Insecurity: Stakeholders advocate active role for ex-servicemen
The lingering insecurity in Nigeria has prompted some security experts to advocate for the engagement of retired security personnel to support ongoing efforts to restore peace in all parts of the country.
The current security threats have had wide reaching implications for food security and the economy.
The nation has since the civil war, not faced a more dire security challenge as it has in the past decade, where thousands of lives were lost and farmers and communities displaced by kidnappers, insurgents and other criminals.
Thus, to mitigate the security challenges, some stakeholders said in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the expertise of retired personnel should be tapped.
They said every effort to make Nigerians feel safe, restore foreign investors’ confidence and put less pressure on the nation’s security structure, should be exploited.
The experts noted that even in parts of the country that seemed to be safe from the challenge, such as the Federal Capital Territory and Kwara, the criminals have crawled in.
The security stakeholders, therefore, believe harnessing the experience and knowledge of ex-servicemen would add value to the ongoing fight against insecurity in the country.
NAN reports that in 2023, the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), retired Gen. Lucky Irabor, mootted the idea of incorporating retired military personnel to help in the fight against insecurity.
According to him, retirees can combine their experience of living with civilians and their military background to provide intelligence that can help efforts to secure the country.
“To make a significant impact in ensuring that peace takes pre-eminence in the country, we need to fall back on the retired military officers.
“This is because they also live among the people, thereby having a lot to offer regarding security issues.
“Once a military officer, you remain a military officer for life, whether serving or retired. The motto of the country, which is ‘Unity, Peace and Faith’, is what we swore to defend, and we are committed to it,” he had said.
Dr Awwal Abdullahi, Secretary General, Armed Forces Veterans Federation of Nigeria, also thinks that the veterans have a role to play in securing the country.
Abdullahi, who is also the spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence Ministerial Committee on Armed Forces Veterans Welfare, said that ex-servicemen could be re-engaged into the fold of the armed forces.
He agrees with Irabor that ex-servicemen may not necessarily be engaged in physical combat but could be useful in intelligence gathering and information dissemination.
Abdullahi said that having served in the military and now residing among civilian has given the ex-personnel “double experience which will be very useful in what we call technological intelligence gathering warfare”.
He explained that technological in that context meant intelligence gathering using latest technology, while warfare involves the use of humans to get technical intelligence.
“This is one aspect that can be very useful, and the federal government can decide to engage us back into the services or provide service of intelligence, technological intelligence and warfare intelligence.
“When I say warfare intelligence it doesn’t mean we have to carry guns to go and start fighting.
“No, we can be reengaged to provide the necessary credible intelligence, timely intelligence, useful intelligence that will mitigate the challenging situation that Nigeria is having in terms of security”, he said.
Another veteran, a retired captain who preferred to be anonymous, said government should involve retired army generals as think tanks to profile pieces of advice.
“Veterans can help. Let the government call on them. Let them give them a task to do. Let them commission them to do this or do that.
“We have handled arms before and we can still handle them”, he said.
In Lagos State, the Chairman of the Nigerian Legion, Mr Akeem Wolimoh, said they were ready to contribute to internal security, if state governors make such arrangements.
“The contribution of the legion to the security architecture of the country is a fundamental issue whenever the ex-servicemen are mentioned.
“However, for us to fully participate in community security support, we have to be mobilised and thoroughly motorised because there must be logistics to support that.
“In areas where we have security challenges, the legion supports existing security structures to promote peace and harmony, but we need mobility to carryout this support effectively,” he added.
Wolimoh said the legionnaires should also be given other incentives, including monthly salary.
According to him, being relevant in supporting the security architecture of the country will come easy because the legion has offices spread across local government areas.
He added that the legionaries already have residual knowledge in terms of security provisions and members in virtually all communities.
“We have presence of the legion in every community but the functionality of this depends on how much support they get from the society.
“In some society where security is a serious issue, the society endeavors to support the legion by providing money and even vehicle for its operations,” he said.
Wolimoh allayed fears that the veterans might not have the energy to actively fight crime.
He said the Nigerian Legion has a department called the Corps of Commissioner whose duty was to recruit and train able bodied men as auxillary members of the legion.
“The auxillary members can be addressed as the workforce of the legion, those that are more energetic than the veterans who are now old and less active.
“So, this corps of commissioners are the young men you see in the legion uniform under the category of auxiliary members,” he explained.
The Vice Chairman, Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) in Katsina State, Alhaji Aliyu Bala-DEDA, also supports the idea of gvernment engaging retired security personnel to support security agencies.
He said this was imperative in view of the deteriorating security situation in many parts of the country.
“We are calling on state governments to as a matter of urgency constitute security committees that will involve retired military, police and paramilitary officers.
“These people are experts in security, they will provide useful advises that will assist to check the menace,” he said.
He also said people must take ownership of the fight against insecurity instead of looking up to government alone.
The PCRC chairman said states should also form community watch security outfits as done in Katsina State.
According to him, the establishment of the Community Security Watch Corps in Katsina state has contributed immensely in reducing criminal activities in parts of the state.
“In reality, establishment of the corps assisted greatly in checking criminal activities in such areas.
“Despite the fact that there are still some cases here-and-there, you cannot compare the situation now and before in terms of attacks on innocent people in their respective communities,” he said.
A former spokesperson of the Nigerian Army, retired Brig.-Gen. Sani Kukasheka is also in support of integrating retired security personnel into the security architecture at the state level.
“They can be made advisers or heads of state security outfits and zonal commanders.
“They can manage and secure vulnerable as well as key points while they also complement the efforts of other security agencies,” he said.
Kukasheka, however, said there was no need to amend the extant armed forces law to include every retired soldier into a national reserve.
“This is to ensure that their services to the fatherland can be further extended to community policing,” he added.
In his contribution, the Country Director, Global Peace Foundation Nigeria, Rev. John Hayab, said the retired personnel should be encouraged to actively support the fight against insecurity in the country.
“Those serving now are young, energetic and intelligent but you cannot compare all these with experience.
“Our Service Chiefs should come up with a programme where retired soldiers will be encouraged to come out and offer this great service of sacrifice and patriotism to their country to free her from the evil works of bandits and terrorists.
“The government should provide attractive incentives such as hazard allowance, insurance, scholarship for their children and adequate equipment to make the sacrifice worth doing,” Hayab said.
However, retired Brig.-Gen. Kabir Galadanci, said if the ex-servicemen should be brought back, their services should be advisory and for intelligence gathering, not to carry arms.
“People must understand that when such issues are being talked about, it is not to bring them back and give them arms to fight.
“They can only be brought back to render other services that will facilitate the soldiers to fight.
“They could be brought back as instructors in training institutions; to provide services like drivers, store keepers, and other services.”
He also said that on a higher level, they could be rendering advice on operations and what needed to be done on the frontline.
“When people hear of recalling military men, their thinking is they would be given guns.
“There is no way a person who retired as a Major General can be brought back to work under somebody who is a Liuetenat Colonel or similar in the rank and file cadre.”
He, however, explained that the military is presently utilising the services of some of its retired personnel.
“This is already taking place in training institutions, where you will find at least about five to 10 per cent of the instructors are retired personnel.
“Similarly, in the Navy’s technical arm, the ship yards maintenance, about 70 per cent of the staff are retired personnel.
“In the Air Force, a lot of Air Vice Marshals who retired are there training personnel on flights,” he added.
Galadanci said one of the best areas to utilise the services of the ex-personnel should be in intelligence gathering.
“People feel that all information that are transmitted are intelligence, but it is analysing the information, its implication and reporting that is the intelligence.
“Like any other citizen, the only thing you will think about a retired military man is that he will take more risks in getting information,” the retired military officer said.
He, therefore, said since majority of retired military personnel return to their localities after their years of service, government at all levels should incorporate them into their security information gathering system.
However, a former legislator, Chief Akpodiogaga Emeyese, who represented Ethiope East Federal Constituency, has a different view of the matter.
According to him, having retired at 60, age is no longer on the side of the retirees to execute assignments such as engaging in rigorous security activities.
He added that young people tend to take up more risky responsibilities than persons above the age of 60, even though they may still be strong and willing to carry out such assignments.
“Thus, using retired military personnel to resolve our security challenges may not be the best of ideas,” he said.
Similarly, retired Capt. John Ojikutu, an Aviation Security expert, said that bringing back ex-servicemen was not the solution to fighting insecurity in the country.
Ojikutu said that there was the need for Nigeria to return to the drawing board and begin to do things the way they were done before.
He said what was important was to enhance intelligence sharing and action by all the security agencies.
Ojikutu said each security agency ought to work within specific roles, and must all share intelligence to achieve a common goal.
He added that though intelligence must be shared among the security agencies, not all intelligence should be shared with members of the public.
“As a country, we cannot continue that way at all because we cannot get results.
“Can we go back to how we were doing it? I think what should be done is to look for people that were doing it before and we were getting results.
“Let’s talk to these people and ask them how they were handling internal security before.
“If security is going to be on one agency, then you have intelligence following behind, then you get the information, and they do the analysis”, he said.
