Senate C’ttee Demands Scrapping Of Almajiri, Decentralisation Of Police

LAGOS MARCH 19TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Security Challenges has called for scrapping of Almajiri system of knowledge acquisition in the northern part of the country.

This, it said, would block the recruitment avenue for Boko Haram insurgents.

In the series of recommendations to be adopted by the Senate Thursday, the committee also called for the  decentralisation of the structural commands of the Nigeria Police Force and legislative empowerment for the office of the National Security Adviser ( NSA) on general coordination of security activities.

These formed parts of recommendations contained in the committee’s report debated on the floor of the Senate Wednesday after a lead presentation by the committee Chairman, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (APC Kebbi North).

Reading from a 74-page report on the “Urgent need to restructure, review and reorganize the urgent security architecture in the country,’  Senator Abdullah disclosed that the panel during the course of engaging heads of security agencies and stakeholders, discovered there were ill-defined operational boundaries and overlapping jurisdictions among security services. 

“There is a lot of incoherence and inter-personnel conflict which have led to a lot of antagonism within the security organizations,” he said

The lawmaker blamed the high level of inefficiency among security agencies on lingering inter-personnel disputes. 

He said: “The absence or inadequacies of effective corrective mechanisms within those institutions allowed inter-personnel disputes to fester thereby undermining the operational efficiency of the services.

“Most of the agencies are working in isolation with very little, if any, coordination between them. This most unfortunate situation can be seen from the recent face-off between the office of the Inspector-General of Police and the Police Service Commission which degenerated into open litigation in the law courts. 

“Most recently, the public release of letters from the National Security Adviser’s Office to the Service Chiefs discountenancing their engagement with the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, bordering on security matters, is a loud testament of the level of disharmony, inter-personnel conflict and intrigues within the nation’s security and defence establishments.” 

The committee further observed that the alleged non-funding of the Office of the National Security Adviser since 2015 undermined the effective performance of its coordinating function in the nation’s security architecture.

This, they said, had led many agencies to question its authority and relevance in various fora, thereby adversely affecting inter-service cooperation and intelligence sharing. 

He blamed failure to define functions and boundaries between intelligence agencies on defective laws governing the operation of the Department of State Services (DSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).

“The general absence of a performance, monitoring and evaluation mechanism within the Institutions and Services has undermined discipline and due diligence in the conduct of security related operations. 

“Allegations have been rife that the quest for personal wealth acquisition has undermined institutional coherence and discipline and resulted in allegations of wastage of funds and squandering of appropriated resources. This is one of the sources of unhealthy competition and inter-personnel rivalries within the various services. 

“The security agencies tend to acquire modern technology and other force multipliers in isolation which resulted in the multiplication of incompatible platforms belonging to the different Arms of Services. This affected beneficial relationship and coherence of security operations,” the committee further submitted.

They said security agencies, while appearing before the panel, lamented inadequate funding.

He, however, observed the lack of proper acquisition and maintenance culture of the expensive equipment and platforms used for Defence and Internal Security operations. 

Abdullahi warned that the prevalence of importing all the nation’s national Security equipment and gadgets undermines the security of the nation and amounts to colossal wastage when the equipments remain unserviceable due to lack of components and spare parts. 

Blaming the failure to nip insecurity in the bud in the absence of an effective centralised criminal database for the country, the lawmaker bemoaned the lack of a comprehensive identity management data covering the country’s population with no interface of databases belonging to several institutions such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Immigration, Customs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), among others. 

“There is a general failure of governance to nip potential security breaches in the bud before they fester and result into serious security challenges,” Abdullahi stated. 

He observed that most security agencies institutions, particularly the police, lack well-trained personnel, functional and well-equipped training institutions. 

Consequently, the upper chamber recommended to the executive arm of government the need to scrap the Alimajiri and to plough back out-of-school children into the normal school system and enforce the implementation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act No 8, 2004 to the letter.

It also resolved that the police command structure be decentralised with operational and budgetary powers vested in the zonal commands. 

The chamber also recommended that all joint operations should be carried out strictly in accordance with extant operational procedures provided in the Armed Forces Act. 

It advised the federal government to make full payment of allowances to officers and men involved in operations; introduce effective insurance scheme, gratuity and pensions; as well as setup a National Defence Fund backed by legislation, into which all Nigerian adults and businesses should make contributions for revival and investment in the National Defence Industry. 

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