Security expert Segun Musa says govt unserious, unwilling to deal with insecurity
By Uzor Odigbo
One of Nigeria’s top security experts and analyst, Dr. Segun Musa has said the country would have been safer today but for government unseriousness and not seeing insecurity as a big challenge.
The broker and freight forwarder said in a chat with Executive Members of Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON) that government is not really serious about security, “I must confess to you, they are not serious, they don’t see insecurity as a big challenge.”
He stressed that when government start seeing insecurity as a big challenge the first thing people will notice is that the DSS will concentrate on their primary responsibility which is to be within every local confine to notice anything that happens in the next door immediately.
“That is what the DSS is meant for, they are not supposed to be enmeshed in politics.
They are non-political organisation, that’s what it used to be. We have their presence in every local government, up to now, however their performance is the problem. They are dead, their performance is down.”
The former Lagos State gubernatorial candidate said, “If truly we want to ensure that most of these things are put in the right perspective, we can achieve it if there’s political will.”
Dr. Musa further emphasized that there’s no political will.
“If government really wants to check insecurity there are so many measures to be taken, number one, the process of recruitment of officers are very faulty. In every recruitment be it Customs, Police anything you want to think of, you realize that dubious people will sponsor candidates.
“Some bring candidates of questionable characters. kidnappers will bring candidates, armed robbers will do same, the traditional rulers, retired armed forces officers, politicians and all others will also bring candidates. at the end you’ll realise that the people that will be there on merit will be less than five percent and so after their training their loyalty is to those who recommended them.That’s why sometimes we have vital information leakage because of loyalty to these various groups of sponsors and their primary constituencies.”
He said, unfortunately, it has gone beyond redemption by the security agencies.
“You can imagine fraudulent people doing financial transactions through the banks and no government agency is able to track them. That is to show that government has the intelligence but they are not ready to make use of.”
On biometrics, Dr. Musa reiterated that when somebody has a problem, that’s when you know we have biometrics in Nigeria.
“When the police are doing serious forensic investigation you’ll know we have biometric, the number of people that have been captured on the biometric system is the issue, not everyone has been captured. You remember when you go to embassies to do your biometric these are collection of data because you cannot have same people having the same biometric.
“We actually do have a biometric system, however, not many people have been captured. so we have biometrics but we don’t have enough people that have been captured and that was what necessitated the need for the Lagos state residents LASRA Card that was what also necessitated the NIN and so many platforms that have been frustrated.
The reason these platforms have been sabotaged is that many of those who superintend over them have ulterior motives. They’re basically driven by the motive to amass wealth, to make money. That’s why it failed.
“So if we have to start it all over again, we can. once we start it and we’re able to get enough people on board, the implication is you’ll be required to take a biometric when you want to buy anything or do transactions if you hadn’t done so before. If you don’t have biometrics of citizens, Insecurity will persist and that is why I said government is not sincere in fighting crime in the society.
“When there’s policy that can be implemented, and enforced we can appraise the performance, things like this doesn’t take time to happen. it’s just that we have policy that we cannot enforce. because some people assume they are above the law.”
