Oshiomhole: NSCDC Can’t Remain ‘Civil’ While Fighting Armed Criminals

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, has called for a review of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Establishment Act.

He made the call on Friday in Abuja while speaking at the launch of a book titled “Nigeria’s Security Dilemma: Rivalries and Implications Vol. 1,” authored by Dr Olusola Odumosu, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Commandant of the NSCDC.

The former governor of Edo State argued that the word “civil” in the agency’s name no longer reflects the realities of the threats its operatives confront daily.

Oshiomhole said the concept of a “civil” defence corps implies a force without firearms, yet operatives are routinely deployed against heavily armed criminals destroying public assets, engaging in illegal mining and oil bunkering.

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“If the criminals you have to fight carry a sophisticated weapon, you, who is fighting them, your weapon should be nothing less than sophisticated,” he said, adding that the current arrangement leaves operatives “civil” while confronting “hardened criminals.”

The lawmaker also called for stronger collaboration among security agencies, emphasising intelligence sharing.

Oshiomhole said he has since realised that no one arm of security can deal with the security challenges facing the country, both at the state and at the national level.

The former Governor decried the issue of trust among the agencies, lack of intelligence sharing, superiority war and judicial negligence for the complexity of Nigeria’s security challenges.

The senator said that national security must rise above partisan or institutional interests, stressing that “When it comes to security, there is no PDP, no APC… we need to understand that,” he said.

He urged operational heads to ensure that directives given to field commanders are matched with adequate equipment, morale and welfare for personnel.

Speaking on the motivation for the book, the author, Dr Olusola Odumosu, said no security agency possesses all the answers to Nigeria’s security challenges.

“No one agency has it all. There is a need for a united front because security is not what one agency can do. No one has a monopoly of wisdom,” he said.

Odumosu identified inter-agency rivalry as the bane of a coordinated national response to security threats.

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