Ojoroko with a landslide.
“In fact, we decided to calm down and see what they will do about it because we are ready to protest. We know they won the election and their mandate should not be given to somebody else.”
She urged APC leaders at the state and national levels to immediately investigate the disputed primaries and ensure that justice prevailed before final ratification of the results.
She warned that failure to address the grievances could worsen internal tensions within the APC ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Tinubu-Ojo declared that market women across Lagos remain committed to supporting the governorship ambition of Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat and other APC candidates nationwide, but stressed that traders deserve recognition and political appointments in return for their loyalty and sacrifices.
She also urged President Bola Tinubu to acknowledge traders as critical stakeholders in national development.
Meanwhile, aggrieved APC members and supporters in Mushin have threatened mass protests if the alleged mandate of Oladejo is not restored.
The protesters accused leaders of the Justice Forum bloc of attempting to impose candidates and undermine internal democracy within the party.
“We know who won the election, and the mandate should not be stolen. We are ready to protest if justice is not done,” one of the protesters said.
