The paramount duty of a sovereign government lies in safeguarding national security. Ensuring the protection of the nation’s borders and its citizens is of utmost importance.
As the nation marked its 63rd Independence Day, Nigerians have been charged to help the security operatives achieve the ultimate aim of peace in the nation.
In the 2022 Global Peace Index produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace, Nigeria ranked 143rd among 163 independent nations and territories according to its level of peacefulness.
Speaking to Royal Times, the chief superintendent of corps of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Baba Wale Afolabi acknowledged that security is a collective effort and there are interagency plans in place to curb insecurity in the nation.
He said, “We know that security is a collective responsibility. So what we are doing with other security agencies, we are trying as much as possible to stop all these things happening in our society. And that’s why there is intelligence operations whereby we work in teams with the Nigerian police and the military”.
“And I wouldn’t say Nigeria is the first country that is witnessing this. I call it asymmetric conflict. It has happened in Rwanda, it has happened in some other African countries as well so I’m sure we will get out of it”, he added.
The 2019 National Security Strategy aims to ensure that Nigeria’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interests, and the well-being of the people are preserved, protected, and enhanced.
According to Afolabi, security agencies, particularly the NSCDC, have engaged in more capacity-building to achieve peace in the nation, saying “In Nigeria, we are the leading agency when we’re talking about protection of critical national assets and infrastructure and that’s what we’re doing 24/7”.
“Asides that, we have joined other agencies in the protection of life and properties and we shoulder a lot of responsibilities which we are doing by impacting more knowledge”
He said, “Talking about capacity building, we’ve increased our training schools whereby we add more knowledge on security and how to stop insecurity in the country.And as we’re doing that, we also work on the Internet as it feeds us information.”
As it is frequently said, security is a collective effort and to this end, Afolabi appealed to the masses to feed the security agencies with information saying, “We security operatives, are not magicians or miracle workers. We feed on information so people can tell us things going on in their local areas.”
He said , “We have a cliche at the NSCDC, that is when you see something, you say something. If people listen to radio and read newspapers, they can still get some of our outlines where they can call in.”
“Anything like that we think to action, that is when we hear about it. But if you don’t feed us with information, how would we know things going on? So we want the innocent citizens out there to help us out by feeding us with appropriate informations. Our doors, our offices are open 24/7”, he concluded.
On the occasion of Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Day, the call to action is clear: unity in the pursuit of national security and peace. It is evident that securing the nation requires a collaborative effort and Nigerians have been urged to play their part by providing valuable information.
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