By Christopher Oji
A private investigator , Mr. Matthew Ibadin has called on the federal government to review the extant law on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of indigenous and multinational companies to make provision for the compulsory funding of security agencies to the tune of about seventy percent of their annual CSR budgets.
The security chieftain, who spoke to newsmen on the sideline at the recent graduation ceremony of the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) Kaduna noted that over the years, private sector companies and multinationals have embarked on yearly budget for the execution of their CSR programme, but ironically while some companies have adequately utilized such budget, a good number of others would usually plough back such budgeted amount without executing any project on behalf of the host communities.
Ibadin, the Director of Badinson Security Limited,
pointed out that since no company or multinational organization would operate in an atmosphere of insecurity, it would be ideal that substantial part of their CSR budget is devoted towards funding of security agencies since government alone cannot fund activities of the agencies. Such payments can be channeled into a national security trust fund, he advised.
Ibadin was conferred with a Masters degree in Strategy Security and Administration at the 33rd convocation of NDA, during which the Chairman of Air Peace Airline; Barr. Allen Onyema and a former Chief of Defense Staff, General Martin Luther Agwai were conferred with honorary Doctorate degrees. Onyema was honoured with Doctor of Management Science and according to the Commandant of the Academy, Major-General JO Ochai, the doctorate degree was conferred on the Air Peace boss in “recognition of his achievements in business, administration, education and outstanding service to the nation and humanity in general.
The convocation ceremony which was largely for Cadets of 70 Regular Course and postgraduate students also witnessed the conferment of a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Leadership and Strategic Studies on one time Minister of Interior and now a Senator, Patrick Abba Moro. The event attracted dignitaries from various walks of life including the Minister of Defense, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar and his Minister of State.
Ibadin, who has been in the fore-front of creating security awareness through seminars, workshops, conferences and so on, firmly believes in the efficacy of intelligence gathering, community policing towards having a crime-less society. He agrees that some security agencies like the police created the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) as a platform for citizens and police collaboration at the community level.
However, he observed that crime is a local phenomenon which invariably means that if the citizens do not give out information, it will be difficult for the security agencies to succeed. Therefore, for the cooperation to be effective, he emphasized, that there should be trust between the citizenry and the police in particular and other security agencies in general.
Such trust according to him can come through constant socialization and what he called community engagement. “There is nothing wrong if the Commissioner of Police in a state or the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of an area can initiate a novelty match between the police and citizens or interactive sessions in a friendly atmosphere that allows for easy mingling and sharing of information,” he explained.
Speaking on the endless spate of criminality in the country particularly the infiltration of across the border criminals, Ibadin pointed out that our land borders are quite porous because we have a lot of small arms and light weapons coming into Nigeria from the Sahel region. He explained that the Nigeria Army is currently overwhelmed with internal security and has advocated for a paradigm shift.
Ibadin, argued that instead of allowing the Nigerian Customs Service to be in charge of the borders as the lead agency, the Army should take the lead while police should take absolute charge of internal security in the country.
Explaining this further, he said fighting the internal insurgency of Boko Haram for instance should be left for the police while the army should pull out. In his words, “Let police take care of the internal security. Let the police be held accountable and responsible for the internal security of the country while army should secure the borders through which the arms are coming into the country. Over the years, the army has been used for internal security and they had tried the much they could. Therefore, army which has the responsibility for external defense of the country should man the borders where external forces infiltrate the country. In this light, the federal government should channel the internal defense budget to the police to enable it cope with the volume of the new assignment. The Inspector General of Police (IGP) should be held responsible for the management of such fund” he added.
If there is one reason, Ibadin believes has made it difficult to reduce the high level of criminality in Nigeria over the years, it is absolutely the mixing of politics with security by successive governments. According to him; “when a governor for instance mixes up politics with security, he can never get it right. What do I mean? Some politicians are behind various crimes in the country like sponsoring of terrorists, unknown gunmen and have not been held accountable for it either because they belong to the party in power, occult group or some other nocturnal societies. Any country that cannot prosecute the rich or the powerful who has committed a crime, to teach others a lesson can never move forward.”
“In many advanced countries like United States of America, the rich who break the law are often prosecuted in accordance with the law in other to teach people some lessons that nobody is above the law. With this approach, every other citizen will know that government is serious in promoting the rule of law. But regrettably, it is the other way round in Nigeria where the rich will break the law and will go unpunished. Politicians would break the law and there would be no consequences and same with other privileged citizens. The political will to prosecute sponsors of terrorism and other heinous crimes is lacking in Nigeria. Sponsors of crime once identified should be prosecuted in spite of their political affiliation,” he advised.
The Badinson boss also called for crime documentation in Nigeria stressing that what is helping us in contemporary time is that we do not have organized crimes yet in the country. “What we have is individual crime and that is what is saving us as a country. If we have organized crimes with the kind of security arrangement and jurisprudence in place, there is certainly no way we could survive as a nation. Because there is no proper crime documentation, it becomes easy for someone to commit a crime in Lagos and easily relocates to Abuja for instance to commit another and gets away with it.
“If we have crime documentation, the system would work like what we have in the banking system whereby a customer’s facial appearance and biometrics information inputted in one branch reflect in any of the branches anywhere in the country. Police should evolve the same method by taking the photographs and other biometric information of any crime suspect, put it in the system that can be accessed at any police station anywhere in the country including the borders. Such information can be shared with every other security agency. He also advocated for what he called super highway for security agents using the old toll gates across the nation as mini barracks for the agents who would now find it easy tracking down highway criminals like kidnappers.
Speaking on inter-agency collaboration, Ibadin who is also pursuing another Masters degree in Defense and Strategic Studies (DSS) at the Nigerian Defence Academy noted that the security agencies are doing well in terms of fighting crime, but they can do better. However, he pointed out regrettably that instead of collaboration, they are competing due to the inadequate budgetary provision for them.
He has therefore advised the National Security Adviser to come up with a security framework for effective collaboration among security agencies adding that the federal government should establish a Security Agency Academy where all agencies must be compulsorily trained together for one year and also a establish a club house or recreation centre for them for networking and bonding.
On the issue of the unknown gunmen syndrome in the South East, Ibadin advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to engage the gunmen in dialogue with a view to knowing exactly what they want and possibly negotiate the way forward just like the case of Niger Delta militants with former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s administration that brought about the amnesty programme and cessation of militancy in the region.
He has also advised the President to fulfill his campaign promise of restructuring the police and all other security agencies with a view to checkmating the anomaly of unjustified promotion of officers with political connection contrary to extant rules guiding promotion of officers in the various services.