By The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Daniel Bwala, has given a detailed breakdown of the measures the Federal Government is deploying to tackle insurgency, banditry, and kidnapping across Nigeria, ranging from personnel expansion to technology and regional military cooperation.
Bwala made the disclosures during a panel discussion on The Link Up Podcast, hosted by echoRoom and published on Friday, where he fielded questions on the state of the country’s security architecture.
He said one of the government’s core strategies was recruiting and retraining more security personnel, arguing that Nigeria’s current security strength does not match its population size or the scale of its landmass. “We are investing in training and retraining. First of all, we’re investing in recruiting more security personnel because the one we have, they are not sufficient to match with the population and the land mass,” he said.
According to him, some of the newly recruited personnel would be deployed specifically as forest guards, tasked with checking terrorists who exploit Nigeria’s forests as hideouts and as sites for illegal mining. “We needed to send people to the forest, so we have to recruit more and send them to forest guards as forest guards. Those ones, the terrorists, are also stealing our mines and resources,” he said.
Bwala added that beyond the forest guards initiative, the police, the military, and the Department of State Services were all being expanded in tandem with marine security operations. “We also have these marine guys there. We’re increasing police, soldiers and DSS. So in terms of personnel, we’re increasing them,” he said.
He disclosed that the government was also working with paramilitary agencies and had licensed select private security firms to provide additional layers of protection. On internal accountability, he said President Bola Tinubu had ordered the withdrawal of police officers previously attached to VIPs as personal guards, warning that officers found to have defaulted on redeployment orders would soon be identified and dealt with.
On the technology front, Bwala said the government was investing in drone systems and interception technology to enable round-the-clock surveillance of flashpoints. “We’re investing in technological devices that, in modern days, help us when we are sleeping, which is the drone system, interception and all that,” he said.
He further revealed that Nigeria was deepening security cooperation with its Sahel neighbours on counterterrorism efforts, and had, for the first time in the country’s history, extended a joint military partnership with the United States. He said special forces units had recently concluded a round of operations in the country, while other American personnel remained on ground providing training whose specifics he declined to disclose, citing operational security. “We will not tell the world the nature of the training. We don’t want our enemies to know. There are certain things that are classified because we don’t say it, people tend to think government is not working,” he said.
Bwala explained that troops typically rely on intelligence and reconnaissance before moving against targets, at times waiting until suspects leave populated areas before striking, in order to minimise the risk of civilian casualties.
Describing the country’s kidnapping crisis, Bwala characterised it as a “crisis economy,” noting that abductions are not always carried out by terrorist groups but sometimes by ordinary Nigerians, including people known to their victims. “The kidnappings and the abductions you see, which is a crisis economy, is done sometimes by the terrorist and at other times by Nigerians. Sometimes when it is done, they arrest people and discover that they are neighbours,” he said.
He said the government was also strengthening local policing structures within cities, expanding DSS presence, and encouraging community-based policing models, citing an initiative led by the Lagos State Governor involving neighbourhood security marshals. “So we are expanding the local police and DSS within the city, like the Governor of Lagos told me they are doing, developing community-based policing, neighbourhood marshals and others, where they say if you see something, you must talk,” he said.
Bwala also noted a recurring pattern in Nigeria’s security situation, observing that insecurity tends to spike in the run-up to elections as more people are drawn into criminal activity for political purposes, but typically eases afterward. He urged Nigerians to judge the government’s security performance with this pattern in mind. “Please do your judgment by after election, because they also consider this as part of the election, because more people will need market, recruit them or arm them,” he said.
He added that security agencies were also cracking down on compromised personnel within the law enforcement system, citing the recent arrest of a senior police officer by mine marshals as an example of ongoing internal accountability efforts.
