COLUMN
Amaechi, El-Rufai and Tinubu’s kernel
By Festus Adedayo
Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde, in his lowest moment in prison, drew a comparison of how he sank from being one of the greatest writers of the late 20th century, into a bisexual pedophile. Son of Anglo-Irish intellectuals, Wilde was a writer with lacerating wit. He equally dressed flamboyantly and garnished his writings in flamboyant imagery. He was however bisexual, a precursor to the creed Trump detests today. Wilde’s ordeal began when he issued a civil writ against 9th Marques of Queensberry, John Sholto Douglas, for criminal libel. John was the father of Wilde’s homo liaison, Sir Alfred Douglas. Though he won the suit, evidence from the trial made Wilde eligible for trial for gross indecency in homosexual acts. It became one of the first celebrity trials of the century. Overwhelming evidence confirmed that the writer of the famous The Picture of Dorian Gray indeed seduced teens into homosexual activities. At age 39, the court held that Wilde seduced Alphonse Conway, a boy of 16. Another teenager of same age, Walter Grainger, claimed Wilde threatened him with “very serious trouble” if he revealed their homo dalliance.
El-Rufai and Tinubu’s kernel
Convicted and sentenced to two years maximum penalty, Wilde was in jail from May 25, 1895 to May 18, 1897. He spent the term in Newgate Prison in London, Pentonville and Wandsworth Prisons and then to Londonto Reading Gaol. While, as prisoner, he was being moved from Wandsworth to Reading, he faced the lowest point of his life when a crowd which spotted him on the train’s platform jeered at and spat at him. In his De Profundis, also known as Letter to Sir Alfred Douglas, which he wrote in his last year in prison and published posthumously, Wilde had written: “She (his mom) and father had bequeathed me a name they had made noble and honored, not merely in literature, art, archeology and science, but in the public history of my own country, in its evolution as a nation. I had disgraced that name eternally. I had made it a low byword among low people. I had dragged it through the very mire. I had given it to brutes that they might make it brutal, and to fools that they might turn it into synonym for folly.”
I told the tale of Wilde’s unraveling above to illustrate how human beings and nations unravel. In the last two weeks, the world saw America unravel, its dirty entrails revealed to the world. Before now, the narrative was that, it was African and Third World despots and leaders who shared animal features with our ape ancestors. They reacted according to the stimuli of their whims and intrinsic human wickedness. They were emotive and made no effort to shroud their human passions and desires. Many African leaders have, over the century, been profiled as despots because they couldn’t tame their passions and emotions. They came across as wicked and self-centered, sometimes acting out as narcissists. No doubt a product of close to a century of colonialism, it was believed that some of these beastly leaderships the Third World produced could not be found in America. On the contrary, “God’s Own Country” was the manifestation of human purity and America epitomized the height of the purest of human character.
When a situation makes everyone equal in action, the Yoruba have allegories with which they justify it. One way they do this is to invoke the imagery of an African chickens’ pen. As a way of reducing costs of daily sustenance, most African homes maintained pens. They are enclosures within compounds where livestock or pets are kept. They serve as immediate relief from the rigour of dashing to the market for protein. At dusk, these animals, especially the local livestock, are lured from roaming round compounds into the various pens/cages, lest they become preys to reptiles. Because this practice is replicated in virtually every home, when it is time to equalize human action, it is invoked as an allegory. It illustrates a sense of similarity; that, what is done beyond the shores of individual localities is the same, irrespective of any allusion to sophistication. This is found in the aphorism, “everywhere, without exception, at dusk, hens are packed inside the pen” (ibi gbogbo l’a tií ńk’ádìye alé).
This aphorism has served as excuse for failure. It has also served as justification for horrendous human actions. It is a weak line explored to say that corruption or evil is innate in every man, no matter the clime or skin colour. Despots have invoked it to claim that their actions were normal human reactions. More importantly, the aphorism has served to legitimize and sustain that theory which says that, there is a beast in every man, apologies to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s musical line, “…this uprising will bring out the beast in us”.
Many analysts who got sucked into the theory of American leaders’ ‘righteousness’ and Third World leaders’ beastliness, find another aphorism as justification. With it, they explain racial leadership character differences. So, they ask if it wasn’t the same rain that fell on and nurtured the bitter-leaf tree into its repulsive bitterness that also fell on the sugarcane which in turn comforts man with its sweetness (Òjò tó rọ̀ sí ewúro náà ló rọ̀ sí ìrèké). The bitter-leaf, in this case, was African leaders who were demonized for almost a century as wicked and selfish. The sugarcane is American leaders whose perceived purity lifted their countries to the zenith of positive global reckoning. This subsisted until about two weeks ago when America’s self-imposed righteousness unraveled.
Mobutu Sese Seko illustrates this bitter-leaf leadership thesis. Born Joseph-Dèsirè, he was President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1997. Then came Robert Mugabe, who served as the president of the Republic of Zimbabwe from 1987. And Francisco Macìas Nguema, first president of Equatorial Guinea from October 12, 1968, till 1979 when he was overthrown. So also was Ahmed Sèkou Tourè, the first President of Guinea. From 1958 when he came into this position, he was there till 1984. The continent also had the likes of Abacha, Charles Taylor, Siad Barre of Somalia, Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan, Hissene Habre of Chad, Idi Amin Dada of Uganda and many more. America and the west constructed a cemetery for all of them and cast them in boulders of infamy. It must be said that virtually all these African despots claimed they did all they did to make their countries great. Like Donald Trump.
But, how were we to know that America itself was the proverbial ‘physician, heal thyself’? The last two American presidents, especially Trump, deconstructed America so badly in the eyes of the world, making them not different from Third World countries.
At the twilight of his administration, President Joe Biden shocked the world when he issued an official pardon for his son, Hunter. As at that time, Hunter was facing sentencing for two criminal cases. In September, he pleaded guilty to tax charges and was found guilty of illegal drug use and possession of a gun. He became the first American sitting president’s child to become a convict. In 2001, Bill Clinton equally pardoned Roger Clinton, his younger half-brother, who had been convicted in a 1985 cocaine-related offence. During the first coming of President Trump, in 2020, he equally pardoned Charles Kushner, father-in-law of his daughter, Ivanka. He has also recently announced that this same Kushner will be America’s ambassador to France. On his first day in office, in the confetti of Executive Orders he signed, Trump also pardoned more than 1500 of his supporters who were serving prison sentences for their participation in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The attack was said to be the final denouement of a seven-part plot by Trump to overturn the election. In 36 hrs, five persons died, one of whom was shot by the police. A police officer also died a day after being assaulted. Scores were injured, including 174 police officers and damage caused to the US exceeded $2.7m. While it was riot in America, if it occurred in one of those Third World countries, it was a coup. And whether successful or otherwise, the mastermind were coup plotters, susceptible to America’s usual paternalistic rhetoric. The prisoners were Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) fanatics protesting his presidential election loss. Trump was sentenced in over 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, in efforts to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election. These convictions signal that in Trump, America now has its first and only criminal elected to its presidency. Such self-serving actions and criminality were hitherto ascribed to nepotist dictators for which African leadership had incontestable patent.
Today, you would see Mobutu Sese Seko, Robert Mugabe, Francisco Macìas Nguema, Ahmed Sèkou Tourè, Abacha, Charles Taylor, Siad Barre, Omar Al-Bashir, Hissene Habre, Idi Amin Dada, all wrapped into one in Trump. He is as conceited as the typical African despot, arrogant in his self-righteousness as all of them rolled into one, and persuaded, like them, in his own vain conceit. President Trump recently hinted he would walk through the same ignoble track of a third term in office, though the US constitution forbids it. It was a low for which Olusegun Obasanjo suffers the worst unpleasant appraisals till today and for which all the despots above are reserved a place in the hell of global estimation. Trump, in a recent parley with House Republicans, said, “I’ve raised a lot of money for the next race that I assume I can’t use for myself, but I’m not 100 percent sure”. He continued, “I think I’m not allowed to run again;” and asked rhetorically, in a prodding of Mike Johnson, the House Speaker, “Am I allowed to run again?” He said further, “Mike, I better not get you involved in that”. All he got from Johnson, an ex-constitutional lawyer, was a chuckle, with other lawmakers sharing an infectious guffaw at this American Wonder.
Trump had previously dismissed insinuations of a third term when he said, “I suspect I won’t be running again, unless you do something…Unless you say, ‘he’s so good, we have to just figure it out.’” That same week, Andy Ogles, a Republican House member, had introduced a bill which sought allowance for Trump to run for a third term. Ogles’ alibi, bowing to Trump’s prodding of ‘he’s so good, we have to just figure it out,’ was that Trump “has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history” capable of “restoring America to greatness”. If the world knows Trump enough, it will know that America would soon receive its first genetic transplant of an African sit-tight leadership. Trump is provoking trade war, withdrawing America from globally-beneficial institutions like WHO, threatening to harness territories like Greenland, all in the name of his MAGA.
Donald Trump’s son, Trump Jr., recently hallmarked his father’s Greenland harnessing when he made a surprise appearance there. Immediately, Nigerian maga on social media asked what stops President Bola Tinubu from cloning the same nepotist hubris and weave his son, Seyi, round Aso Rock. Trump should be made to know that, at the end of all these, yes, America will be lush once again for Americans. However, that country would have forever lost the savour of respect and dread for which the world stands in awe of it. By the time Trump ends his Adolf Hitler-like preferencing of his Aryan race as the most superior in the world, America would wake up lost and naked.
As Trump is busy affirming the “everywhere, without exception, at dusk, hens are packed inside the pen” to the world, in Nigeria, former Rivers and Kaduna state governors, Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir El-Rufai, are struggling to deconstruct the thesis. At an “Impact of democracy on the national economy” in Abuja last week, both acted from the playbook of a typical adulterous woman sent packing from her erstwhile home. Underlining their “dogo turenchi” is the theme that, while the present government, from which they are estranged, is performing horribly, if they had played prominent roles therein, it would not have been otherwise. That submission attempted to deconstruct the “ibi gbogbo l’a ti nk’adiye ale” thesis.
Quite frankly, Amaechi and El-Rufai were dead right. Nigerians are too docile and possess incredibly short-spanned memory. It is these two limitations that Nigerian politicians capitalize upon to catapult themselves into power. When you add the infectious poverty that afflicts the Nigerian to the mix, you have at your finger tips zombies. Evergreen Anikulapo-Kuti got it right. “My people sef, dem fear too much…” he lamented. While many attribute this to the sparse blood spillage in our fight for independence, some say our docility is a product of our comfort. You cannot also fault El-Rufai’s claim that there is no internal democracy in the ruling APC. But, if I may ask, which party in Nigeria observes internal democracy? The former Kaduna governor had equally lamented that, “You cannot afford to have illiterates, semi-illiterates, and cunning people as your leaders. This is why we end up with the poor leadership we have today.”
My take is that indeed, Nigeria, America and many parts of the world are today facing an Autumn in good leadership. Global leadership is fast decoupling from the people who constitute its foundation. If Amaechi and El-Rufai had been in plum offices today under the APC, there would be nil or marginal differences in the people’s sorrow. Nor any complaints from them. Their comments above are the usual initial traps politicians set to seduce electorates penultimate lunching new parties or entering into alliances. Both Amaechi and El-Rufai were in office when the Muhammadu Buhari government dealt incalculable blows on good governance. It was the most opaque, naive and directionless in Nigeria’s history. Yet, we didn’t hear any hoopla from the duo.
On the whole, Trump is teaching leaders of the world that indeed, “everywhere, without exception, at dusk, hens are packed inside the pen”. As Trump’s Third term ambition grows, it will trigger a wave of African leaders also nurturing perfect alibi for sit-tightism. This brings me to an intersection to disagree with El-Rufai’s claim that the present APC leadership is illiterate. I agree more with ex-Youth and Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, who recently said that the combine that surrounds power today is educated but lethal. Cunning and sadistic, yes, they are. It is why I am of the opinion that it will be difficult to dislodge Tinubu from power
Rather than sounding sanctimonious, El-Rufai, Amaechi and the Nigerian opposition will need to abandon rhetoric. I am sure that what God deployed to drive Satan away from Heaven wasn’t mere demagogic narratives. What the Nigerian opposition needs to do to drive away the Morning Star is to recreate an American Donald Trump as an aspirant for Nigeria’s No 1 office. A Trump clone will dislodge the current ruling establishment. In Trump is a symbolism of leadership madness, unconventionality, criminality and unorthodoxy. Don’t our people say it is only a meek face that gets riven with pimples (Ojú tó rọ ni rore nsọ)? Yoruba reckon with this when they say, you must deploy madness to cure madness. While campaigning for votes, Tinubu himself said you cannot snatch the kernel from the palm-nut with rhetoric. What Nigeria’s opposition needs to dislodge the kernel from the hard palm-nut is a stone on the floor and another stone to smash it at the top.
By Lanre Olagunju
Nigeria has a peculiar relationship with election security. We ask the police to keep politicians from fighting, then spend the election complaining about which side the police are fighting for.
That contradiction will be tested again on Saturday in Osun.
The question is not whether the Nigeria Police Force can deploy enough men and women to the state. It is whether, after the votes are counted, both sides can honestly say the police behaved like a referee rather than a participant.
That is a much harder test.
IGP Olatunji Disu appears to understand that the real work began long before election day. On 3 July, he went to Osun against the backdrop of escalating political violence, meeting Governor Ademola Adeleke and subsequently engaging political parties, traditional rulers, leadership from the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) – whose influence extends to a constituency often at the centre of political mobilisation – and other stakeholders. He warned that the state was preparing for an election, not a war.
There is something important about that approach. Election policing should not begin when voters start queuing. By then, intelligence should already have identified flashpoints, political actors should have been warned, and the police should know who is likely to test the limits.
Disu’s engagement with young people is particularly significant in a state where political violence often recruits the young as foot soldiers. Listening to those who live closest to the problem is not weakness. It is intelligence gathering of a different kind.
But the IGP’s visit also produced an uncomfortable moment.
Disu told the governor that he had been briefed about wanted criminal suspects allegedly being shielded by influential people and spoke of criminals allegedly hiding in the Government House.
Some found the statement awkward. Perhaps it was. But there is a bigger question worth asking: what does speaking truth to power look like if the police chief cannot say what his intelligence is telling him, simply because the alleged hideout happens to be politically inconvenient?
The answer, however, must also include evidence, due process and accountability. Intelligence is not conviction.
Perhaps more revealing was what happened to the state’s election command structure.
With some political actors questioning the neutrality of the existing Commissioner of Police, the Force introduced an Electoral Commissioner of Police ahead of the poll. That decision can be interpreted in two ways. Critics may see it as an admission that confidence had already collapsed. Another interpretation is that the police leadership recognised that perception of neutrality is itself a security issue and acted long before election day.
That distinction matters.
The Force has also moved senior officers into the operation, including DIG, AIG and DCP-level coordination. The value of such deployment should not be measured by the number of stars on shoulders but by whether decisions can be made quickly, consistently and without political interference.
There is another test.
When Senator Francis Fadahunsi, an APC member, made remarks interpreted as a threat to “kill” Accord Party members, the Police invited him for questioning within 24 hours. He later said he meant “killing votes”, not people.
Advertisement
The bigger point is this: political affiliation did not shield him from scrutiny. That is how police neutrality should work: the same standard for everyone, regardless of party, position or personality.
That is where credibility is earned.
For neutrality to mean anything, it must be consistent. The same standard must apply to the opposition, the ruling party, the powerful and the politically connected. Where the facts demand scrutiny, no political affiliation should confer immunity.
Osun will therefore be a test not just of security, but of institutional character.
Were voters protected regardless of who they supported? Were parties treated equally? Were violent actors pursued regardless of political affiliation? Did police officers themselves remain restrained and professional? And when the result is announced, can the losing side say, even grudgingly, that the police seem to have carried out their job fairly?
Those questions will matter more than any promise of neutrality.
Disu has spent the weeks before the election putting structures, personnel and principles in place. The harder task now is to ensure that those principles survive the pressure of election day.
The Police do not need to determine who wins Osun. Its responsibility is simpler, and perhaps more difficult: to create the conditions in which whoever wins can credibly be said to have won the voters, not the Police.
That is what neutrality looks like when it matters.
Lanre Olagunju wrote in from Abuja.
By Dr. Kodilichukwu Okelekwe
History will remember October 23, 2024 as the day Nigerian education changed course. On that day, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu reassigned Dr. Morufu Olatunji Alausa — a globally renowned Nephrologist, clinician, administrator and pro-democracy patriot — as the 31st Honourable Minister of Education of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What has followed is not reform as usual. It is a clinical, methodical, and compassionate revolution.
Guided by resolve, method, and a clinician’s respect for diagnosis before cure, Dr. Alausa unveiled the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) — a six-pillar masterplan to overhaul a struggling system. In less than two years, the results have been unprecedented.
1. Abolition of the 18-Year Admission Age Limit – Restoring Hope and Justice
One of his first and most humane acts was to reverse the draconian 18-year minimum admission age policy. With a single stroke of compassionate leadership, Dr. Alausa abolished a policy that threatened to destroy the dreams of millions of brilliant Nigerian youths. He declared that merit, ability, and readiness — not an arbitrary calendar — should determine a child’s future. That decision was celebrated in every home, every JAMB centre, and every secondary school as a victory for common sense, equity, and the Nigerian child.
2. Expansion of Tertiary Capacity:
For decades, Nigeria’s tertiary admission ceiling was a national bottleneck — barely 750,000 placements for over 2 million qualified candidates. Under Dr. Alausa, that ceiling was shattered. Through aggressive expansion of carrying capacity, strategic resource optimization, establishment of new programmes, distance learning expansion, and the reconstitution and empowerment of Governing Councils of federal tertiary institutions, annual admission has crossed the historic 1 million mark for the first time in the history of Nigeria. No Minister has ever achieved this scale of access.
3. Student Loan and Welfare Support – NELFUND: The Great Equalizer
The minister described the new student loan scheme as one of the administration’s most significant achievements. Under his stewardship, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has become a living reality — providing interest-free loans to students in public universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
What was once a manifesto promise is now food on a student’s table, rent paid, books bought, and dropout rates crashing. Coupled with the expanded National School Feeding Programme and student welfare interventions, Dr. Alausa has restored dignity to the Nigerian student.
4. TVET and Vocational Overhaul – From Certificates to Skills
Dr. Alausa understood that Nigeria does not just need more graduates; it needs skilled creators. His TVET revolution is unrivalled. He dismantled the old, theory-heavy vocational system and replaced it with a competency-based, industry-aligned, and globally competitive Technical and Vocational Education and Training framework. Workshops are being retooled, instructors retrained, and a new generation of welders, coders, fashion designers, renewable energy technicians and agro-processors are emerging — ready to build Nigeria’s industrial future.
5. Curriculum and Subject Rationalisation – Preparing for Tomorrow, Not Yesterday
Nigeria cannot continue using outdated learning frameworks while preparing children for a digital global economy. Dr. Alausa took that truth head-on. He launched a new basic education curriculum and a comprehensive subject rationalisation that reduced overload, eliminated redundancies, and infused critical thinking, entrepreneurship, coding, and values. This is curriculum with clarity, purpose, and future-relevance.
6. Digitalisation and Teacher Empowerment – The Twin Engine
The rollout of the Tertiary Institution Information Management System (TIIMS) has streamlined administration, while hundreds of smart schools and digital teaching platforms are already being deployed.
But Dr. Alausa’s greatest insight is this: “No education reform can succeed without placing teachers at its core”. He launched Nigeria’s first Artificial Intelligence in Education Task Force, alongside a nationwide training programme for 6,000 secondary school teachers to integrate AI in classrooms. He is revitalising the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, improving recruitment, training and motivation, and unveiled a far-reaching ICT Blueprint supported by the French Government and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) — described as one of the most ambitious efforts yet to transform tertiary education through technology.
7. Data and Repository Systems – Ending Governance by Guesswork
For years, education planning was blind. Dr. Alausa ended that era with the launch of the National Education Data System and the National Education Data Initiative (NEDI) — a platform designed to consolidate fragmented education statistics and support evidence-based planning. The Ministry is now using NEDI to track performance and cut learning poverty. This data-driven governance is unprecedented and has become the backbone of the Renewed Hope Agenda.
8. Global and National Recognition – Honour Well Deserved
Nigerians from all walks of life have hailed this transformation. In 2025, Dr. Alausa was conferred with the prestigious national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) by President Tinubu as part of Democracy Day celebrations — the only serving minister among 102 honourees, recognised for his contributions to Nigeria’s democratic journey and transformative education reforms.
In the same year, he emerged as Most Innovative Cabinet Minister of the Year 2025 at the Independent Newspapers Silver Jubilee Awards. These are not just awards; they are national testaments.
9. Transparency, Accountability and Unimpeachable Integrity – The Alausa Standard
In an era when public trust is scarce, Dr. Alausa has discharged his duties with unimpeachable integrity. Every loan under NELFUND is traceable. Every data point under NEDI is verifiable. Every council appointment, every smart school deployment, every kobo released is accounted for. He brought the ethics of a physician — do no harm, put the patient first, keep accurate records — into public service.
Conclusion: A Legacy Being Written in Gold
Dr. Tunji Alausa did not come to manage the Ministry of Education; he came to heal it. Like the brilliant kidney specialist he is, he diagnosed a chronically ill system, applied evidence-based treatment, and the patient — Nigeria’s education sector — is now standing, walking, and running.
The abolition of the 18-year limit gave back hope. The expansion to over 1 million admissions gave back access. NELFUND gave back opportunity. TVET gave back skills. Digitalisation gave back relevance. Data gave back truth. And integrity gave back trust.
This is unprecedented. This is unrivalled. This is record-breaking. This is the Alausa Era.
Dr. Kodilichukwu Okelekwe
2023 APC Senatorial Candidate for Anambra Central Senatorial District
Abuja
August 1, 2026
By Lanre Olagunju
When news broke that the children abducted from the Oriire Community had been rescued, it brought a collective sigh of relief across the country. For their families, the nightmare had finally ended. For the security personnel involved, it was the successful conclusion of what must have been days of painstaking intelligence gathering, operational planning and immense personal risk.
But as the celebrations subside, perhaps the more important question is not simply how the children were rescued, but what the operation tells us about the future of security in Nigeria.
For years, insecurity was viewed through institutional silos, with successful operations judged by which agency deserved the credit. Yet criminals do not distinguish between the police, the military or intelligence services; they exploit gaps between agencies, making the growing culture of inter-agency collaboration one of the most encouraging developments in Nigeria’s security architecture.
The Oriire operation is another reminder that collaboration is no longer optional. Intelligence-led policing is strongest when backed by military capabilities, inter-agency coordination and community support. As recent joint operations have shown, insecurity has become too complex for any single agency to tackle alone.
Equally commendable was what happened after the operation. Both the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force honoured officers who distinguished themselves while paying tribute to colleagues who made the ultimate sacrifice. Such moments remind us that behind every successful operation are men and women who risk everything in service to the nation. A country that expects such sacrifice must never fail to honour it.
It was therefore disappointing, though perhaps not surprising, that almost immediately after the rescue, some voices chose to dismiss the entire incident as staged. Healthy scepticism has an important place in every democracy. Public institutions should never be immune from scrutiny. But there is a moral line that should not be crossed.
To casually dismiss the trauma endured by abducted children, the agony experienced by their parents, and the sacrifice of officers who lost their lives is to trivialise human suffering for the sake of political commentary. Not every national tragedy should become fodder for conspiracy theories. Some moments demand empathy before opinion. Regardless of political persuasion, Nigerians should be able to agree that the lives lost in the line of duty and the pain endured by victims deserve far greater respect than careless speculation.
Yet even as the country celebrates this successful rescue, we should resist the temptation to mistake recovery for victory. Every successful rescue is commendable, but it is also evidence that criminals were able to strike in the first place. The true measure of an effective security system is not how efficiently it responds after an attack but how consistently it prevents attacks from occurring.
That is where Nigeria’s security conversation must now evolve. Preventive policing, supported by technology and intelligence, offers the most sustainable pathway forward. Around the world, law enforcement agencies increasingly rely on artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, geospatial intelligence, drones, digital forensics and integrated surveillance systems to detect threats before they materialise. Criminal networks have embraced technology with remarkable speed. Security institutions cannot afford to fight twenty-first-century crime with nineteenth-century methods.
This thinking is beginning to find expression within the Nigeria Police Force. Speaking at the Fifth United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit in New York earlier this month, Inspector-General of Police Tunji Disu, observed that while technology presents enormous opportunities through artificial intelligence, digital forensics and geospatial intelligence, it can never replace public trust. He also noted that criminals now exploit AI, encrypted communications and cyber-enabled platforms, making innovation an operational necessity.
That perspective is significant because it recognises two realities at once. First, technology is no longer an accessory to policing; it is becoming its backbone. Second, technology without trust, accountability and collaboration cannot produce lasting security. Public confidence remains the currency upon which effective policing depends.
The implication is clear. Nigeria does not simply need more security personnel; it needs smarter security systems. It needs deeper intelligence sharing among agencies, stronger partnerships with local communities, greater investment in surveillance and forensic capabilities, and the political will to sustain collaboration long after the headlines disappear. The success of joint operations should become the rule rather than the exception.
The children from Oriire are home. That is a victory worth celebrating. But the greater national success will come when our investments in collaboration, intelligence and technology make such rescues increasingly unnecessary. In security, the highest achievement is not responding brilliantly after tragedy. It is preventing tragedy from happening at all.
Lanre Olagunju wrote in from Abuja.
&m
-
Entertainment5 years agoBBNaija: “Shameful For A Married Woman” – Boma, Tega Doing ‘Stuff’ Under Duvet Sparks Outrage (See Video)
-
Entertainment5 years agoSinger, Oxlade In Big Mess After His Sex Tape With A Strange Lady Surfaces Online (Watch Video)
-
Entertainment6 years agoBBNaija: Kiddwaya Sucks Erica’s Boobs, Licks Dorathy’s Neck In Truth Or Dare Game (Video)
-
Entertainment3 years agoI’m Not Ashamed Of My Leaked Nude Photos, Ifunanya Confesses (See Photos)
-
Crime1 year agoNDLEA intercepts Saudi, UK-bound cocaine in lipsticks
-
Entertainment6 years agoI’m Not Sick But Only Lost Some Weight – Kiss Daniel
-
Crime1 year agoNDLEA seizes N3.4bn worth of opioids in Lagos, PH, uncovers drugs in chocolate tins
-
Entertainment5 years agoHow Women Should Act During Sex – Actress, Blessing Okoro Reveals (Vdeo)