Every sovereign country has constitutional provisions that guide  smooth governance  and this  covers the internal and external security of the country. The country constitution is very paramount since that is the fundamental platform on which the progress of the country is accessed politically and economically. Therefore when the security agencies like the military and the police are weakened then, cracks can be noticed in policies and  every daily activities in the country. 

Usually, when the political leadership of a country is weak and directionless, the security agencies become more empowered to provide the missing link between the people and the government. Such government, uses the  instrumentality  of the security to fortify its loose end. Same goes with a weak security agency  as this can open  the door for insecurity and criminals of every cadre to unleash mayhem on the populace thereby creating societal confusion. The worst thing that can happen to a country is to be encumbered with a weak leader or with a weak security. There are many factors that contribute to such situation. A weak security easily attracts invasion just as an exposed  honey attracts ants. A weak security helps in weakening the political fabric of the society. Furthermore, a weak security easily emboldens criminals to perpetrate their criminality. In Rotherham words, “a weak security is one that has lost all the ingredient of  a reliable security institution”. Many years back , the security institution in the old Bendel state ( known today as Edo and Delta states ) was in comatose as armed gang under a notorious robber known as Lawrence Anini  seized the  opportunity of a very weak security institution to install insecurity and held sway in the region. The notorious gang was eventually routed with federal might. Many of such instances abound in the country and it is even worsening today with noticeable pockets of insecurity emerging in every part of the country  despite reassurances from the federal government. This is failure of  internal security apparatus.  Must they wait until the entire country is over- run by armed  bandits before drastic measures are taken? The question therefore is, what are the factors that weakens the internal security of a country. Before the internal security could be weaned, it means that the security institution is either having  administrative cracks or that the leadership in place is not efficient. An inefficient security  leader could roundly create a problematic situation for both the country and the security institution. One of the major noticeable factor that affects internal security of a country, is when there is no coordination among all the security agencies in the country. When each of them is aloof of the others. This breeds internal rivalry especially among the leaders and this transcend to the operatives or personnel. No wonder, recent happening that exposes the wrangling among security personnels speaks volume before members of the society. Apart from grossly affecting the operational moves, it impedes exchange of information and this affects the overall  result of these security agencies. l remember in 1984, when the then state security service (SSS) now Directorate of State Security (DSS) moved to arrest me as the state Editor of the defunct National Concord Newspaper in Enugu, instead of the DSS to openly effect my arrest, it  communicated its intension to the police to pick me and  l was later  handed over after preliminary investigation by  the officer in charge of Crimnal lntelligence department (CID) Mr. Bawa Lawal who was under  the  State Police Commissioner  Mr Johnson Odu ( now late). After the police interrogation  over the story l published which was said to be dangerous to state security, l was then handed over to the SSS where l was detained and charged with  the obnoxious decree four  during the Buhari/ ldiagbon dictatorial regime. The security romance between the SSS and the police was very commendable and unique. When such cordial relationship exist among security agencies, it promotes the  desired efficiency  among  the agencies. Unlike today that these organizations see themselves as cat and rat. Such  strain affect smooth exchange of security information and could lead to doctoring of  intelligence security reports to the detriment of the country. Studies have shown that criminals always have an  inkling when there are  noticeable wrangling among security agencies. It becomes a regrettable situation  when security agencies are supposed to share sensitive nformations , instead each wants to take the glory to the detriment of the overall security of the society. Another factor militating against our security is inadequate training of the personnel. It has been observed hat the police over the years have  wrongly been using serving personnels as teachers in their training institutions instead of engaging either retired personnel with experience or professional trainers. What usually happens is that the lGP post officers who are in his bad books as punishment to these colleges. The truth is that posting a disgruntled officer to teach tantamount to inculcating a half baked information to the students. Moreso, the money officially earmarked for the training are never released since the serving police officers posted are never paid as trainers but still earn their salaries as serving police officers. This is fraudulent. Also the nonchallannt attitude of the federal government over empowering security agencies further worsen their capability. It has been observed that whenever a military leader transformed into a democratic president, the police is usually  deprived of necessary empowerment. What happens is that the police goes cap in hand begging state government for assistance. This trend alone further strengthens the notion for  state police.  Added to non empowerment is the financial starvation of these security agencies. Funding security the world over is not a mince meat. It is rather unfortunate that the police has been poorly funded and this has made it very difficult to maintain police patrol vehicles. The situation is more worrisome  as police men engaging in illegal acts like bribery, illegal road blocks etc. to either fuel these patrol vehicles or fix them whenever they  break down. 

Flouting presidential directives

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lt is very rare  to hear that a security chief  flouts  the order of his commander in chief. However, the disclosure by President Muhammadu Buhari in Benue state while  on an official  reconciliatory  engagement  and interaction with aggrieved traditional rulers, stakeholders and other relevant bodies, that the lnspector General of police he had directed to relocate to Benue state  and stay there until there was normalcy in the troubled state, turned out that the lGP flagrantly disobeyed his directive. The simple question is, “ must Mr. President even spend time announcing his thought”? Doesn’t the president know what disobedience and disloyalty attracts in the security community? Must Nigerians   be told  that the president’s appointee flouted his directives.

The president should  have done the needful, which is to  had instantly fire him and look for a replacement. lbrahim ldris knows what he was doing. He fully understands the implications of his action.  This is what familiarity attracts between a boss and his appointee. That your commander in chief directed you to do something and you in turn sent your subordinate  depicts  absolute disregard to authority. ( to be continued)