‘Buhari must overhaul security agencies’

Former Provost Marshall of the Nigerian Army Brig.-Gen. Don Idada Ikponmwen (rtd) has advised  the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, to overhaul the nation’s security agencies.

This, he noted, will go a long way in addressing abuses by the agencies and strengthen the confidence of the citizenry.

Idada, a legal practitioner based in Benin, told reporters that the primary responsibility of any government globally is to ensure safety of lives and property of the citizens.

He lamented how security agencies were reduced by politicians to do their personal biddings against being loyal to the state.

The army general said: “Security is the primary purpose of government and that is the first thing any nation must look at. A government that cannot provide that has failed; God forbid that Buhari should fails. Therefore, he must first reorganise the Army, Police, Department of State Security Service (DSS), Customs, Immigration, Fire service by making them non-political.

“Their loyalty must be to the laws of this country and not to individual or political leaders.

“For long, the Nigerian Police have been known to be for those in government and their friends. From beginning, it was the police of the British sovereign, the police of the monarchy and that was why they called it Nigeria Police not Nigerian Police. Over 50 years of Independence, there is no reason why our security organs would not have learnt that loyalty is to the system and not to individual.”