Certified security expert, Dr Lekan Jackson Ojo, has advised that President Bola Tinubu’s directive on the recruitment of additional military and police personnel should not be politicised by those responsible for its implementation.
Reacting to the declaration of a nationwide security emergency and the approval for additional recruitment into the Armed Forces and Police, he noted that the usual Nigerian tendency to influence appointments within security agencies must be closely monitored to ensure that only qualified, capable, and patriotic citizens are engaged.
Ojo stressed that the initiative is long overdue and that the focus should now be on the effective implementation of government policies and security measures, emphasising that priority should be given to qualified and committed applicants who genuinely wish to serve.
He said: “For a very long time we wouldn’t have been understanding serious siege like we are today. If somebody is starting something very late let us still applaud the person.
“The President has spoken but what about implementation, the people who are going to implement it. Are they not going to politicise the recruitment of these 20,000 Police officers?
“Are they going to give it to those that want to serve their fatherland as Police officers?
“The implementation is what we should be praying for now. Mr President should look inward into the implementation.
“He should have his own eavesdroppers to feed him back. That is when we can have this Presidential directive effectively implemented.
“Mr President has a lot of persons around him, serving and not serving, that can advise him about security.
“It is time we stop publicising our security problem because the people we are after read newspapers more than you, they listen to radio more than you, they watch television more than you. Mr President knows what to do.”