Buhari Calls for Synergy Among Security Agencies to Tackle Insecurity

IG decries impact of inter-agency rivalry on internal security

By Deji Elumoye and Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday called for synergy among security agencies as a step towards combating the deteriorating security situation in the country.

This is coming as the Inspector-General of Police (IG), Usman Baba yesterday said unhealthy inter-agency rivalry has been a major issue that limits the capacity to effectively achieve internal security.

He stated that there is so much pressure on the country’s security apparatus which is affecting the positive result expected from the security issues facing the nation.

The president charged the new Chief of Army Staff, Major General Farouk Yahaya, to bring his experience to bear in bringing stability to the polity as the security architecture of the country was under serious pressure.

Buhari spoke in Abuja when the Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi (rtd), presented Yahaya to him.

He expressed confidence that the new crop of service chiefs would tackle insecurity in the country.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with the president, the minister assured Nigerians that there will be some security changes as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police (IG), Baba yesterday said unhealthy inter-agency rivalry has been a major issue that limits the capacity to effectively achieve internal security.

Baba who spoke during the ongoing three-day annual ministerial retreat with a theme “Strengthening Inter-Agency Collaboration and Organisation Efficiency”, said: “This trend has been of concern to a cross section of Nigerians over the years. This trend, I must say, is not peculiar to Nigeria alone.

“In the United States for example, weak inter-agency cooperation and collaboration which manifested in the failure of strategic security institutions to share intelligence and work together to advance the national security interests of the country, accounted for the 9/11 terror attack which has been described as the worst, but most preventable attack on their homeland security since the second world war.

“In essence, the challenge of inter-agency rivalry must be seen and acknowledged as a global challenge which haunts internal security of modern states. Be that as it may, certain facts remain sacrosanct. Firstly, inter-agency friction constitutes a major threat to internal security and national cohesion. Secondly, it accounts for budgetary wastage, duplication of functions, mutual suspicion, and encroachment on each other’s legal and operational space by competing agencies. Thirdly, it exposes security agencies to public ridicule and possible loss of public confidence in the ability of such agencies to perform their statutory functions.

“We have indeed recorded situations where due to poor inter-agency collaboration, officers of the Nigeria Police had been victims of friendly fire from other security agents who responded to scenes of crimes in which police operation was already ongoing.”

Baba said the current and evolving trend of crime coupled with the challenges of funding, logistics and manpower which Nigeria police force is currently facing have combined to make it imperative that: “we build policing on the foundation of collaboration.”